In website operation, the clear and accurate presentation of content is crucial.Especially when your website contains Chinese content, if you encounter "garbled characters" issues, it not only seriously affects the user experience but may also damage your website's professional image.For users of AnQi CMS, ensuring that all template files use the correct encoding, especially UTF-8, is the first step and the most fundamental and critical safeguard to avoid such problems.

Why is UTF-8 so important?

Unicode Transformation Format – 8-bit, an English translation of 'auto'Its design goal is to be compatible with almost all character sets in the world, including Chinese, Japanese, Korean, and various European languages and symbols that we use in daily life.This makes UTF-8 the most widely used and recommended character encoding standard on the Internet.

For content management systems like Anqi CMS, its strong multilingual support and the efficient features of Go language are highly compatible with the universality of UTF-8.Using UTF-8 encoded template files, it can ensure that your website content is displayed correctly and without errors across different operating systems, browsers, and regions, thereby providing your visitors with a stable and friendly browsing environment.

The template making specifications of Anqi CMS clearly state: 'Template files should be encoded in UTF-8. If other encodings are used, it may cause page garbled text and cannot be displayed normally. For Windows users editing template files, please save them as UTF-8 encoded template files.' }]This clearly indicates the system's strict requirement for the encoding of template files.Therefore, whether you are developing a new template or modifying an existing template file, be sure to save them in UTF-8 encoding format.

Ensure practical steps for using UTF-8 encoding in template files

Avoid Chinese garbled text, you can follow the following steps to ensure that your security CMS template files always use UTF-8 encoding:

  1. Choose a suitable code editor:The mainstream code editors, such as VS Code, Sublime Text, Notepad++, etc., all provide good support for UTF-8 encoding.They are usually saved as UTF-8 format by default.If your editor is old or its default settings are not UTF-8, you need to adjust it manually.

  2. Configure editor save encoding:

    • VS Code users:It will usually display the current file encoding at the bottom right of the editor (for example, "UTF-8").Click it, you can choose 'Save as encoded' or 'Save with encoding', then select 'UTF-8'.
    • Sublime Text users:You can find the 'Save with Encoding' option under the 'File' menu, then select 'UTF-8'.
    • Notepad++ user:

  3. Develop a habit when creating a new file:When creating any new template file (such as.htmlWhen creating a file, it is a good habit to check and confirm that its encoding is UTF-8. Most editors will follow the last encoding setting used when creating a new file, or use the global default setting.

  4. Convert existing template files:If your existing template file is not UTF-8 encoded, the operation is also very simple: use your preferred code editor to open these files, and then through the "Save As" or "Save with Encoding" feature, explicitly set its encoding to UTF-8.Complete the conversion and make sure to upload these updated files to your server to replace the old ones.

Troubleshooting and resolving garbled text issues

Even if you strictly follow the above coding specifications, you may occasionally encounter garbled Chinese content. At this time, you can check from the following aspects:

  • Clear browser cache:The browser may cache the old version of the page content, causing you to see the old garbled page even though the template file on the server has been updated.Try clearing the browser cache, or use the browser's private/incognito mode to access and force load the latest content.
  • Check Web server configuration:Your CMS website usually serves through Nginx or Apache web servers. These servers need to be properly configured to ensure that HTTP responses includeContent-Type: text/html; charset=UTF-8The header information.Although the Docker deployment or Baota deployment tutorial for AnQi CMS usually automates this part of the configuration, if there is a problem, checking the server's configuration file will be an effective troubleshooting direction.
  • Check database encoding:The template file encoding is the basis for display, but the ultimate source of website content is usually the database. Make sure your database (such as MySQL) is also set to UTF-8 encoding, and it is strongly recommended to useutf8mb4It supports a wider range of Unicode characters, including the latest emoji expressions, etc.If the database encoding or the encoding when the content is inserted is incorrect, even if the template itself is UTF-8, the Chinese content read from the database may also be garbled.
  • Examine the content input method:When editing articles, categories, or other content in the AnQi CMS backend, please make sure that your operating system environment, input method, and browser are all in normal working condition, so that the content you enter can be correctly saved in the database in UTF-8 format.

Common Questions (FAQ)

1. Why does the Chinese content on the page occasionally appear as garbled characters even though my template file is saved in UTF-8 without BOM format?答：This may be due to a chain reaction caused by various reasons.Firstly, please make sure to clear your browser cache and the cache of your server (such as Nginx/Apache), to ensure that you are accessing the latest files.Content-Type: text/html; charset=UTF-8.In addition, if the Chinese content stored in the database is already damaged (for example, due to improper database encoding settings, or the content is already garbled when inserted), then even if the template file encoding is correct, these damaged data cannot be 'repaired'.

2. Besides the template files, where else in the Safe CMS does the coding need to be paid special attention to ensure proper Chinese display?答：In the operation environment of AnQi CMS, to ensure that Chinese is displayed normally, attention needs to be paid to the following core links:

  • Template file encoding:Must be UTF-8, and strongly recommended to be UTF-8 without BOM.
  • Database encoding:Your database (such as MySQL) should be configured to UTF-8 character set, recommended to useutf8mb4to support the most comprehensive Unicode characters.
  • Content input encoding:When entering articles, categories, pages, and other content through the editor on the AnQi CMS backend, please ensure that your operating system and browser environment are set to normal UTF-8, so that the content will be saved in the correct UTF-8 format in the database.

3. I am using the Markdown editor or rich text editor built into the Anqi CMS to create content. If Chinese characters are displayed as garbled, is this a template encoding issue?答：This situation, the Chinese garbled text problem is usually not directly attributed to the encoding of the template file.The garbled text in the editor more often reflects the encoding issue of the content data source.This means that there is an encoding error before the content is saved to the database, or the character set configuration of the database itself is incorrect.The role of template encoding is to correctly display the data encoded correctly in the database.If the data itself is garbled, the template cannot restore it.