Problem with spanish characters while using Google API, PHP, MySql

[sureshv120]

Hello Sir/Maam,

I need some help in a problem I am having with spanish special characters. A brief summary of what I am doing first. I have written a PHP script which fetches data from Google Spreadsheet using Zend Google PHP API. This data is then put into MySql database.

$row=$Col->getText(); //getText is the Google API that returns the value in the row.
print "$row"; // I print the content

But the problem is that some spanish characters such as ñer appear as ñer. Later on in the PHP code I go on to save these values in MySql. And even in the tables the same problem.Don't know where the problem is.

I tried various different things such as edit the PHP file and add:

mbstring.language = Neutral ; Set default language to Neutral(UTF- (default)
mbstring.internal_encoding = UTF-8 ; Set default internal encoding to UTF-8
mbstring.encoding_translation = On ; HTTP input encoding translation is enabled
mbstring.http_input = auto ; Set HTTP input character set dectection to auto
mbstring.http_output = UTF-8 ; Set HTTP output encoding to UTF-8
mbstring.detect_order = auto ; Set default character encoding detection order to auto
mbstring.substitute_character = none ; Do not print invalid characters
default_charset = UTF-8 ; Default character set for auto content type header
mbstring.func_overload = 7 ; All non-multibyte-safe functions are overloaded with the mbstring alternatives

Add in the below in MySql

init_connect='SET collation_connection = utf8_unicode_ci; SET NAMES utf8;'
character-set-server=utf8
collation-server=utf8_unicode_ci
skip-character-set-client-handshake

Change Database and Table properties

ALTER DATABASE db_name
CHARACTER SET utf8
DEFAULT CHARACTER SET utf8
COLLATE utf8_general_ci
DEFAULT COLLATE utf8_general_ci
;

ALTER TABLE tbl_name
DEFAULT CHARACTER SET utf8
COLLATE utf8_general_ci
;

Call SETNAMES etc just after mysql open connection.

$q="SET NAMES 'utf8'";
$r=mysql_query($q);
mysql_query("SET CHARACTER SET utf8");

But nothing seems to work. Please help

[Rubberman]

Well, I think that this is not a Fedora/Red Hat issue, but a MySQL/PHP problem. Normal Spanish characters should be handled OK in UTF-8. I sometimes set my system to use Spanish characters since half my extended family is from Mexico so from time to time I have to send emails and such in Spanish, with the correct accents on the letters, otherwise my relatives who don't read/write English would have problems... However, I haven't stored such data in MySQL databases (Oracle, yes - no problem there), so I'm at the limits of my knowledge about this.