Problem

Adding Chinese characters into a Confluence page and saving shows the characters as question marks.

Diagnosis

Environment

• Usually in Microsoft SQLServer

• Characters also appear as question marks in the database

  

Example

If you have a page with the title: 'chinesecharacters 象形字', check what are the characters saved as in the database by using the following query:

SELECT * FROM CONTENT WHERE TITLE LIKE 'chinesecharacters%'

If this is not the case, this KB will not be applicable for you.

Cause

This behaviour happens on Microsoft SQLServer when you have a incorrect data type as the jdts driver has problems with multi-byte characters. 

Resolution

1. Shutdown Confluence.
2. In SQLServer Studio go to Tools > Options> Designer > Table and Database Designers > Uncheck the box Prevent saving changes that require table re-creation.
3. Expand Body Content table.
4. Expand Columns.
5. Right click on BODY column
6. Modify
7. Change the BODY column from text to ntext.
8. Save.
9. Start Confluence.