Sencha Touch, OpenLayers, GeoServer: Wrong encoding on devices using Android 2.2

Question

I have created a small test page using Sencha Touch, OpenLayers and I am recieving WMS/WFS data from a GeoServer.

I have set the encoding on my HTML page to UTF-8:

<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8" />

I pull some WFS data from my GeoServer using the following statement:

var post = new OpenLayers.Request.POST({
    url: 'dataprovider.ashx',
    data: ...,
    headers: {
        "Content-Type": "text/xml;charset=utf-8"
    },
    callback: function (response) {
        ...
    },
});

Which I believe should give me the requested data encoded as UTF-8.

Using an IPhone 4 (IOS 4) and a Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 (Android 3.1) it works just fine.

My problem is: Using a device with Android 2.2, I get data back in a different encoding.

One of the words I expect to recieve is Høj, but I recieve HÃ¸j (ANSI).

Using FireFox and Chrome I know how to debug the response from the GeoServer, but I don't know how to debug the phones or tablets.

Why is the encoding wrong on Android 2.2?

UPDATED: The problem seems to be related to devices using Android 2.2. A HTC Legend, a Samsung Galaxy SII and a Samsung Galaxy Tab 7 is having the problem - all running Android 2.2.

Michal Michal · Accepted Answer · 2012-03-02T10:30:04

I have faced exactly the same problem using GeoServer, openLayers, and Android browser (Android 2.2).

I made some research looking for place where the problem exist. All in all I went down to XMLHttpRequest.js. In this file openLayers is creating XMLHttpRequest object making request and receiving response. I have found also that in this stage already received data has encoding problem.

I have also sniffed communication using wireshark to assure that data I am sending is in correct encoding (utf-8). I dumped this data and figured out that it was correct utf-8 data. But what was interesting that when I tried display my utf-8 data using iso-8859-1 I received exactly the same output as in Android browser.

My conclusion: In android 2.2 web browser XMLHttpRequest object is always reading data assuming iso-8859-1 encoding.

My solution: You have to fix string yourself. First you have to made map where you have to memorize that for instance "Ã¸" is "ø". And then by examining character by character when you find "Ã¸" sequence substitute it by "ø". This is example code:

goodString = "";
for( i = 0; i < wrongString.length; i++) {
    var w = wrongString.charCodeAt(i);
    var c = wrongString.charAt(i);
    if(w == "Ã".charCodeAt(0) {
        w2 = wrongString.charCodeAt(++i);
        if(w2 == "¸".charCodeAt(0))
            c = 'ø';
    }
    goodString += c;
}

Sencha Touch, OpenLayers, GeoServer: Wrong encoding on devices using Android 2.2

1 Answers