Anthology of Ideas

It isn’t too difficult, but you are far better off using PHP to do that.

You can use the following code snippet as a filter for all comment texts to automatically convert the special characters to entities.

1. add_filter('pre_comment_content','fix_chars');
3. function fix_chars($content){
4. $encoding = get_option('blog_charset');
5. if(!$encoding){$encoding = "AUTO";}
6. $content=mb_convert_encoding($content,"HTML-ENTITIES",$encoding);
7. return $content;
8. }
9. Use the following to copy and paste the code.
   add_filter('pre_comment_content','fix_chars'); function fix_chars($content){ $encoding = get_option('blog_charset'); if(!$encoding){$encoding = "AUTO";} $content=mb_convert_encoding($content,"HTML-ENTITIES",$encoding); return $content; }

However, not all PHP installs have access to multiByte functions, so f you can’t do it that way yo can try:

1. add_filter('pre_comment_content','fix_chars');
3. function fix_chars($content){
4. $encoding = get_option('blog_charset');
5. if(!$encoding){$encoding = "AUTO";}
6. $content=htmlentities($content, ENT_NOQUOTES, $encoding);
7. return $content;
8. }
9. Use the following to copy and paste the code.
   add_filter('pre_comment_content','fix_chars'); function fix_chars($content){ $encoding = get_option('blog_charset'); if(!$encoding){$encoding = "AUTO";} $content=htmlentities($content, ENT_NOQUOTES, $encoding); return $content; }

Thanks!

hey, I really don’t get this website, all Im looking for is words you would find on a character map in the start menu on a computer so I can put them on my msn (windows Live Messenger)

1. Aaron posted the following on September 19, 2007 at 9:15 pm.

   Hi Ashley,

   This page is for a program that does something like it, but it only works with WordPress.

   Unfortunately, this isn’t what you are looking for, but I’m sure you will be able to find it.

   Aaron.

   Reply to Aaron

Regrettably, I just had a very unpleasant experience with your Character Map (with Unicode Encoder) Plugin Version 0.1.

I installed Character Map in my plugin directory, as per your instructions. It appeared on my Plugin Management page with an alert stating that a newer version of Character Map was available, called Character Map 1.1. Suspecting nothing, I pushed the button for an automatic upgrade.

A “failed to open stream” error message then appeared at the top of every page of my Web site, indicating that a problem existed on my wp-settings file.

I tried various measures to remove the warning, such as deleting the Character Map plugin; deactivating all other plugins; then deleting and replacing the wp-settings file several times. Nothing worked. The same warning kept reappearing, no matter what I did.

Then I noticed that the second part of the warning mentioned a “Failed opening” of something called moonvipercmscom in my plugins folder. The term “moonvipercmscom” was unfamiliar to me. I had never installed any such plugin, and my Plugin Management page did not indicate its presence. However, upon checking my plugins folder directly through my FTP client, I saw that there was indeed a mysterious folder called moonvipercmscom sitting there.

Deleting moonvipercmscom seemed to solve the problem. The warning messages disappeared. However, now I am wondering if any other malware invaded my server or computer during the Character Map installation. I guess I’d better run some diagnostics.

Needless to say, I will not attempt to install Character Map again. This is a pity, as it appears to be an extremely useful plugin.

Has anyone else reported similar problems?

P.S. My blog is running on WordPress 2.6.3, and currently uses the Cutline 1.1 theme.

1. Aaron posted the following on October 31, 2008 at 5:42 pm.

   Poe » This plugin has not been tested or updated in many versions, so it may not work correctly.

   However, this plugin does not have any malware installed with it nor does it make it easy for malware to end up on your server.

   If anything, it highlighted a problem that already existed, so I would suggest talking to your server host to find where the error came from.

   Reply to Aaron
   1. Poe posted the following on November 1, 2008 at 9:22 pm.

      Dear Aaron:

      Thank you for your reply.

      I tried installing your Character Map plugin again. This time I succeeded, and the plugin worked.

      However, I still got the same mysterious message upon installing your plugin. The message says:

      “There is a new version of Character Map available. Download version 1.1 here or upgrade automatically.”

      This time around, I did not try to upgrade to “version 1.1″. I simply ignored the message and used Character Map version 0.1 exactly as I downloaded it from your site. When I did that, everything worked fine.

      Still, the mystery remains. Why is my Plugin Management page inviting me to download Character Map “version 1.1″, when no such version exists?

      And why, when I made the mistake, last time, of trying to download “version 1.1″, did I end up with a nasty program called moonvipercmscom in my plugin folder?

      Strange.

      Reply to Poe

Great Article. Thanks. I agree