If it comes to mysql server itself I've got following charset variables set:

character_set_client             latin1

character_set_connection         latin1

character_set_database           latin1

character_set_filesystem         binary

character_set_results            latin1

character_set_server             latin1

character_set_system             utf8

character_sets_dir               /usr/share/mysql/charsets/

collation_connection             latin1_swedish_ci

collation_database               latin1_swedish_ci

collation_server                 latin1_swedish_ci

I've discovered in Openfire documentation following note connected with this issue:

"MySQL does not have proper Unicode support, which makes supporting data in non-Western languages difficult. However, the MySQL JDBC driver has a workaround which can be enabled by adding ?useUnicode=true&characterEncoding=UTF-8&characterSetResults=UTF-8 to the URL of the JDBC driver. You can edit the conf/openfire.xml file to add this value.

Note: If the mechanism you use to configure a JDBC URL is XML-based, you will need to use the XML character literal & to separate configuration parameters, as the ampersand is a reserved character for XML."

I've  added this entry to my openfire.xml (replacing "&" with "&") and changed character set in openfire's db to utf-8 but I still have problems with Polish fonts when trying to add new user using openfire interface. For example, when I'm trying to add user with name "?o?", openfire puts to jiveUsers.name "?o?" instead and from openfire everything looks just fine until restart of it. After restart, in openfire administration interface, I see his name as "?o?".  When I add this user from mysql, in openfire interface i can see his name as "£o¶". Irritating, isin't it? My current openfire.xml database section is following:

  <database>

    <defaultProvider>

      <driver>com.mysql.jdbc.Driver</driver>

      <serverURL>jdbc:mysql://localhost:3306/openfire?useUnicode=true&chara cterEncoding=UTF-8&characterSetResults=UTF-8</serverURL>

      <username>openfire</username>

      <password>XXX</password>

      <minConnections>5</minConnections>

      <maxConnections>5000</maxConnections>

      <connectionTimeout>1.0</connectionTimeout>

    </defaultProvider>

  </database>

Well well well...

I've finally made milestone proggress.. I've started configuration of openfire and mysql from the begining. I've configured mysql server to utf-8,, set db encoding to utf8, added "?useUnicode=true&characterEncoding=UTF-8&characterSetResults=UTF-8" to "<serverURL>jdbc:mysql://localhost:3306/openfire</serverURL>" of

openfire.xml and changed ISO encoding to "encoding="UTF-8" in openfire/plugins/admin/webapp/WEB-INF/admin.tld and web.xml file. After openfire reastart I haven't noticed any proggress. Polish characters where still visible as "?" during connection using mysql client while in openfire admin interface everything was ok. However I've found somwhere on web similar topic connected with php/mysql encoding problems in which there was suggestion to write "set names utf8" in mysql client. After that, everything seems to be ok and Polish characters are visible correctly from mysql client and admin interface.