Uploaded web pages appearing as chinese?

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Uploaded web pages appearing as chinese?

weird problem never seen before

harrywebbuilder

3:05 am on Aug 31, 2020 (gmt 0)

I have uploaded some html web pages to a hosted domain. In my web editing tool the pages appear to be perfect in the preview mode but on the domain they appear to be mostly chinese with a few english words appearing randomly here and there.

I'm not any sort of a webmaster but I have built many html websites over the last 10 years using this editor and never seen this before.

I have tried changing virtually everything in the header section but no real change.

It seems like the files are corrupted somehow?

any ideas any body?

thanks

not2easy

11:41 am on Aug 31, 2020 (gmt 0)

Hi harrywebbuilder and Welcome to WebmasterWorld [webmasterworld.com]

We are missing some basic info to try to see where to start ferreting out the cause. Assuming these are static html pages, what flavor are they? Are these html5 pages? If not, what's your DOCTYPE? What does your "<meta charset="?">" show? Do you have other domains on the same server/host? Does your web editing tool offer settings that might have been adjusted by a cat or another user of your computer?

We can look for causes, just need some clues.

TorontoBoy

1:02 pm on Aug 31, 2020 (gmt 0)

Please post some of your content. I read and write Chinese, can understand and recognize Japanese as well. I'd be very surprised if this is true.

lucy24

2:25 pm on Aug 31, 2020 (gmt 0)

Please post some of your content.

And then prepare to paste it into a text editor with an HTML preview, since this site won't display non-Latin-1 content.

As usual, I smell an encoding issue, in this case probably involving UTF-16 (not UTF-8). The horrible complication is that, unlike most things in Apache--assuming that's your server type--a charset declaration on-page does not override a charset declaration at the server level.

If you open the uploaded version of your HTML in a text editor, not the browser (how-to details will depend on your FTP software), does everything look exactly as it did on your hard drive?

One thing I can say for certain: file corruption will not change English into Chinese.

harrywebbuilder

4:08 pm on Aug 31, 2020 (gmt 0)

How do you add images to posts?, I don't see any icons for attachments?, otherwise I would have posted images which clearly show the issue

[edited by: harrywebbuilder at 4:27 pm (utc) on Aug 31, 2020]

harrywebbuilder

4:20 pm on Aug 31, 2020 (gmt 0)

This is the index page in my editor

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
<meta name="robots" content="noindex,nofollow">
<title>Start Here</title>
<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=unicode">
</head>
<style>

</style>
</head>
<body>


<div align="center">
<table width="729" border="1" BORDERCOLOR="#000000" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" style="border-collapse: collapse">
<tr>
<td align="center">
<img border="0" src="images/WIDGET-header.jpg" width="729" height="86"></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td align="center">
<table border="0" width="100%" cellpadding="5" style="border-collapse: collapse">
<tr>
<td>
Start Here
Welcome to the WIDGET Daily Trading System
Please read this entire page - it contains a lot of
information that will help you get the most from this
course - thank you for buying this DVD
The objective of this course is to
teach you how to trade better and find profitable trade
opportunities on a regular basis, in essence to find
what works for you so that you can make consistent
profits.
You now have access to a high quality and very
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thousand of dollars for.
We hope that you enjoy the course - and
<a target="_blank" href="http://www.example.com/review-WIDGET-dvd">please leave a review on Amazon</a>
Before proceeding please read the <a href="admin/disclaimer.html">
trading disclaimer and terms of use</a> and
<a href="admin/copyright-warning.html">copyright notice</a>
The course is organized into 5 sections and contains:
<ul>
<li>WIDGET basics PDF guide</li>
<li>Over 35 hours of video WIDGET education - 156 videos </li>
<li>39 MT4 strategy templates for the Metatrader platform</li>
<li>2 Custom Technical Indicators</li>
<li>WIDGET Broker Notes</li>
</ul>
Bonus Content
<ul>
<li>Bonus - <a href="trading-books/trading-books.html">Trading Books</a></li>
<li>Bonus Basic WIDGET Course -
<a href="WIDGET-trading-pro-system/ftps-start-here.html">The WIDGET Trading Pro System Complete 5 Hour
Course</a></li>
<li>Bonus Video Preview -
<a href="trading-pro-system-preview/index.html">The Trading Pro
System Option Course</a></li>
</ul>
Notes To Help Get The Most From This DVD
This is a lot of education and material to watch, read and take in, don't expect to understand everything the 1st time
around. 
Watch the videos as many times as you need until you get it.

