Re: (Net::LDAP) Automatically convert attributes into utf8 when writting

Thank you for your information.

Finally I added "uf8::encode" to all the attribs, so now it works.

Converting our code (@_ and file i/o) into utf8 was an option, but I disc=
arded it because we have a lot of files (our proyect is nearly a framewor=
k, not a few files), including modules that read translation string files=
 for several languages, so converting everything into utf8 would be a lot=
 of extra work.

Our proyect is rather old, it was created in the old times, when utf8 was=
 still not used. This is the reason why it is so difficult for us to conv=
ert everyting into utf8. Anyway I believe we will have to convert it some=
 day, as you proposed.

Thank you


29.08.2015, 13:54, "Peter Marschall" <[email protected]>:
> Hi,
>
> On Tuesday, 25. August 2015 13:37:15 pe rl wrote:
>> =9AThey are not necessary when reading/searching in the ldap server, s=
ince
>> =9ANet::LDAP already has a "raw" option in the constructor to automati=
cally
>> =9Aencode/decode strings. It is working for us, and the only change re=
quired
>> =9Ahas been to add the "raw" option to the constructor.
>
> I think you misinterpret the purpose of the raw option.
>
> Its goal is to convert the byte strings coming from the LDAP server tha=
t
> represent UTF-8 encoded directory strings from byte semantics to
> Perl scalars with character semantics.
>
> On the other hand, perl-ldap expects scalars in character semantics whe=
n
> it comes to writing directory strings to an LDAP server.
>
> It is not perl-ldap's job to translate between scalars in Perl's charac=
ter
> semantics and various input or output encodings of your application.
>
>> =9AThe problem appears when writting to the ldap server. I have starte=
d to
>> =9Amodify our code with utf8::encode(), by adding it to every attribut=
e in all
>> =9Aof our functions. The problem is that it is very inefficient, since=
 I will
>> =9Ahave to modify every attribute that appears in our programs. We hav=
e a lot
>> =9Aof functions that create/modify/delete entries in the ldap server, =
so I
>> =9Awill have to change a lot of code to manually encode attribs to utf=
8, and
>> =9Athen test all of the changes.
>
> It is not perl-ldap's job to translate between scalars in Perl's charac=
ter
> semantics and various input or output encodings of your application.
>
> This is the application's task.
> If you - as you write - need to convert every attribute using ut8::enco=
de(),
> then your application seems to use a mixture of byte & character semant=
ics.
>
> In that case please do yourself a favour and switch over to character
> semantics by correctly converting input to character semantics when it
> happens:
> - for file & console input you can use the ":encoding(...)" layer to ma=
ke
> =9A=9Asure you get character semantics instead of byte semantics
> - for @ARGV a simple
> =9A=9A=9A=9A=9A$_ =3D Encode::decode('UTF-8' ,$_) for @ARGV;
> =9A=9Ashould be sufficient.
>
> You may also have a look at the 'utf8::all' package that does a lot of =
the
> above for you automatically.
>
> Please read the perlunicode manual page for more detailed information.
>
> Best
> PEter
>
> --
> Peter Marschall
> [email protected]