4 files changed, 33 insertions, 2 deletions

diff --git a/railties/guides/source/getting_started.textile b/railties/guides/source/getting_started.textile
index 5da7ff7daa..b7301bff20 100644
--- a/railties/guides/source/getting_started.textile
+++ b/railties/guides/source/getting_started.textile
@@ -1462,11 +1462,32 @@ Rails also comes with built-in help that you can generate using the rake command
 * Running +rake doc:guides+ will put a full copy of the Rails Guides in the +doc/guides+ folder of your application. Open +doc/guides/index.html+ in your web browser to explore the Guides.
 * Running +rake doc:rails+ will put a full copy of the API documentation for Rails in the +doc/api+ folder of your application. Open +doc/api/index.html+ in your web browser to explore the API documentation.
 
+h3. Configuration Gotchas
+
+The easiest way to work with Rails is to store all external data as UTF-8. If you don't, Ruby libraries and Rails will often be able to convert your native data into UTF-8, but this doesn't always work reliably, so you're better off ensuring that all external data is UTF-8.
+
+If you have made a mistake in this area, the most common symptom is a black diamond with a question mark inside appearing in the browser. Another common symptom is characters like "ü" appearing instead of "ü". Rails takes a number of internal steps to mitigate common causes of these problems that can be automatically detected and corrected. However, if you have external data that is not stored as UTF-8, it can occasionally result in these kinds of issues that cannot be automatically detected by Rails and corrected.
+
+Two very common sources of data that are not UTF-8:
+* Your text editor: Most text editors (such as Textmate), default to saving files as
+  UTF-8. If your text editor does not, this can result in special characters that you
+  enter in your templates (such as é) to appear as a diamond with a question mark inside
+  in the browser. This also applies to your I18N translation files.
+  Most editors that do not already default to UTF-8 (such as some versions of
+  Dreamweaver) offer a way to change the default to UTF-8. Do so.
+* Your database. Rails defaults to converting data from your database into UTF-8 at
+  the boundary. However, if your database is not using UTF-8 internally, it may not
+  be able to store all characters that your users enter. For instance, if your database
+  is using Latin-1 internally, and your user enters a Russian, Hebrew, or Japanese
+  character, the data will be lost forever once it enters the database. If possible,
+  use UTF-8 as the internal storage of your database.
 
 h3. Changelog
 
 "Lighthouse ticket":http://rails.lighthouseapp.com/projects/16213-rails-guides/tickets/2
 
+* May 16, 2010: Added a section on configuration gotchas to address common encoding
+  problems that people might have
 * April 30, 2010: Fixes, editing and updating of code samples by "Rohit Arondekar":http://rohitarondekar.com
 * April 25, 2010: Couple of more minor fixups "Mikel Lindsaar":credits:html#raasdnil
 * April 1, 2010: Fixed document to validate XHTML 1.0 Strict. "Jaime Iniesta":http://jaimeiniesta.com
diff --git a/railties/lib/rails.rb b/railties/lib/rails.rb
index 0611b2a9f5..be486ef2ac 100644
--- a/railties/lib/rails.rb
+++ b/railties/lib/rails.rb
@@ -23,6 +23,7 @@ if RUBY_VERSION < '1.9'
   $KCODE='u'
 else
   Encoding.default_external = Encoding::UTF_8
+  Encoding.default_internal = Encoding::UTF_8
 end
 
 module Rails
diff --git a/railties/lib/rails/application/configuration.rb b/railties/lib/rails/application/configuration.rb
index 9353fbefef..8afe423973 100644
--- a/railties/lib/rails/application/configuration.rb
+++ b/railties/lib/rails/application/configuration.rb
@@ -1,4 +1,5 @@
 require 'active_support/deprecation'
+require 'active_support/core_ext/string/encoding'
 require 'rails/engine/configuration'
 
 module Rails
@@ -27,8 +28,15 @@ module Rails
 
       def encoding=(value)
         @encoding = value
-        if defined?(Encoding) && Encoding.respond_to?(:default_external=)
+        if "ruby".encoding_aware?
           Encoding.default_external = value
+          Encoding.default_internal = value
+        else
+          $KCODE = value
+          if $KCODE == "NONE"
+            raise "The value you specified for config.encoding is " \
+                  "invalid. The possible values are UTF8, SJIS, or EUC"
+          end
         end
       end
 
diff --git a/railties/test/application/configuration_test.rb b/railties/test/application/configuration_test.rb
index dfc4e2359b..c08bd2ef22 100644
--- a/railties/test/application/configuration_test.rb
+++ b/railties/test/application/configuration_test.rb
@@ -180,7 +180,8 @@ module ApplicationTests
       require "#{app_path}/config/application"
 
       unless RUBY_VERSION < '1.9'
-        assert_equal Encoding.find("utf-8"), Encoding.default_external
+        assert_equal Encoding::UTF_8, Encoding.default_external
+        assert_equal Encoding::UTF_8, Encoding.default_internal
       end
     end