Need help - ampersand & is converted to & when saving pages

[ramiss]

Hi Guys,

 

I'm on 5.3.14 and I just transferred my site from an IIS/php server to a Linux server (and new mysql server) and for the life of me cannot figure out why suddenly every & character us being stored in the database as &

 

The character is being inserted that way, its not a read/display issue from the database. I have confirmed by saving a page with an & in the text and then confirmed that the DB record shows &

 

The DB encoding us utf8_generic_ci, the db was moved using phpmyadmin export/import and I haven't modified any of the files.

 

Obviously this is causing major issues because, when re-saving the page the & is being saved again as &amp. The only other thing that changed is that I haven't activated SSL yet, but I truly hope WHMCS isn't relying on SSL for url encoding.

 

What the heck is going on?

 

Thanks guys!

Edited July 9, 2016 by ramiss

[twhiting9275]

I'm on 5.3.14

Upgrade... 5.3 is so dead it's not even funny. It's been better than a year now, there's really no excuse not to be using an up to date version of WHMCS

 

and I just transferred my site from an IIS/php server to a Linux server (and new mysql server)

Try manually importing the database... Not through phpmyadmin, but through shell, using the MySQL command. This shouldn't convert anything.

[sentq]

make sure new database encoding is the same one used in old database before importing/creating any tables.

[ramiss]

Thank you all for the answers. I will try re-importing the database. I'll look into upgrading, but there is a big excuse. Besides the money all of my custom themes and modules would need to be upgraded and tested and I really don't have the time to do that to a system that works for me the way it is.

[brian!]

Upgrade... 5.3 is so dead it's not even funny. It's been better than a year now, there's really no excuse not to be using an up to date version of WHMCS.

there is if say it's used only for automated billing and has no public front-end - one of my licenses is still running a v5.3.14 installation for that very purpose and I have no immediate plans to upgrade it - if it's not broke, why potentially break it by upgrading...

 

not everyone wants to be queued outside the Apple store on launch day to ensure you have the latest version of the iPhone!