Remember to paper trade until you are at least making money
consistently on paper, take time to learn how to trade, trading is a
marathon not a race, only those that have trained well will reach
the finish line
Note, this course was originally designed to be watched over a
number of weeks and months so you will hear references to week and
month numbers, you now have the benefit of having access to the
whole course at once, even so you may want to follow the course
material in the order that it is presented
To access all the materials go to the

<a href="admin/index.html">Index Page</a>
Videos
The videos are in high resolution 1280x720 and in MP4 format
which is a very common and popular standard for playing video files
in a quick and high quality format. For more information about how
best to view the videos read these <a href="admin/video-instructions.html">
video instructions</a>
PDF Files
To view the PDF files you will need a PDF file reader, download
one for free from Adobe
<a href="http://get.adobe.com/reader/">Free Adobe PDF Reader</a>
MT4 Strategy Templates
The strategy templates included with this product, called MT4 or
Metatrader 4, are designed to be used with the Metatrader trading
platform. They are included so that you can follow along with the
video training, but it is not necessary to do so, the WIDGET trading
education in this course is of immense value on it's own. Note,
PRODUCT is designed and sold by
<a target="_blank" href="http://www.example.net/">Merchant</a>
and the two names are sometimes interchanged. All the template files
are in the folder called mt4 strategy templates, but they are linked
to in each appropriate video as required
Broker Notes
Definitely not a list of recommended brokers, but some WIDGET
brokers to take a look at
<a href="admin/list-of-brokers.html">WIDGET Brokers</a>

Bonus Beginner WIDGET Guide

If you are a complete beginner or just need a refresher we have
included a WIDGET basic guide. This a very good introduction to WIDGET
trading so be sure to check it out even if you are already familiar
with WIDGET

<a target="_blank" href="trading-books/WIDGET-Basics-Guide-DVD-Bonus.pdf">
WIDGET Beginner Guide</a>
<p style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 12pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px">
Technical Analysis
<p style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 12pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;">
This DVD is focused on trading options and only touch's on some
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WIDGET and options - if you would like a FREE 5 day video course from
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To access all the materials go to the

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About This WIDGET Video Trading Course
The contents of this video trading course, including
all the videos, PDF books and templates are owned by Brand Marketing and is the
copyright owner of this DVD and all it's contents. You have the right to copy the contents to other
media for normal private use
</td>
</tr>
</table>
</td>
</tr>
</table>
</div>


</body>
</html>

[edited by: not2easy at 4:56 pm (utc) on Aug 31, 2020]
[edit reason] anonymized/wigetized/exemplified [/edit]

harrywebbuilder

4:24 pm on Aug 31, 2020 (gmt 0)

This is the index page after uploading to the host domain

it's not showing the chinese after posting here, just a bunch of numbers, this is not the full page as it was too big to post

<!DOCTYPE html>਀㰀栀琀洀氀㸀
<head>਀㰀洀攀琀愀 渀愀洀攀㴀∀爀漀戀漀琀猀∀ 挀漀渀琀攀渀琀㴀∀渀漀椀渀搀攀砀Ⰰ渀漀昀漀氀氀漀眀∀㸀
<title>Start Here</title>਀㰀洀攀琀愀 栀琀琀瀀ⴀ攀焀甀椀瘀㴀∀䌀漀渀琀攀渀琀ⴀ吀礀瀀攀∀ 挀漀渀琀攀渀琀㴀∀琀攀砀琀⼀栀琀洀氀㬀 挀栀愀爀猀攀琀㴀甀渀椀挀漀搀攀∀㸀
</head>਀㰀猀琀礀氀攀㸀
਀㰀⼀猀琀礀氀攀㸀
</head>਀㰀戀漀搀礀㸀
਀㰀瀀 愀氀椀最渀㴀∀挀攀渀琀攀爀∀㸀
<div align="center">਀㰀琀愀戀氀攀 眀椀搀琀栀㴀∀㜀㈀㤀∀ 戀漀爀搀攀爀㴀∀㄀∀ 䈀伀刀䐀䔀刀䌀伀䰀伀刀㴀∀⌀　　　　　　∀ 挀攀氀氀猀瀀愀挀椀渀最㴀∀　∀ 挀攀氀氀瀀愀搀搀椀渀最㴀∀　∀ 猀琀礀氀攀㴀∀戀漀爀搀攀爀ⴀ挀漀氀氀愀瀀猀攀㨀 挀漀氀氀愀瀀猀攀∀㸀
<tr>਀    㰀琀搀 愀氀椀最渀㴀∀挀攀渀琀攀爀∀㸀

harrywebbuilder

4:29 pm on Aug 31, 2020 (gmt 0)

you can see the uploaded page here

<no links, please>

[edited by: not2easy at 4:58 pm (utc) on Aug 31, 2020]
[edit reason] Please see ToS [webmasterworld.com] [/edit]

