ZF2 Doctrine2 MySql charset error - mysql

Question

I've setup a MySQL DB with utf8_unicode_ci collation, and all the tables and columns on it have de same collation.
My Doctrine config have SET NAMES utf8 as a connection option and my html files use utf8 charset.
The text saved on those tables contain accented characters (á,è,etc).
The problem is that when I save the content to the DB, it saves with strange characters, like when I try to save ISO in UTF8 table. (e.g.: Notícias)
The only workaround that i've found is to, utf8_decode before save, and utf8_encode before printing.
That means that, for some reason, something in between is messing up utf8 with iso.
What might be?
Thanks.
EDIT:
I've setup to encode before saving and decode before printing, and it prints correctly but in DB my chars change to:
XPTÓ -> XPTÓ
This makes searching in DB for "XPTÓ" impossible...

Answer 1

I would print bin2hex($string); at each step of the original workflow (i.e. without encode/decode steps).
Go through each of:
the raw $_POST data
the values you get after form validation
the values that get put in your bound Entity
the values you'd get from the db if you query it directly using PDO (get this from
$em->getConnection())
the values that get populated into your Entity on reload (can do this via $em->detach($entity); $entity = $em->find('Entity', $id);)
You'd be looking at the point at which the output changes, and focus your search there.
I would also double check:
On the db: SHOW CREATE TABLE 'table' shows CHARSET=utf8 for the whole table (and nothing different for the individual columns)
That the tool you use to see your database values (Navicat, phpMyAdmin) has got the correct encoding set.