How we can enable armenian support in confluence
Asked by Rafik Rushanian:

Hi

I have installed confluence on my server, but I can's create pages with Armenian text. I mean, I can create pages, but see text as ???, how we can fix it?


Answers:
author: Shannon S
body: Hi Rafik,

I assume you're referring to the page itself and not a PDF export of the page, correct?

To troubleshoot your encoding issue, please have a look at [Troubleshooting Character Encodings](https://confluence.atlassian.com/doc/troubleshooting-character-encodings-167194.html).

You will also need to be sure that your database is using the required encoding we have specified, and the article will show you how to do that in [Configuring Database Encoding](https://confluence.atlassian.com/doc/configuring-database-character-encoding-177698.html).

I hope this helps!

Kind regards,

Shannon

comments: author: Rafik Rushanian
body: Thanks for answer, I tried as in documentation.

Test say me this:

![Screenshot from 2017-11-28 23-51-34.png](https://community.atlassian.com/t5/image/serverpage/image-id/10121i4026014A1609FD94/image-size/large?v=v2&px=999 "Screenshot from 2017-11-28 23-51-34.png")

In terminal about character sets have this:

![Screenshot from 2017-11-28 23-53-45.png](https://community.atlassian.com/t5/image/serverpage/image-id/10122i2B07B690CE9FA102/image-size/large?v=v2&px=999 "Screenshot from 2017-11-28 23-53-45.png")

But in confluence, as you can see, in textarea I have what I was enter, but in page I have ??![Screenshot from 2017-11-28 23-54-41.png](https://community.atlassian.com/t5/image/serverpage/image-id/10123i14B4A79BA98801FF/image-size/large?v=v2&px=999 "Screenshot from 2017-11-28 23-54-41.png")

Regards


author: Shannon S
body: Hi Rafik,

I have a few tasks for you to check, which will ensure that all encoding and collation is correct. Please follow closely and let us know if you have any trouble.

++**Task 1:**++

1. In Confluence, navigate to **Confluence Administration** \> **Troubleshooting and support tools** \> **Create support zip** . Click **Create**.
2. When the support zip is created, download it and open it.
3. Go to **application-properties** folder, open **application.xml** in a text editor.
4. Look for the following two lines:
   1. \<sun.jnu.encoding\> - This is the JVM encoding
   2. \<file.encoding\> - This is the filesystem encoding.
5. Provide me those lines, using this example:
   1.

      ```
      <sun.jnu.encoding>UTF-8</sun.jnu.encoding
      ```

   2.

      ```
      <file.encoding>UTF-8</file.encoding>
      ```

6. If those two lines for you have anything other than **UTF-8** listed, then [add the following parameters to the setenv.sh file](https://confluence.atlassian.com/doc/configuring-system-properties-168002854.html):
   1.

      ```
      CATALINA_OPTS="$CATALINA_OPTS -Dfile.encoding=UTF-8?
      ```

   2.

      ```
      CATALINA_OPTS="$CATALINA_OPTS -Dsun.jnu.encoding=UTF-8"
      ```

7. If you needed to make the above 2 changes, **restart Confluence**.

++**Task 2:**++

1. If both of the above are correct, please open your [Confluence home folder](https://confluence.atlassian.com/doc/confluence-home-and-other-important-directories-590259707.html), and then open **confluence.cfg.xml** in a text editor.
2. Look for your database details, which should look similar to this:
   1.

      ```
      jdbc:mysql://localhost/confluence?sessionVariables=storage_engine%3DInnoDB&amp;amp;useUnicode=true&amp;amp;characterEncoding=utf8
      ```

3. If the encoding listed is anything other than **"useUnicode=true"** and **"characterEncoding=utf8"** as my example above does, then add the same parameters to your jdbc database connection setup.

++**Task 3:**++

1. To check collation, from your database, run:
   1. SHOW VARIABLES LIKE 'collation%';
2. This should also show nothing other than utf-8.

++**Task 4:**++

1. Finally, in your Confluence installation directory, navigate to **conf** folder and open s++**erver.xml**++ in a text editor.
2. Search for **URIEncoding**
3. This should also be set to nothing other than UTF-8.

Please let me know the results of these tests and if you have any trouble!

Shannon


author: Rafik Rushanian
body: Hi, thanks for answering  

I was checked and resolved all cases, that you have sent, want to say step by step whats changed:  

<br />

<br />

Task 1 ? 1, 2(sun.jnu.encoding, file.encoding) Provide me those lines, using this example:  

It's not UTF 8, so I was go to Task 1 ? 6, do what you have writed and do restart confluence.  

<br />

<br />

Task 2 ? 2 Look for your database details, which should look similar to this:  

I have only "jdbc:mysql://localhost/confluence", so I'm added get parameters myself: sessionVariables=storage_engine%3DInnoDB\&amp;amp;useUnicode=true\&amp;amp;characterEncoding=utf8 and restarted confluence  

Task 3 ? 1 SHOW VARIABLES LIKE 'collation%';  
![Screenshot from 2017-11-29 23-47-25.png](https://community.atlassian.com/t5/image/serverpage/image-id/10322i41B208A233989C69/image-size/large?v=v2&px=999 "Screenshot from 2017-11-29 23-47-25.png")  
Task 4 ? server.xml  
![Screenshot from 2017-11-29 23-51-52.png](https://community.atlassian.com/t5/image/serverpage/image-id/10321iEDDC4069D0EA696B/image-size/large?v=v2&px=999 "Screenshot from 2017-11-29 23-51-52.png")  
As result nothing changed, I have not valid views in confluence, have any ideas what I can do else?  

Regards and much thanks for help  

<br />


author: Shannon S
body: Hi Rafik,

Your task #2 screenshot appears to not be the correct one for the query I asked you to run. I can see there you ran **SHOW VARIABLES LIKE 'character_set%'**; but actually I need you to run:

```
SHOW VARIABLES LIKE 'collation%';
```

Can you try that again and send me the results of your query?

One more thing you can do to check where the issue lies:

1. Create a fresh instance of Confluence, on the same exact server, but instead using the internal H2 database. If this doesn't have the issue, then we can say that it's the database having the issue. If it does, we can point it to the server.
2. Create a new MySQL database following our [database setup instructions](https://confluence.atlassian.com/doc/database-setup-for-mysql-128747.html) exactly. Connect your installation to this. If it does not have issues then we know that it's an issue with your existing database. If it does, then it still may be an issue with your MySQL server.

Shannon