Enforce utf8 for multiple db connections

Posted by Felix Geisendörfer, on Nov 10, 2007 - in PHP & CakePHP » DataSources, Models & Behaviors

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Hey folks,

this is just a quick update for Dessert #6 - MySql & UTF-8. I've been using the approach outlined in that old post pretty much until today, when I realized that it has two major flaws: It does not work when using multiple db connections (i.e. using load balancing or connecting to a 3rd party db), and it might interfere with other databases that don't need this utf8 thing to be set.

In order to fix it I came up with this improved version of the code.

php

class AppModel extends Model{
function __construct($id = false, $table = null, $ds = null) {
static $utf8Enabled = array();
if (!isset($utf8Enabled[$this->useDbConfig])) {
$db =& ConnectionManager::getDataSource($this->useDbConfig);
if (low(get_class($db)) == 'dbomysql') {
$db->execute('SET NAMES utf8');
}
$utf8Enabled[$this->useDbConfig] = true;
}
parent::__construct($id, $table, $ds);
}
}

This will make sure the 'SET NAMES utf8' query is only run for MySql connections and if there are more then 1 used, then each gets the query executed exactly once.

HTH,
-- Felix Geisendörfer aka the_undefined

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7 Comments

Mariano Iglesias on Nov 10, 2007:

Or if you are using CakePHP 1.2 just set the 'encoding' setting on your configuration per connection, such as:

var $default = array(
'driver' => 'mysql',
'persistent' => false,
'host' => 'localhost',
'login' => 'root',
'password' => 'password',
'database' => 'database',
'schema' => '',
'prefix' => '',
'encoding' => 'utf8'
);

Felix Geisendörfer on Nov 10, 2007:

Mariano: Wooooooo! How cool is that, thanks : p.

Dieter_be on Nov 11, 2007:

Ah, because you mentioned the dessert series I couldn't focus on your blogpost itself, it made me think of the great face-in-cake picture :')

PHPDeveloper.org on Nov 12, 2007:

Felix Geisendorfer's Blog: Enforce utf8 for multiple db connections...

Felix Geisendorfer has another quick CakePHP tip - an update from ......

developercast.com » Felix Geisendorfer’s Blog: Enfor on Nov 12, 2007:

[...] Felix Geisendorfer has another quick CakePHP tip - an update from a previous tip for forcing utf8 connections on multiple databases: This is just a quick update for Dessert #6 - MySql & UTF-8. I’ve been using the approach outlined in that old post pretty much until today, when I realized that it has two major flaws: It does not work when using multiple db connections (i.e. using load balancing or connecting to a 3rd party db), and it might interfere with other databases that don’t need this utf8 thing to be set. [...]