title: REST, PHP - Handling Client's POST Data Character Encoding
body: <p>In my RESTful service written in PHP, in order to update a resource, the client sends raw JSON via POST in the request content (not from a form, which means Content-Type: application/json) </p>
  
  <p>How should I handle the request in order to prevent character encoding problems? </p>
  
  <p>Should I convert the data sent by the client to UTF-8 before handling it, or should I just assume it's utf-8? </p>
  
  <p>I'm asking this question since JSON can be encoded in different ways.</p>
  
  <p>Thank you.</p>