NineChime forum

After installation, go into phpMyAdmin and check the "collation" of each table.  This will let you know if the tables are actually set to the proper charset.  For some reason, MySQL will sometimes not set the charset properly, even if UTF-8 is the default.

Changing the database charset after the board has been installed is a pain.

Basicly, you'll need to use a database maintenance tool, such as phpMyAdmin, to change the default charset.  Which charset to use is a bit confusing, as I still haven't figured out the compatibility differences between charsets.  I believe "utf8_general_ci" is compatible with both traditional and simplified Chinese characters.  That's what I'm using on my system, and everything seems to work fine.

If this is a brand new board, I'd recommed that you clear it, and re-install.  Delete the database to get rid of exisiting tables, and create a new, empty database.  You should have the option to define the charset you want when you create the database.  If not, to change the charset, go into phpMyAdmin, select the database, click the "Operations" tab, and where it says "Collation", select "utf8_general_ci" and then click the "Go" button.  You may then install the board as normal.

If the board is already installed and has pictures/comments, you'll need to re-import the database.  Do not delete ANY files from the server -- we'll only be changing the database.  Go into phpMyAdmin, select the database, and click the "Export" tab.  Make sure you either have NONE of the tables selected in the "Export" box, or ALL the tables selected, otherwise you will export only one table.  Click the "Save as file" checkbox at the bottom of the screen, and click the "Go" button.  Save this file to your computer.  Once you have a database backup, click the red "Drop" button at the top of the screen.  Create a new database with the same name as the old one.  Change the default charset as described above.  Click the "Import" tab, then the "Browse" tab, and give it the database backup you just made.  After the database has been restored, it should now all be in UTF-8.

There is a possiblity that the export will explicitly define your old charset and thus the re-import will not be converted.  Other than editing the database backup by hand, I don't know how to get around this.  Like I said, it's a pain.

Maybe you are not very clear about the difference between Traditional Chinese (Big5) and Simplified Chinese. Both of them are used in Great China, but charsets are different.
Traditional Chinese is used in HongKong, Taiwan and some other regions, while Simplified Chinese is mainly used in Mainland China.
If you've noticed language packs of other software, most of them have two Chinese language packs, such as phpBB,punBB(our forum is using punBB ).

Check it out here:
http://www.phpbb.com/languages/?type=20x
http://punbb.org/downloads.php

So it's necessary to  put two Chinese language packs in language folder.

Thanks for your tips.

It's ok now.

Here is my solution:

1. Add a line to the file dbconn.php:

    $dbconn = mysql_connect($dbhost, $dbuser, $dbpass) or die('Could not connect to the MySQL database.');
        mysql_query("SET NAMES 'GBK'",$dbconn); // Added line
    $mySQLDB = mysql_select_db($dbname);

2.Add what you gave above to the language pack.

<meta http-equiv="Content-type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8/gbk">
<meta http-equiv="Content-language" content="zh-cn">

Thanks, I'm doing my translation now.

MySQL version is 5.0.27-log

The existent comments can't be displayed correctly,  comments can't be written into the database correctly neither.

I've noticed that MySQL 5.0+ is supported in Wacintaki 1.3.6, but why I got the problem?