title: How to set the default character encoding in AEM/Sling?
body: <p>I'm trying to set the character encoding in use by AEM/Sling to UTF-8. According to the <a href="https://sling.apache.org/documentation/the-sling-engine/request-parameters.html#character-encoding" rel="nofollow">Sling documentation</a>, this can be overridden by a property on the <strong>Sling Main Servlet:</strong></p>
  
  <blockquote>
    <p>As of Sling Engine 2.2.4 the <code>_charset_</code> request parameter is optional.
    As of this version the Sling Main Servlet supports a configuration
    setting which allows to change the default character encoding used if
    the <code>_charset_</code> request parameter is missing. </p>
    
    <p><strong>To enable this functionality set the <code>sling.default.parameter.encoding</code> parameter of the Sling Main Servlet (PID <code>org.apache.sling.engine.impl.SlingMainServlet</code>)</strong> configuration to the
    desired encoding, which of course must be supported by the actual Java
    Platform.</p>
  </blockquote>
  
  <p>But while this was possible in previous versions, this configuration seems to have been removed from the latest versions of AEM (6.0+) and Sling (8), i.e. in the menu at</p>
  
  <ul>
  <li><a href="http://localhost:8080/system/console/configMgr/org.apache.sling.engine.impl.SlingMainServlet?post=false" rel="nofollow">http://localhost:8080/system/console/configMgr/org.apache.sling.engine.impl.SlingMainServlet?post=false</a></li>
  </ul>
  
  <p>the <code>sling.default.parameter.encoding</code> isn't present anymore. Is there an alternative way to configure this value now, to use UTF-8 rather than the ISO default?</p>