title: What charset encoding for an API
body: <p>I have built an API in PHP with Zend Framework 1.x
  For now there was only a webclient connecting to the API but we started developing a C# client.
  I am experiencing an issue, here is how it works :</p>
  
  <ul>
  <li>User fills the form in the C# client</li>
  <li>C# sends the data with WebClient.UploadValues (Some values are added such as hmac of the parameteds, x-api-key, etc).</li>
  <li>The server receives the data</li>
  <li>The serveur converts the data to a json and creates the hmac from it</li>
  <li>The server compares the hmac sent and the hmac created</li>
  </ul>
  
  <p>Here is where my problem is. Everything works fine if I send datawithout accents. But if there are, the Zend_Json::encode($params) returns a json encoded in UTF8 so the hmac created is not the same as the one sent.</p>
  
  <p>So, I am wondering (as for some mysterious reason utf8_decode($json) does not work, should I find a way to compare the utf8 decoded json hmac of should I as the C# client to send all the parameters encoded in utf8 ?</p>