PHP output JSON Web Service charset UTF-8 error - php

Question

I am hosting a web service in JSON output by PHP.
I have Hebrew data set in DB and I am posting this as an output to Web service.
When I post the data initially it output the result as follows:
JSON:
{
"tasklist": [
{
"customerID": "9936",
"name": "טר ×רמה ×™×–×•× ×•×‘×™× ×•×™ בע"מ",
"cargo":"×ברר",
"destination":"מכר",
"quantity":"1.000000",
"startdate":"03/01/201300: 00: 00"
}
]
}
But this "×ברר" can be readable by Android/Iphone parser and convert it to original Hebrew. But i faced Error in "name": "טר ×רמה ×™×–×•× ×•×‘×™× ×•×™ בע"מ",. where " is in between the string so the JSON is not valid and shows error!
To Over come this issue I used UTF-8 to convert "×ברר" this to Hebrew "נברר". But in this case too the problem remains same:
PHP:
header('Content-type: text/html; charset=UTF-8');
JSON:
{
"tasklist": [
{
"customerID": "9936",
"name": "טר ארמה יזום ובינוי בע"מ",
"cargo":"נברר",
"destination":"מכר",
"quantity":"1.000000",
"startdate":"03/01/201300: 00: 00"
}
]
}
But still the problem remains:
Also in some case I am getting this � because of using UTF-8
"name":"מחצבות כפר גלעדי-חומרי מ�"
How can I overcome this issue?
Is there any other specific encode I need to use?
Note: The data cannot be changes in Database The solution should be while output to JSON.
How the data stored in DB is shown below:
name
מחצבות כפר גלעדי-חומרי מ×
My PHP Script which output JSON:
<?php
//My DB connection and Query comes here
$jsontext = '{"tasklist":[';
while($row = mysql_fetch_array($queryExe)){
$jsontext .= '{"customerID":"'.$row['AUTO_ID'].'",';
$jsontext .='"name":"'.$row['Customer_Name'].'",';
$jsontext .='"cargo":"'.$row['Type_of_Cargo'].'",';
$jsontext .='"destination":"'.$row['Destination'].'",';
$jsontext .='"quantity":"'.$row['Quantity'].'",';
$jsontext .='"startdate":"'.$row['startdate'].'"},';
}
$jsontext = substr_replace($jsontext, '', -1); // to get rid of extra comma
$jsontext .= "]}";
header('Content-type: text/html; charset=UTF-8');
//Output the final JSON
echo $jsontext;
?>
Thank you for your help in advance!
Was the question clear? to understand my issue.

Answer 1

If your db-field is utf8 you should fist do:
mysql_query("SET NAMES 'utf8'");
You should always do the 'SET NAMES...' before inserting your data, too.
Be sure that you really stored utf8 encoded strings!
then do your query:
mysql_query($your_query);
$array = array("tasklist"=>array());
while($row = mysql_fetch_array($queryExe)){
$a = array();
$a["customerID"] = $row['AUTO_ID'];
$a["name"] = $row['Customer_Name'];
$a["cargo"] = $row['Type_of_Cargo'];
$a["destination"] = $row['Destination'];
$a["quantity"] = $row['Quantity'];
$a["startdate"] = $row['startdate'];
$array["tasklist"][] = $a;
}
header("Content-type: application/json; charset=utf-8");
echo json_encode($array);
exit();
i've made the experience that these is not enough when the servers default charset is for example iso. In that case i need to do the following in my .htaccess:
AddDefaultCharset utf-8

Answer 2

You should change your code to use json_encode. You need to pass it properly utf8 encoded data.
If you are using MySQL you can try running the following before your query to get your data.
SET NAMES 'utf8';
You can also look into using utf8_encode.

Answer 3

From http://www.php.net/manual/en/function.json-encode.php#100565
That said, quotes " will produce invalid JSON, but this is only an issue if you're using json_encode() and just expect PHP to magically escape your quotes. You need to do the escaping yourself.
May be you can replace " with \" , i guess it will solve the issue.
Source : PHP JSON String, escape Double Quotes for JS output