SET NAMES utf8 and ODBC Connection String

[Craig Stevens]

Hi, I'm working with a classic ASP site to a MySQL 5.0 database and converting it all to use utf8 for multilingual purposes.

I've installed the ODBC 3.51.17 driver and the connection string is: "Driver={MySQL ODBC 3.51 Driver}; Server=localhost; Port=3306; UID=someID; PWD=somePW; charset=utf8; OPTION=3; Database=someDB"

Between the CMS pages and MySQL QueryBrowser all appears to be ok entering and reading back extended characters like ø and å but ONLY if I issue a SET NAMES utf8 instruction before each database connection, i.e. objConn.Execute "SET NAMES utf8".

Is this right? I thought you didn't need to do this with this version of the driver. Have I got something wrong in the connection string (capitalisation, syntax, etc.)? I'm a newbie to MySQL, so I've been scratting around trying to piece all this together under pressure, please help if you can.

Best regards,

Craig