howto: Server - header: change character encoding  rev 7 oct 2021

How to modify HTTP headers using the .htaccess file

> example | info | tools | more

.......................................................
example:

  .............................
  change character set!

# Basically, you want utf-8 for all text files.
#%% THIS WORKS for me: 
#%% THIS DOESN'T WORK: AddDefaultCharset utf-8
AddCharset UTF-8 .css .html .inc .js .php .txt
IndexOptions Charset=UTF-8

  .............................
  history of what i tried:

  <IfModule mod_headers.c>
   Header set content-type "text/html; charset=utf-8"
  </IfModule>
  # (Must be double-quotes)

  Also added in that block:
   AddCharset UTF-8 .html .txt .css .php .inc
  But i don't know if it's doing anything  [30 oct 2018]

  BUT
  it turned out that setting, changed all files to text/html --
  so .txt files were being displayed as one long line.

  Kept trying things back and forth, ended up with
    deleting the IfModule and Header set
  Using 
   AddCharset UTF-8 .html .txt .css .php .inc
   seems to work.
  https://httpd.apache.org/docs/2.4/mod/mod_mime.html#addcharset

  Also tried 
     AddDefaultCharset utf-8
  which seemed like would be the best solution,
    and at first thought it worked, but maybe something
    was just cached. nowork.
  https://httpd.apache.org/docs/2.4/mod/core.html#adddefaultcharset


.......................................................
info - server default character set

  It turns out that on A2Hosting, iWFhosting (and possibly on other hosting)
  the apache server is sending ISO-1899-1 (whyyyy????)
  I initially tried setting meta charset in html,
  but learned that this does not override the 
  character set sent by the server. 
  Apparently WordPress takes care of this, (which is why i was confused before
  and didn't follow up for a long time) -- when i load a WordPress
  page i see correct character set in W3c tool and in Ffx Dev Tools (below).
   


.......................................................
tools:

  * Check internationalization (i18n) info in a web document
      https://validator.w3.org/i18n-checker/

  * Check server http header output
	  Firefox Developer Tools ->
  		 Network tab -> Click on the item you wish to examine the headers for
      https://stackoverflow.com/questions/33974595/in-firefox-how-do-i-see-http-request-headers-where-in-web-console
      https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Tools
      
  * See the meta tags:
      Page Info (right-click on the page, View Page Info)
		(you will also see the "Text Encoding" there, whcih is coming
           from the server header.)
      https://stackoverflow.com/questions/33974595/in-firefox-how-do-i-see-http-request-headers-where-in-web-console


.......................................................
more:

  .............................
  example of basics of modifying apache headers:

  <IfModule mod_headers.c>
    Header set Animal cow
    Header set Animal monkey
    Header append Animal camel
  </IfModule>

  Animal header is first set to cow. But because the next header
  option is also set, the Animal header is reset to monkey. Lastly,
  camel is appended to the Animal header. This generates an HTTP
  response header that resembles the following:

  HTTP/1.1 200 OK
  Date: Tue, 24 Jun 2014 15:23:33 GMT
  Server: Apache
  Animal: monkey, camel

  ..........................
  how-tos:

  * How to modify HTTP headers using .htaccess files
      using Header set ...
      A2Hosting KB [undated, retr 30 oct 2018]
      https://www.a2hosting.com/kb/developer-corner/apache-web-server/modifying-http-headers
      This one worked for me [30 oct 2018]

  * Setting charset information in .htaccess
      W3C [feb 2016]
      https://www.w3.org/International/questions/qa-htaccess-charset#endlinks
      using AddCharset UTF-8 .html
      This one didn't work for me [30 oct 2018]
      But, is good explanation of HTTP headers etc.

  * Checking HTTP Headers
      W3C [mar 2016]
      https://www.w3.org/International/questions/qa-headers-charset.en


  ..........................
  documentation:

  * Apache Module mod_include
	  Apache 2.2 Documentation
	  https://httpd.apache.org/docs/2.2/mod/mod_headers.html

  * Apache: The Definitive Guide (O'Reilly)
      https://docstore.mik.ua/orelly/linux/apache/


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