Fix decoding non utf-8 characters.

CHANGELOG.md

@@ -4,13 +4,13 @@ Changelog for RouterOS-api
 ## 0.19.1 (unreleased)
 ----------------------
 
-- Nothing changed yet.
+- Fix decoding non utf-8 characters. Allow setting fallback encoding.
 
 
 ## 0.19.0 (2025-03-06)
 ----------------------
 
-- Add support for `!empty` reply word ([#103](https://github.com/socialwifi/RouterOS-api/pull/103))
+- Add support for `!empty` reply word ([#103](https://github.com/socialwifi/RouterOS-api/pull/103)).
 
 
 ## 0.18.1 (2024-05-28)

README.md

@@ -19,9 +19,10 @@ Python API to RouterBoard devices produced by [MikroTik](https://mikrotik.com/)
 
 import routeros_api
 
-connection = routeros_api.RouterOsApiPool('IP', username='admin', password='')
+connection = routeros_api.RouterOsApiPool('IP', username='admin', password='', plaintext_login=True)
 api = connection.get_api()
 ```
+Use `plaintext_login=True` option when connecting to RouterOS version 6.43 and newer.
 
 #### Connect Options
 
@@ -31,6 +32,7 @@ routeros_api.RouterOsApiPool(
     username='admin',
     password='',
     port=8728,
+    plaintext_login=True,
     use_ssl=False,
     ssl_verify=True,
     ssl_verify_hostname=True,
@@ -90,6 +92,31 @@ It is highly recommended only to use this option with SSL enabled.
 routeros_api.RouterOsApiPool(host, username='admin', password='', plaintext_login=True)
 ```
 
+#### Handling non UTF-8 characters
+
+The API does not assume any particular encoding, so non utf-8 characters will
+not be shown correctly.
+A default encoding can be specified if needed. For some cases the `latin-1` 
+encoding will be the best one to use, for others - `windows-1250` will work 
+better. 
+Ref. https://forum.mikrotik.com/viewtopic.php?t=106053#p528460
+
+It is possible to use specific encoding by defining custom default structure 
+like this:
+
+```python
+import collections
+import routeros_api
+from routeros_api.api_structure import StringField
+
+connection = routeros_api.RouterOsApiPool('ip', username='admin', password='password', plaintext_login=True)
+api = connection.get_api()
+# This part here is important:
+default_structure = collections.defaultdict(lambda: StringField(encoding='windows-1250'))
+api.get_resource('/system/identity', structure=default_structure).get()
+```
+
+
 ### Execute Commands
 
 Call this with a resource and parameters as name/value pairs.

routeros_api/api.py

@@ -103,7 +103,8 @@ def login(self, login, password, plaintext_login):
                 'login', {'name': login.encode(), 'response': hashed})
 
     def get_resource(self, path, structure=None):
-        structure = structure or api_structure.default_structure
+        if structure is None:
+            structure = api_structure.default_structure
         return resource.RouterOsResource(self.communicator, path, structure)
 
     def get_binary_resource(self, path):

routeros_api/api_structure.py

@@ -24,11 +24,14 @@ def get_python_value(self, bytes):
 
 
 class StringField(Field):
+    def __init__(self, encoding='utf-8'):
+        self.encoding = encoding
+
     def get_mikrotik_value(self, string):
-        return string.encode()
+        return string.encode(encoding=self.encoding, errors='backslashreplace')
 
     def get_python_value(self, bytes):
-        return bytes.decode()
+        return bytes.decode(encoding=self.encoding, errors='backslashreplace')
 
 
 class BytesField(Field):

tests/test_resource.py

@@ -9,6 +9,7 @@
 from routeros_api import resource
 from routeros_api.api_communicator import base
 
+STRING_STRUCTURE = {'string': structure.StringField()}
 BYTES_STRUCTURE = {'bytes': structure.BytesField()}
 BOOLEAN_STRUCTURE = {'boolean': structure.BooleanField()}
 
@@ -32,6 +33,40 @@ def test_unknown_resource_set(self):
             '/unknown/', 'set', arguments={'x': b'y'}, queries={},
             additional_queries=())
 
+    def test_string_resource_get(self):
+        communicator = mock.Mock()
+        response = base.AsynchronousResponse([{'string': b's'}], command='')
+        communicator.call.return_value.get.return_value = response
+        some_resource = resource.RouterOsResource(communicator, '/string', STRING_STRUCTURE)
+        result = some_resource.get()
+        self.assertEqual(result, [{'string': 's'}])
+
+    def test_string_resource_get_non_utf8_characters(self):
+        communicator = mock.Mock()
+        response = base.AsynchronousResponse([{'string': b'test-\xb9\xe6\xbf-test'}], command='')
+        communicator.call.return_value.get.return_value = response
+        some_resource = resource.RouterOsResource(communicator, '/string', STRING_STRUCTURE)
+        result = some_resource.get()
+        self.assertEqual(result, [{'string': 'test-\\xb9\\xe6\\xbf-test'}])
+
+    def test_string_resource_get_windows_1250_characters(self):
+        string_structure = {'string': structure.StringField(encoding='windows-1250')}
+        communicator = mock.Mock()
+        response = base.AsynchronousResponse([{'string': b'test-\xb9\xe6\xbf\x8f-test'}], command='')
+        communicator.call.return_value.get.return_value = response
+        some_resource = resource.RouterOsResource(communicator, '/string', string_structure)
+        result = some_resource.get()
+        self.assertEqual(result, [{'string': 'test-ąćżŹ-test'}])
+
+    def test_string_resource_get_latin_1_characters(self):
+        string_structure = {'string': structure.StringField(encoding='latin-1')}
+        communicator = mock.Mock()
+        response = base.AsynchronousResponse([{'string': b'hap ac\xb2'}], command='')
+        communicator.call.return_value.get.return_value = response
+        some_resource = resource.RouterOsResource(communicator, '/string', string_structure)
+        result = some_resource.get()
+        self.assertEqual(result, [{'string': 'hap ac²'}])
+
     def test_bytes_resource_get(self):
         communicator = mock.Mock()
         response = base.AsynchronousResponse([{'bytes': b'y'}], command='')