Mechanize users - Jan 2012 - dealing with Encoding::UndefinedConversionError: "\xA2" from ASCII-8BIT to UTF-8

I''m 99% certain that this is what''s being discussed in

https://github.com/tenderlove/mechanize/issues/168

But I''m not sure what the remedy is.  My production app is running on
Heroku, so I need a fix that I can push there.  Can someone post
instructions that this neophyte can follow?  (I gather I''m supposed to
fork
and add the current master version from github to my config, but I need
simple little steps for muddy little feet.)  Thanks...

I''m running Rails 3.2, Mechanize 2.1.  Mechanize is failing with

        Encoding::UndefinedConversionError: "\xA2" from ASCII-8BIT to
UTF-8

with this (partial) stack trace:

from
/app/vendor/bundle/ruby/1.9.1/gems/mechanize-2.1/lib/mechanize/http/agent.rb:807:in
`block in response_read''
from /usr/local/lib/ruby/1.9.1/net/protocol.rb:387:in `call_block''
from /usr/local/lib/ruby/1.9.1/net/protocol.rb:378:in `<<''
from /usr/local/lib/ruby/1.9.1/net/protocol.rb:88:in `read''
from /usr/local/lib/ruby/1.9.1/net/http.rb:2445:in `read_chunked''
from /usr/local/lib/ruby/1.9.1/net/http.rb:2419:in `read_body_0''
from /usr/local/lib/ruby/1.9.1/net/http.rb:2379:in `read_body''
from
/app/vendor/bundle/ruby/1.9.1/gems/mechanize-2.1/lib/mechanize/http/agent.rb:795:in
`response_read''
from
/app/vendor/bundle/ruby/1.9.1/gems/mechanize-2.1/lib/mechanize/http/agent.rb:267:in
`block in fetch''
from /usr/local/lib/ruby/1.9.1/net/http.rb:1194:in `block in
transport_request''
from /usr/local/lib/ruby/1.9.1/net/http.rb:2342:in `reading_body''
from /usr/local/lib/ruby/1.9.1/net/http.rb:1193:in `transport_request''
from /usr/local/lib/ruby/1.9.1/net/http.rb:1177:in `request''
from
/app/vendor/bundle/ruby/1.9.1/gems/net-http-persistent-2.3.3/lib/net/http/persistent.rb:621:in
`request''
from
/app/vendor/bundle/ruby/1.9.1/gems/mechanize-2.1/lib/mechanize/http/agent.rb:264:in
`fetch''
from
/app/vendor/bundle/ruby/1.9.1/gems/mechanize-2.1/lib/mechanize.rb:319:in
`get''
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Okay, solved it myself (and feeling ever so slightly chuffed about it
all!).  I noticed that one of the comments in

   https://github.com/tenderlove/mechanize/issues/168

from @zzak said:

   "Using master fixed this for me too, I just
forked<https://github.com/zzak/mechanize> and
added a gemspec using
hoe-gemspec<https://github.com/flavorjones/hoe-gemspec> so
that I could use it with bundler in my project."

So I changed the line in my Gemspec from:

    # gem ''mechanize''

to

    gem ''mechanize'', :git =>
''git://github.com/zzak/mechanize.git''

... and it fixed the problem.  Thank you, Mr. Scott!!  (Now I have to track
down the ''undefined methods `flush` for nil:NilClass problems, but I
see
that''s already reported as well!)
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On Jan 27, 2012, at 12:41 PM, Robert Poor wrote:
> I''m 99% certain that this is what''s being discussed in 
> 
> 	https://github.com/tenderlove/mechanize/issues/168
> 
> But I''m not sure what the remedy is.  My production app is running
on Heroku, so I need a fix that I can push there.  Can someone post instructions
that this neophyte can follow?  (I gather I''m supposed to fork and add
the current master version from github to my config, but I need simple little
steps for muddy little feet.)
There''s several forks of mechanize that have the fix, you can use one
of them or downgrade to a previous version of mechanize.
>  Thanks...
> 
> I''m running Rails 3.2, Mechanize 2.1.  Mechanize is failing with 
> 
>         Encoding::UndefinedConversionError: "\xA2" from
ASCII-8BIT to UTF-8
I should have a release out be the end of next week that fixes this bug.