# Ignition external communication affected by local language environment **URL:** \ **Category:** Ignition\ **Tags:** ignition79\ **Created:** [December 31, 2019, 8:41am UTC](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/ignition-external-communication-affected-by-local-language-environment/30990 "2019-12-31T08:41:58Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![781646229](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/7/e47774/32.png) [@781646229](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/u/781646229)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2019, 8:41am UTC](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/ignition-external-communication-affected-by-local-language-environment/30990/1 "2019-12-31T08:41:59Z")
In Ignition, we often encounter communication with external systems. Here is an example of sending WeChat to API in 7.9.9 version. ![image](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/inductiveautomation/original/2X/f/f566a60d88dde4f79b1758bc2316fec637e8178f.png) Here, msg contains Chinese characters. I can receive wechat messages normally, but the received messages are empty or garbled. At this time, the server environment is English Windows system. I tried to add Chinese language to this server, but it still didn’t work. However, if this operation is performed on a Chinese Windows system, I can receive a wechat message containing Chinese characters. ---
**Author:** ![pturmel](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/inductiveautomation/user_avatar/forum.inductiveautomation.com/pturmel/32/3295_2.png) [@pturmel](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/u/pturmel)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2019, 12:10pm UTC](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/ignition-external-communication-affected-by-local-language-environment/30990/2 "2019-12-31T12:10:47Z")
Did you restart Ignition on the English server after adding the Chinese language? IIRC, java only picks up languages at startup. ---
**Author:** ![781646229](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/7/e47774/32.png) [@781646229](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/u/781646229)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2020, 1:42am UTC](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/ignition-external-communication-affected-by-local-language-environment/30990/3 "2020-01-02T01:42:45Z")
Yes, I’ve tried, but it’s not working. ---
**Author:** ![pturmel](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/inductiveautomation/user_avatar/forum.inductiveautomation.com/pturmel/32/3295_2.png) [@pturmel](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/u/pturmel)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2020, 12:36pm UTC](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/ignition-external-communication-affected-by-local-language-environment/30990/4 "2020-01-02T12:36:34Z")
You may need to file a formal support ticket. ---
**Author:** ![paul-griffith](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/inductiveautomation/user_avatar/forum.inductiveautomation.com/paul-griffith/32/37249_2.png) [@paul-griffith](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/u/paul-griffith)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2020, 5:13pm UTC](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/ignition-external-communication-affected-by-local-language-environment/30990/5 "2020-01-02T17:13:39Z")
> [@781646229](#): > > However, if this operation is performed on a Chinese Windows system, I can receive a wechat message containing Chinese characters. This sounds like a character encoding problem, rather than a font problem. Try adding a line like `wrapper.java.additional.X=-Dfile.encoding=UTF8` to the `ignition.conf` file located in `/Program Files/Inductive Automation/Ignition/data/` - you'll need to open as an administrator to modify the file, and replace the 'X' in the parameter with a valid, sequential integer in the sequence of parameters - somewhere at the end of the block that looks like this: ```auto # Java Additional Parameters wrapper.java.additional.1=-XX:+UseConcMarkSweepGC wrapper.java.additional.2=-XX:+CMSClassUnloadingEnabled wrapper.java.additional.3=-Ddata.dir=data wrapper.java.additional.4=-Dorg.apache.catalina.loader.WebappClassLoader.ENABLE_CLEAR_REFERENCES=false #wrapper.java.additional.5=-Xdebug #wrapper.java.additional.6=-Xrunjdwp:transport=dt_socket,server=y,suspend=n,address=8000 ``` Once you've made changes, restart the system. Java defaults to the operating system's default charset/encoding - on (English) Windows, that's ISO-8859-1, _not_ UTF-8. Generally we try to force all of our operations to just use UTF-8 anyways, but especially with a somewhat older version like 7.9.9 there might be some operation that's not properly forced to UTF-8. ---
**Author:** ![781646229](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/7/e47774/32.png) [@781646229](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/u/781646229)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2020, 2:24am UTC](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/ignition-external-communication-affected-by-local-language-environment/30990/6 "2020-01-07T02:24:51Z")
I tried the operation, but it still didn’t work! ---
**Author:** ![781646229](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/7/e47774/32.png) [@781646229](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/u/781646229)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2020, 3:24am UTC](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/ignition-external-communication-affected-by-local-language-environment/30990/7 "2020-01-07T03:24:08Z")
> [@paul-griffith](#): > > wrapper.java.additional.X=-Dfile.encoding=UTF8 This problem seems to have nothing to do with the system language. It will occur in 7.9. X, but not in 8.0. X ---
**Author:** ![paul-griffith](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/inductiveautomation/user_avatar/forum.inductiveautomation.com/paul-griffith/32/37249_2.png) [@paul-griffith](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/u/paul-griffith)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2020, 4:16pm UTC](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/ignition-external-communication-affected-by-local-language-environment/30990/8 "2020-01-07T16:16:04Z")
Received messages being empty or garbled _is not a language problem_. It’s an encoding problem. See: [Mojibake](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mojibake). More description of what garbled text you’re seeing, or another screenshot, may help isolate where the problem actually lies.