Re: [Refdb-users] Strange issue with special characters and "select failed" messages

[Markus H. <mar...@mh...>]

Hi,

sh...@we... was heard to say:

> Whenever I add an entry with special chars (such as the german =F6 =E4 =
=FC), they
> are mangled in my mySQL Database. If I fix them in the table (with
> phpmyadmin) they are correct. Then they are correctly downloaded if I q=
uery
> for this reference. So this is a "one way" issue, that makes the whole =
story
> even more strange. Can you help me with this?

Character encodings are a slightly hairy issue, and it all depends on how=
 you
add your data and how you set up your databases. Whenever the encoding of=
 the
data does not match what RefDB expects you're likely to run into problems.

RefDB databases use the default character encoding of your MySQL setup un=
less
you specify a different encoding (createdb -E encoding). Incoming data ar=
e
automatically converted to the database encoding as long as RefDB can pro=
perly
determine the input encoding. risx data are XML data, so the encoding can=
 be
inferred from the leading processing instruction. If none is given, UTF-8=
 is
assumed. RIS data are imported according to the refdbcrc "fromencoding" s=
etting
which is ISO-8859-1 by default. You can also use the -E switch of the add=
ref
command to override the defaults.

If you have problems adding references with umlauts etc., then most likel=
y your
editor saves the data using a different encoding than what RefDB is confi=
gured
to use. Please check that the actually used encoding appears in the XML
processing instruction for risx data and in the "fromencoding" setting fo=
r RIS
data. Feel free to send me gzipped input files if you're not sure which
encoding they use.

>
> The second issue is the "select failed" message when I should get a
> reference. For example: :ID:>0 gives this message or :AU:~Muel where
> :AU:~Rodd works. How can I resolve this issue=3D
>

Could you please send me the reference(s) matched by :AU:~Muel? I recall =
fixing
a similar problem recently. Chances are that this problem is already fixe=
d in
the CVS version and maybe also in the latest prerelease.

regards,
Markus

--=20
Markus Hoenicka
mar...@ca...
(Spam-protected email: replace the quadrupeds with "mhoenicka")
http://www.mhoenicka.de