Question Users cannot insert emoticons from mobile device keyboard

If you install Kunena new, it creates the tables with the collation which you have set as default in your database. If you want afterwards to change it, you must do it yourself.

What I need is advice on changing the encoding/collation of a column in an existing table.

Should work with phpMyAdmin (click on table -> Operations) but it will change it for all columns, and I've no idea whether is correct if you only for single table changes the collation.

If you install Kunena new, it creates the tables with the collation which you have set as default in your database. If you want afterwards to change it, you must do it yourself.

I checked the defaults and they neither agree with the table collation nor with the encoding of the column in the table:

Moreover, is it wise to create tables with the default settings? The application knows best what it needs based on what it needs to support. So, shouldn't the tables and/or columns be created according to the needs of the application?

Should work with phpMyAdmin (click on table -> Operations) but it will change it for all columns, and I've no idea whether is correct if you only for single table changes the collation.

The thing is the collation setting for the table is correct. It's set to utf8mb4_unicode_ci. The column in the table, though, uses a different collation, namely utf8_general_ci. That's why local emotes cannot be inserted.

Should I rather open a bug in GitHub, so one of the developers can chime in and hopefully provide some insights?

I read up on the subject a little more and found quite a good guide regarding what has to be done if one were to convert an entire database from utf8 to utf8mb4:

mathiasbynens.be/notes/mysql-utf8mb4

I don't think it's necessary to convert the entire Joomla database. However, converting columns other than of type text requires special attention as described in Step 4. I also took a look at which text columns of the Kunena tables are set to use utf8:

It's quite a few. But, again, not all of them need to support the full range of unicode characters. The candidates I came up with are, besides the messages, announcements and maybe user signatures.

But, as I mentioned before, I'd like to hear Kunena's position in this matter before embarking on this adventure.

Illegal mix of collations (utf8_general_ci,IMPLICIT) and (utf8mb4_general_ci,COERCIBLE) for operation '='

hm.. this problem seems not unknown. Please enter the error message (quote above) in the google search. You get many hits.

Meanwhile the cause of the problem has been determined (thanks Slacker) and a possible solution found. What I'd still like to know:

• Does Kunena support inserting emotes (and other special characters) directly into messages?
• If so, why are the tables/columns not configured using the correct collation?
• If so, will this be addressed in a future update (i.e. changing the collation)?
• If not, will the error message be changed, so it doesn't look like a misconfiguration?
• What's the developers point of view on this? Do they consider it a bug, a feature request or something else?

I'm asking all these questions, since I'm hesitant making changes to the database. In my opinion the Kunena tables belong to Kunena and should be maintained by Kunena. I could imagine that less tech savvy users would be at a complete loss as how to resolve the issue. They could potentially even shoot themselves in the foot.

For similar reasons, I have also restrained myself from making changes to the Kunena code. I know I could. But I also know it will come back to haunt me or my successor. Upstream is where changes should be made.

I read through issue #3805 , where this has been brought up before. But it remains unclear if any action has been taken back then like suggested in the last comment.

I have not migrated any data, started from scratch instead. But I have the same Problem with Emojis, when a user insert them from his cellphone.

Any Ideas?

Cheers

Hi there.
I have just taken over a forum powered by Kunena and this issue is also persistent.
When a user on a mobile browser enters an emoji in a post and posts it, the emoji is reflected on the forum as a " ? "

Thank you

Please read this topic: www.kunena.org/forum/k5-1-support-archiv...-replying-or-quoting