Servlet Character Encoding

This section explains how the Application Server determines the character encoding for the servlet request and the servlet response. For encodings you can use, see http://java.sun.com/j2se/1.5.0/docs/guide/intl/encoding.doc.html.

Servlet Request

When processing a servlet request, the server uses the following order of precedence, first to last, to determine the request character encoding:

• The getCharacterEncoding() method

• A hidden field in the form, specified by the form-hint-field attribute of the parameter-encoding element in the sun-web.xml file

• The default-charset attribute of the parameter-encoding element in the sun-web.xml file

• The default, which is ISO-8859-1

For details about the parameter-encoding element, see parameter-encoding in Sun Java System Application Server Platform Edition 9 Application Deployment Guide.

Servlet Response

When processing a servlet response, the server uses the following order of precedence, first to last, to determine the response character encoding:

• The setCharacterEncoding() or setContentType() method

• The setLocale() method

• The default, which is ISO-8859-1