How to solve encoding problem (3rd party php code in Joomla)?

Question

PHP

The site was made on joomla, everything seems to be fine, all scripts and other things were directly registered in the index.php of the template, everything worked, but then the question arose that you need to put a contact form - and when inserting any php code or taking it out into a separate the file constantly popped up symbolic rubbish (as it usually happens when the format is not utf-8), but the bad luck lies in the fact that all Russian characters are displayed normally, and English characters are poorly displayed. Well, the trouble is, of course, that the ajax form does not work (who could doubt it, this is joomla) even when mootols is turned off. If anyone can - tell me a working version for the alax form, which will not give out rubbish, well, or tell me where to look for the beetle, I am immensely grateful to everyone!

Answer 1

My advice to you is to take all the project files and convert them to UTF-8, since this is not so difficult.
Is the data in the database in a different format? Also convert to utf. Or will you have to use crutches like constant iconv or mb_convert_encoding
A working version of ajax form? link
Do you want to support the project? Do not torture yourself, bring to a comfortable.