phpMyAdmin + Drupal 4.7 issue

We've started using MySQL conditional comments (of the form
/*!40100 ... 
*/) with some MySQL 4.1+ specific code (to set the right db
table 
character set). Unfortunately, phpMyAdmin blindly removes
all comments 
when you upload an SQL file like our database.mysql.

This means that anyone performing a fresh install, using
MySQL 4.1+ and 
phpMyAdmin will encounter problems with non-ascii
characters.

In theory the admin should just specify the character set
when creating 
the database. But, most hosts will create databases for you
AFAIK, or 
will do it through a simplified front-end where you can only
set the name.

I don't really have a good view on the usage of tools like
phpMyAdmin. I 
imagine it's pretty widespread though. I found out about
this issue 
after someone reported Unicode problems today:
http://drupal.org/node/5
6112

So, any ideas on how to address this? Some options:

- Tell phpMyAdmin users to create their db in utf-8 encoding
(or have it 
created as such by the host). Will need clear and easy to
find 
docs/instructions.

- Provide a separate MySQL 4.0 and 4.1+ database.mysql file
instead of 
one with conditional comments and tell people to use the
right one.

I submitted a patch to phpMyAdmin(*) to make them parse
these constructs 
correctly, but it doesn't help existing users at all.

Steven Wittens

(*) Yes, I washed my hands afterwards. Their code stinks.

> So, any ideas on how to address this? Some options:
>
> - Tell phpMyAdmin users to create their db in utf-8
encoding (or have it 
> created as such by the host). Will need clear and easy
to find 
> docs/instructions.

First this, and then tell the users to utilize a new
PHPMyadmin, which 
fixes the issue (when it becomes available). IMHO

Goba

> > - Tell phpMyAdmin users to create their db in
utf-8 encoding (or have it
> > created as such by the host). Will need clear and
easy to find
> > docs/instructions.

Would something like this work for every table in
database/database.mysql?

) TYPE=MyISAM CHARACTER SET utf8;

This would work in mysql command line as well as any
PHPMyAdmin.

Or is it not enough?

Gabor Hojtsy wrote:
> First this, and then tell the users to utilize a new
PHPMyadmin, which
> fixes the issue (when it becomes available). IMHO
> 
> Goba

Unfortunately, this is not always an option. Almost all web
hosts I know of
pre-install PHPMyAdmin on their servers as part of their
control panels or what
have you (and most are slow to upgrade). So users are kind
of stuck with
whatever version their web host provides.

On Tue, 2006-03-28 at 11:06 -0500, Angie Byron wrote:
> Gabor Hojtsy wrote:
> > First this, and then tell the users to utilize a
new PHPMyadmin, which
> > fixes the issue (when it becomes available). IMHO
> > 
> > Goba
> 
> Unfortunately, this is not always an option. Almost all
web hosts I know of
> pre-install PHPMyAdmin on their servers as part of
their control panels or what
> have you (and most are slow to upgrade). So users are
kind of stuck with
> whatever version their web host provides.


I say don't use a host unless you get a shell ...  I
friggin hate
control panels...

.darrel.