UTF-8 info gathering

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UTF-8 migration > Gathering information

Gathering detailed information

To have a comprehensive set of how the UTF-8 migration is going to work under different server configurations (OS / PHP / DB / encoding...) one small test has been developed to be able to gather information from any Moodle server worldwide. Receiving this anticipated feedback from real Moodle servers we'll be able to solve reported problems from the initial stages of development, instead of having all this feedback too much later.

The test package, called, "testutf", is self-contained and both its installation and use are near trivial. Just, download it from ????? and unzip it under the main directory where Moodle is installed in your server. Once installed, logged as admin, you will see a new option (both in the Admin block and in the Admin Page): UTF-Test.

The test is easy to perform, and it gathers a lot of information about the environment it's being executed (OS, web server, PHP, Database...). It will request the admin to select his natural language, to perform one string translation manually, and to answer to some yes/no questions about how the test is working in his computer. Also, it's possible to fill comments along all the test with any type of meaningful information that the admin considers important.

At the end of the test, the admin will be prompted to send the information gathered about his system, with all the answers and comments performed, to Moodle HQ. If the HTTP transmission fails, always it'll be possible to send the results (one small zip file) to a special email account (utf8 AT moodle DOT org).

Once received at Moodle HQ, those results will be used to detect potential problems with the new text library of Moodle that is the core where all the UTF stuff is going to be programmed. We'll be able to test different server configurations where the test has run under problems, helping us to find the causes and to solve them.

These test results can be executed and sent as many times as the admin wants although it's highly recommended to submit new results only if there is some important change in the server that affect how the test run. Please, don't send the same test repeatedly if they don't include new useful information.

Of course, admins are completely free to use the test to check their own strings but we need to prevent them to send all those info to Moodle HQ. Forums should be used instead for punctual problems with certain strings/characters. Only the "catapult" phrase must be sent to Moodle HQ.

So, please, help us executing the test in your Moodle server. The information provided will be very important to make the transition to UTF-8 better and to improve how Moodle will work after it. TIA!

(You can get the test code from cvs:contrib/testutf. It's OpenSource too!)