How can UTF-8 encoding be properly implemented in a PHP forum to avoid issues with German umlauts?

When dealing with German umlauts in a PHP forum, it is important to ensure that UTF-8 encoding is properly implemented to avoid issues with character encoding. This can be achieved by setting the appropriate headers and meta tags to specify UTF-8 encoding. Additionally, using functions like utf8_encode() and utf8_decode() can help handle any encoding or decoding issues that may arise.

// Set UTF-8 encoding in PHP
header('Content-Type: text/html; charset=utf-8');
echo '<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8">';

// Convert string to UTF-8 encoding
$umlaut = 'ü';
$utf8_umlaut = utf8_encode($umlaut);
echo $utf8_umlaut;

// Decode UTF-8 string
$decoded_umlaut = utf8_decode($utf8_umlaut);
echo $decoded_umlaut;