TorontoBoy

4:32 pm on Aug 31, 2020 (gmt 0)

haha, that is Chinese, but simply a random string of characters. Here's Google's translation:
㰀栀琀洀氀㸀਀㰀洀洀搀愀 渀愀洀攀㴀∀爀漀漀漀漀猀猀∀ 挀漀渀琀搀挀漀渀琀搀渀漀怰怰怰怰怰渀 ∀㸀਀㰀洀搀搀愀 栀搀搀瀀ⴀ 栀愀甀甀甀紀㴀∀䌀漀渀琀洀渀搀愀∀‸怸怴∀‸怸怴∀‸‸ A

The most
਀ 㰀 Han Qiaolianlvpan Ming Wanchanhanzhi 㴀 ∀ ∀ 㜀 ㈀ 㤀 Love Qinghechanpan He 㴀 ∀ ∀ 䈀 ㄀ astir knife 䐀 䔀 knife 䌀 䰀 astir astir knife 㴀 ∀⌀ ∀ Bai Pan Shu Doushayouqiao 挀 Wan 渀 most 㴀 ∀ 　 ∀   挀 揀氀 氀 怀愀 搀 搀 渀 渀 挀 　 ∀   挀 搀 椀 氀 怌 搀 怰怰 怰 怰 怰 怰 怰 怰 怰 怰 怰 怰 怰 怰 怰 怰 怰 怰 怰 怰 怰 怰 怰 怰 怰 with 猀攀∀㸀਀    㰀琀搀 愀氀 Bowl The most 渀㴀∀挀攀渀琀攀爀∀㸀

TorontoBoy

4:34 pm on Aug 31, 2020 (gmt 0)

yes, this is Chinese, but a jumbled, random string that makes no sense and has no grammar. Even Google can't make heads or tails of it.

probably an encoding error. I've had web pages auto encoded into Finnish, or was it Polish, it's been many years. In my case the data was stored in a database and the table was encoded to some Scandinavian language. I just changed it back to Englsh/UTF-8 (I can't recall) and I saw English.

not2easy

4:45 pm on Aug 31, 2020 (gmt 0)

The problem is that the

<!DOCTYPE html>

signifies html5, but the html code is old html4 that is confounding browsers - the use of

<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=unicode">

makes it worse. Your "Chinese characters" are the result. Browsers would have trouble parsing the mixture. It might be time to seek a new web editing tool, or use a good text editor that can assist with settings and valid html code.

harrywebbuilder

5:21 pm on Aug 31, 2020 (gmt 0)

I'm not even going to tell you what editing tool I'm using because you would die laughing, I can setup new up to date defaults etc but I have never had this issue before and it it only on this one site

this is my current header
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
<meta name="robots" content="noindex,nofollow">
<title>Start Here</title>
<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=unicode">
</head>

can you edit this header and post a new header that you think will work, I have already tried changing everything in this and still have the same issue

harrywebbuilder

5:50 pm on Aug 31, 2020 (gmt 0)

so I tried using the header section that is used on the home page of webmasterworld

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html lang="en">
<head>
<title>WebmasterWorld -- News and Discussion for the Web Professional -- - WebmasterWorld</title>
</head>

and I still get the chinese words when the page is uploaded?

lucy24

6:02 pm on Aug 31, 2020 (gmt 0)

<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=unicode">

�unicode� isn�t a charset; you probably mean UTF-8. And as not2easy points out, the syntax is wonky anyway. What you want is
<meta charset="utf-8">

By this time, w3 simply says flatly: declare utf-8 and leave it at that. No reason to use anything else.

https://www.w3.org/TR/html52/document-metadata.html#specifying-the-documents-character-encoding

Further puttering around leads to an entire document about encodings, but--trust me on this--you don't want to read it:

https://encoding.spec.whatwg.org/#names-and-labels

:: noting with irritation that the latter page uses the unicode �no such character� symbol for its favicon ::

lucy24

6:10 pm on Aug 31, 2020 (gmt 0)

and I still get the chinese words when the page is uploaded

You'll also need to check your (S)FTP client and make sure they're not messing with the text. I remember that at one time in Fetch I had to change it from Text (which would have come through in Mac encoding) to Binary/Raw Data, though currently it says Automatic and it handles everything correctly.

I do find it very weird that the HTML tags themselves--<head> and so on--come through as intended. That means something else is going on. How are you uploading the content?

