[Zope] unicode, zmi, utf-8, management_page_charset and default-zpublisher-encoding

[Joerg Baach]

Hi *,

I spent hours now reading documentation, blogs and mails, and still did
not get my head around the whole unicode issue.

This is what I would like to do:

1. Have content and forms displayed using zpts, encoded in utf-8.
2. Get the data back into zope as unicode.
3. Store unicode in properties of objects, e.g. folders.
4. Edit those properties in the ZMI.
5. Search them in the catalog.

My findings so far I have documented in

http://www.baach.de/content/unicode

basically using

1. setHeader('Content-Type','text/html;; charset=utf-8')
2. marking form fields (firstname:ustring:utf8)
2. using ustrings as properties.

Works fine, but - what do I do about the title property of objects, e.g.
folder?
Its seems that I can't change them to anything, because once deleted I
can't replace them by ustrings.
I found that there is default-zpublisher-encoding and
management_page_charset, but these make ustring etc. vanish from the zmi.

So, should I use the management_page_charset and
default-zpublisher-encoding instead of ustrings for storing data?

I can't find anything that explains those six components (setHeader,
form-field-ustring:utf8, ustrings, management_page_charset,
default-zpublisher-encoding, title property) together, but would really
like to understand how its working, preferably accross Zope versions.

I am very willing to write a tutorial on it, so I am happy about any
pointers.

I am currently testing with Zope 2.8.5-final + python 2.4.4, and im the
process of testing with the newest 2.10.x

Cheers,

  Joerg