PHP is inserting question marks to MySQL - php

Question

I am trying to INSERT an row to MySQL database like this :
function insertUserRating($username, $eventid, $ratingval, $ratingtext) {
mysqli_query($this -> db -> connect(), "SET NAMES 'utf8';");
$datetime = date("Y-m-d H:i:s");
$query = mysqli_query($this -> db -> connect(), " INSERT INTO `rating` ( `id_user` ,`id_event` ,`rating_value` ,`rating_text` ,`rating_date`)
VALUES ((SELECT id_user FROM user WHERE username= '$username' ), '$eventid', '$ratingval', '$ratingtext', '$datetime' )");
if ($query) {
return true;
} else {
return false;
}
}
the connect function is like this :
public function connect() {
require_once 'config.php';
$con = mysqli_connect(DB_HOST, DB_USER, DB_PASSWORD, DB_DATABASE);
$con -> set_charset("utf8");
if (mysqli_connect_errno()) {
throw new Exception(mysqli_connect_error(), mysqli_connect_errno());}
return $con;
}
But still if I try to insert row with $ratingtext having some unicode characters for example : Lepšišie I only get Lepieie in the table. Table has utf8_slovak_ci coding.

Answer 1

The php module in mysql can't set itself to utf8 automatically based on the configurations. Probably nobody knows, why. The workaround is a
SET NAMES 'utf8';
query at the beginning of every mysql connection.
I see in your question, that you are playing around with this bug already. No, you don't need utf8_encode and such tricks after you set this up.
Alternative things ($something->connect and like) won't work, they all are based on the mysql module of the php, which is a module of the apache. It is an old bug, which probably won't be ever repaired. Good luck!