And, incidentally:

<p>
<p align="center">
<div align="center">

If this is a result of an editor, the best place for that editor is the nearest trash can.

not2easy

6:51 pm on Aug 31, 2020 (gmt 0)

You could chop out the old meta tag's extra (bolded) code to just leave

<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html;charset=unicode">

and replace "unicode" with your document's actual character set, OR set your editor to use utf-8 and then forget about guessing.

Yes, that means you should leave behind the and such. There are free places to learn, w3shools is not connected to the w3c org in any way, but they offer a fairly simple way to see what's new in html over the past several years. You learn at your own pace.

A typical html5 charset tag is a straightforward

<meta charset="utf-8">

I had no clue when I started making my own pages, and I would get ideas from sites I liked, so my own <meta charset tags were a mess, at least as bad as yours. When Google came along with their Webmaster Tools, I found out that they disagreed with my claims of "ISO-8859-1" and told me they were ascii. That is when I started looking for better tools.

A few other tips - think about migrating to https so your site(s) won't disappear from the search engines. For that matter, "no index" tags ensure that your sites won't be found with search engines. ;)

harrywebbuilder

6:57 pm on Aug 31, 2020 (gmt 0)

I've uploaded the file using the web pager editor itself, and I and also uploaded using FileZilla and I get the same result

I have no idea what the problem is, so I'm not going to trash an an editor I have been using for 15 years until I understand what the problem is, I'm only having this issue on 1 site

harrywebbuilder

7:00 pm on Aug 31, 2020 (gmt 0)

Can anybody post a simple bullet proof header section that should work 100% so I can eliminate that, most of the replies I've had are the syntax of the header

lucy24

8:03 pm on Aug 31, 2020 (gmt 0)

Can anybody post a simple bullet proof header section that should work 100%

No. We�re not being hostile: it�s just that no two <head> sections are alike. Mine, for example, start out as:

<!DOCTYPE HTML>
<html lang = "en">
<head>
<meta charset = "UTF-8">
<title>Title</title>
<meta name = "description" content = "full text of �� by nnn">
<meta name = "viewport" content = "width=device-width, initial-scale=1">
<link rel = "stylesheet" type = "text/css" href = "../../sharedstyles.css">
<link rel = "stylesheet" type = "text/css" href = "../ebookstyles.css">
<link rel = "stylesheet" type = "text/css" href = "localstyles.css">
<style>
</style>
</head>

and then get edited as I make the page. You can see which parts are site-specific, which ones page-specific.

To pass w3 validation, the <head> must contain a <title> tag. Everything else is optional. I like to put my <title> after the charset declaration, for the rare cases when there's a non-ASCII character in the title--though this becomes less important over the years, as servers and browsers default to utf-8.

not2easy

8:35 pm on Aug 31, 2020 (gmt 0)

Taking a chance, I took the page code posted here to the W3C Validator (the new one) and they marked that unicode thing as a fatal error.

They noted the <style> tag after the </head> tag as a fatal error because there are two closing </head> tags:

<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=unicode">
</head>
<style>
<!--
a, tr, td, p, li { font-family: Arial; font-size: 12pt }
-->
</style>
</head>

tangor

3:18 am on Sep 1, 2020 (gmt 0)

I got to ask ... what are you using as your content editor?

Might try converting (saving) as plain text from your editor and see what happens.

I ran into something like this YEARS ago with MS Word. I use NOTEPAD++ these days for that very reason. :)

Also check your editor language set.

A test would be to replace all <body> text with

Hello World!

and see what happens.

Why? Even to this day I get text/content from contributors that use various word processing and, even if they send in recommended format, have an embeded language code that throws odd characters.

harrywebbuilder

6:09 pm on Sep 1, 2020 (gmt 0)

For the record I'm using Frontpage 2003 vintage, I know everybody will say it's rubbish but it actually has a lot of very easy to use features and I've built dozens of html sites, some rather big and complex, with it over the years.

Having said that my conclusion is the Frontage is doing something very weird to this particular website and it is nothing to do with the syntax etc of the header section.

So thanks to everybody for the suggestions but nothing is fixing the issue after 3 days of trying, so I'm just going to build a new site, using Frontpage I might add!.

I did start to search for a replacement for Frontpage but did not really find anything. I have tried a trial of Coffee Cup but it seems like it's more for serious coders.

Any suggestions while I continue with Frontpage, by the way my 2003 Frontage disks install perfectly on my new 2020 windows 10 PC, that's something!

lucy24

6:46 pm on Sep 1, 2020 (gmt 0)

Incidentally: TorontoBoy, I don't think anyone was suggesting that OP's page was turning into legitimate, syntactically valid Chinese. That would indeed be scary!

Don't know about others, but my concern about the editor is that it appears to be capable of generating the sequence <div> -- and producing valid HTML (of any version number) is really a pretty low bar.