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Tickets with Arabic characters display hashtags in an exported PDF file

This article addresses an issue in Web Help Desk 12.7.4 with downloading tickets with Arabic characters to a PDF file.

First published date

2/16/2021 10:44 AM

Last published date

2/16/2021 10:44 AM

Overview

In a Web Help Desk ticket, you can add Arabic text to the Subject and Request Details fields. However, when you export the ticket to a PDF file, the text in both fields is replaced with hashtag characters. 

Product section

Web Help Desk

Cause

The Arial Unicode MS font for non-Latin characters is not installed on the Web Help Desk server.

Resolution

Download and install a licensed Arial Unicode MS font for non-Latin characters to the fonts folder on your Web Help Desk server. When you are finished, update two configuration files with new parameters, and then restart Web Help Desk.
 

Download the new font to your Web Help Desk server

Complete the following steps based on your operating system. 
  1. Back up your Web Help Desk deployment.
  2. Purchase a licensed version of the Arial Unicode MS font from a reliable source. See Font library on the Microsoft Docs website for details about purchasing licensed Microsoft fonts. 
  3. Log in to the Web Help Desk server as an administrator.
  4. Add the font file(Arial Unicode MS) to this path: "C:\Program Files\WebHelpDesk\conf\fonts"
    • Linux: Save the file to the /usr/share/fonts directory.

 

Update the targeted configuration file

Complete the following steps based on your operating system. 
  1. Open the targeted configuration file in a text editor (such as Notepad). 
    • Windows Server: Navigate to <WebHelpDesk>\bin\wrapper\conf and open the wrapper_template.conf file.
    • Linux: Navigate to <WebHelpDesk>/conf and open the whd.conf file. 
  2. in the file, scroll down to Java Additional Parameters.
  3. Locate the last Java property number in this section. For example, 18. 
  4. Add a new Java property that includes the path to the fonts directory.
    • Windows Server: wrapper.java.additional.19=-DWHDFontsDirectory="C:\Program Files\WebHelpDesk\conf\fonts" where 19 is the next incremented parameter and "C:\Program Files\WebHelpDesk\conf\fonts" is the path to the fonts directory on the Web Help Desk server.
    • Linux: add "-DWHDFontsDirectory="usr/share/fonts" under the Java Options in the whd.conf file.
  5. Save and close the file. 
 

Update the fop configuration file

Complete the following steps based on your operating system.
  1. Open the fops-config file in the "C:\Program Files\WebHelpDesk\conf\fonts" with a text editor (such as Notepad).
  2. Add a new property that includes the path to the fonts directory on the Web Help Desk server.
    • Windows Server: <directory>C:\Program Files\Windows\fonts</directory>
    • Linux: <directory>/usr/share/fonts</directory>
  3. Save and close the file. 
 

Restart Web Help Desk

  1. Stop the Web Help Desk service.
  2. Restart Web Help Desk.
  3. Start the Web Help Desk service.
 

Verify the update

  1. Log in to Web Help Desk.
  2. Click Tickets > Search Tickets.
  3. Locate and select a ticket that contains Arabic characters in the Request Detail field.
  4. Click the gear drop-down menu and select Tickets PDF.
  5. Verify that the ticket fields do not contain hashtag characters.