Converting files to UTF-8

Szablon:Moodle 1.6 Some files, like custom language packs or language files from third party modules need to be converted to UTF-8 before they may be used in Moodle 1.6 with UTF-8 database.

*nix like computers

Generally, this may be done with the iconv command on Unix, Linux or a Mac.

iconv -f original_charset -t utf-8 originalfile > newfile

Windows computers

For Windows, a free tool doesn't exist. However, the conversion may be done by using [Cygwin], a Linux-like environment for Windows, and excecuting the iconv command in that environment.

Example of a working sollution on Windows with [Cygwin]:

• Create a text file, named ToUtf8.txt
• Fill it with the following code

#!/bin/bash
FROM=iso-8859-1
TO=UTF-8
ICONV="iconv -f $FROM -t $TO"
# Convert
find ToUTF/ -type f -name "*" | while read fn; do
cp ${fn} ${fn}.bak
$ICONV < ${fn}.bak > ${fn}
rm ${fn}.bak
done

Two things should be changed for your local situation:

1. FROM is the originating encoding (the one your original files are in)
2. ToUTF is the foldername where the files that need to be converted are in. This folder may contain subfolders. Make sure you have a backup!

• Start Cygwin.
• With the cd foldername, cd.., ls commands, go to the folder on your windows machine where the ToUtf8.txt-script and the ToUTF8 folder are in.
• Execute the script by typing sh ToUtf8.txt and your files will be converted.