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 (including Mac OS X)

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, there are two methods of performing the conversion.

The preferred method is to download the Windows version of the iconv program. Download the "Complete package, except source" and run the setup program. The executable is located in the bin folder. Run from the command prompt (Start -> Run -> cmd) and follow the instructions as above.

As an alternative, the conversion may also be done by using Cygwin, a Linux-like environment for Windows, and excecuting the iconv command in that environment. Here is an example of a working solution 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.