HTML::FormFu::Manual::Unicode - Working with unicode Working with unicode. For a practical example, see the Catalyst application in the "examples/unicode" directory in this distribution. 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::Syck installed. However, the principles we'll cover should translate to whatever technologies you chose to work with. 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 parameters from the browser
"Catalyst::Plugin::Unicode" will decode all input parameters sent from the browser to your application - see "Catalyst Configuration".

Data from the database
"DBIx::Class::UTF8Columns" will decode all input retrieved from the database - see "DBIx::Class Configuration".

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", which automatically sets "$YAML::Syck::ImplicitUnicode = 1". 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 must use the utf8 module.

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

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

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 strict; 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 strict; 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 strict; use parent 'Catalyst'; use Catalyst qw( ConfigLoader ); MyApp->config({ 'Controller::HTML::FormFu' => { constructor => { tt_args => { ENCODING => 'UTF-8', }, }, }, 'View::TT' => { ENCODING => 'UTF-8', }, }); 1; Carl Franks "cfranks@cpan.org" This document is free, you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the same terms as Perl itself.