NAME

Unicode.pod - Working with unicode

VERSION

version 2.07

DESCRIPTION

Working with unicode.

For a practical example, see the Catalyst application in the "examples/unicode" directory in this distribution.

ASSUMPTIONS

In this tutorial, we're assuming that all encodings are UTF-8. It's relatively simple to combine different encodings from different sources, but that's beyond the scope of this tutorial.

For simplicity, we're also going to assume that you're using Catalyst for your web-framework, DBIx::Class for your database ORM, TT for your templating system, and YAML format "HTML::FormFu" configuration files, with YAML::XS installed. However, the principles we'll cover should translate to whatever technologies you chose to work with.

BASICS

To make it short and sweet: you must decode all data going into your program, and encode all data coming from your program.

Skip to "CHANGES REQUIRED" if you want to see what you need to do without any other explanation.

INPUT

Input parameters from the browser

If you're using "Catalyst", Catalyst::Plugin::Unicode will decode all input parameters sent from the browser to your application - see "Catalyst Configuration".

If you're using some other framework or, in any case, you need to decode the input parameters yourself, please take a look at HTML::FormFu::Filter::Encode.

Data from the database

If you're using DBIx::Class, DBIx::Class::UTF8Columns is likely the best options, as it will decode all input retrieved from the database - see "DBIx::Class Configuration".

In other cases (i.e. plain DBI), you still need to decode the string data coming from the database. This varies depending on the database server. For MySQL, for instance, you can use the "mysql_enable_utf8" attribute: see DBD::mysql documentation for details.

Your template files

Set TT to decode all template files - see "TT Configuration".

HTML::FormFu's own template files

Set "HTML::FormFu" to decode all template files - see "HTML::FormFu Template Configuration".

HTML::FormFu form configuration files

If you're using "YAML" config files, your files will automatically be decoded by "load_config_file|HTML::FormFu/load_config_file" and "load_config_filestem|HTML::FormFu/load_config_filestem".

If you have Config::General config files, your files will automatically be decoded by "load_config_file|HTML::FormFu/load_config_file" and "load_config_filestem|HTML::FormFu/load_config_filestem", which automatically sets Config::General's "-UTF8" setting.

Your perl source code

Any perl source files which contain Unicode characters must use the utf8 module.

OUTPUT

Data saved to the database

With "DBIx::Class", DBIx::Class::UTF8Columns will encode all data sent to the database - see "DBIx::Class Configuration".

HTML sent to the browser

With "Catalyst", Catalyst::Plugin::Unicode will encode all output sent from your application to the browser - see "Catalyst Configuration".

In other circumstances you need to be sure to output your Unicode (decoded) strings in UTF-8. To do this you can encode your output before it's sent to the browser with something like:

    use utf8;
    if ( $output && utf8::is_utf8($output) ){
        utf8::encode( $output ); # Encodes in-place
    }

Another option is to set the "binmode" for "STDOUT":

    bindmode STDOUT, ':utf8';

However, be sure to do this only when sending UTF-8 data: if you're serving images, PFD files, etc, "binmode" should remain set to ":raw".

CHANGES REQUIRED

Catalyst Configuration

Add Catalyst::Plugin::Unicode to the list of Catalyst plugins:

    use Catalyst qw( ConfigLoader Static::Simple Unicode );

DBIx::Class Configuration

Add DBIx::Class::UTF8Columns to the list of components loaded, for each table that has columns storing unicode:

    __PACKAGE__->load_components( qw( UTF8Columns HTML::FormFu PK::Auto Core ) );

Pass each column name that will store unicode to "utf8_columns()":

    __PACKAGE__->utf8_columns( qw( lastname firstname ) );

TT Configuration

Tell TT to decode all template files, by adding the following to your application config in MyApp.pm

    package MyApp;
        use parent 'Catalyst';
    use Catalyst qw( ConfigLoader );

    MyApp->config({
        'View::TT' => {
            ENCODING => 'UTF-8',
        },
    });

    1;

HTML::FormFu Template Configuration

Make "HTML::FormFu" tell TT to decode all template files, by adding the following to your "myapp.yml" Catalyst configuration file:

    package MyApp;
        use parent 'Catalyst';
    use Catalyst qw( ConfigLoader );

    MyApp->config({
        'Controller::HTML::FormFu' => {
            constructor => {
                tt_args => {
                    ENCODING => 'UTF-8',
                },
            },
        },
    });

    1;

These above 2 examples should be combined, like so:

    package MyApp;
        use parent 'Catalyst';
    use Catalyst qw( ConfigLoader );

    MyApp->config({
        'Controller::HTML::FormFu' => {
            constructor => {
                tt_args => {
                    ENCODING => 'UTF-8',
                },
            },
        },
        'View::TT' => {
            ENCODING => 'UTF-8',
        },
    });

    1;

AUTHORS

Carl Franks "cfranks@cpan.org" Michele Beltrame "arthas@cpan.org" (contributions)

COPYRIGHT

This document is free, you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the same terms as Perl itself.

AUTHOR

Carl Franks <cpan@fireartist.com>

COPYRIGHT AND LICENSE

This is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the same terms as the Perl 5 programming language system itself.