Error saving form

I just tried to reinstall the plugin and it could not install. The error was:

WordPress database error: [Unknown character set: 'utf']
CREATE TABLE wp_rg_form ( id mediumint(8) unsigned not null auto_increment, title varchar(150) not null, date_created datetime not null, is_active tinyint(1) not null default 1, PRIMARY KEY (id) ) DEFAULT CHARACTER SET utf-8

WordPress database error: [Unknown character set: 'utf']
CREATE TABLE wp_rg_form_meta ( form_id mediumint(8) unsigned not null, display_meta longtext, entries_grid_meta longtext, PRIMARY KEY (form_id) ) DEFAULT CHARACTER SET utf-8

WordPress database error: [Table 'lidija_wrdp1.wp_rg_form_meta' doesn't exist]
SHOW INDEX FROM wp_rg_form_meta WHERE Key_name='form_id'

WordPress database error: [Unknown character set: 'utf']
CREATE TABLE wp_rg_form_view ( id bigint(20) unsigned not null auto_increment, form_id mediumint(8) unsigned not null, date_created datetime not null, ip char(15), count mediumint(8) unsigned not null default 1, PRIMARY KEY (id), KEY form_id (form_id) ) DEFAULT CHARACTER SET utf-8

WordPress database error: [Unknown character set: 'utf']
CREATE TABLE wp_rg_lead ( id int(10) unsigned not null auto_increment, form_id mediumint(8) unsigned not null, post_id bigint(20) unsigned, date_created datetime not null, is_starred tinyint(1) not null default 0, is_read tinyint(1) not null default 0, ip varchar(39) not null, source_url varchar(200) not null default '', user_agent varchar(250) not null default '', currency varchar(5), payment_status varchar(15), payment_date datetime, payment_amount decimal(19,2), transaction_id varchar(50), is_fulfilled tinyint(1), created_by bigint(20) unsigned, transaction_type tinyint(1), status varchar(20) not null default 'active', PRIMARY KEY (id), KEY form_id (form_id), KEY status (status) ) DEFAULT CHARACTER SET utf-8

WordPress database error: [Unknown character set: 'utf']
CREATE TABLE wp_rg_lead_notes ( id int(10) unsigned not null auto_increment, lead_id int(10) unsigned not null, user_name varchar(250), user_id bigint(20), date_created datetime not null, value longtext, PRIMARY KEY (id), KEY lead_id (lead_id), KEY lead_user_key (lead_id,user_id) ) DEFAULT CHARACTER SET utf-8

WordPress database error: [Unknown character set: 'utf']
CREATE TABLE wp_rg_lead_detail ( id bigint(20) unsigned not null auto_increment, lead_id int(10) unsigned not null, form_id mediumint(8) unsigned not null, field_number float not null, value varchar(200), PRIMARY KEY (id), KEY form_id (form_id), KEY lead_id (lead_id) ) DEFAULT CHARACTER SET utf-8

WordPress database error: [Unknown character set: 'utf']
CREATE TABLE wp_rg_lead_detail_long ( lead_detail_id bigint(20) unsigned not null, value longtext, PRIMARY KEY (lead_detail_id) ) DEFAULT CHARACTER SET utf-8

WordPress database error: [Table 'lidija_wrdp1.wp_rg_lead_detail_long' doesn't exist]
SHOW INDEX FROM wp_rg_lead_detail_long WHERE Key_name='lead_detail_key'

WordPress database error: [Unknown character set: 'utf']
CREATE TABLE wp_rg_lead_meta ( id bigint(20) unsigned not null auto_increment, lead_id bigint(20) unsigned not null, meta_key varchar(255), meta_value longtext, PRIMARY KEY (id), KEY meta_key (meta_key), KEY lead_id (lead_id) ) DEFAULT CHARACTER SET utf-8

WordPress database error: [Table 'lidija_wrdp1.wp_rg_lead_detail' doesn't exist]
select * from wp_rg_lead_detail where value= '!'

What is wrong?

No, it didn't work.

I have fixed all the tables in database and the database itself to have utf_general_ci collation. After uninstall and reinstall of Gravity forms, the installation went ok, with no errors, but still no luck with forms saving.
I have tried to disable every single plugin and then tried to save forms and always the same error.

I have commented out charset and collation in wp-config.php (as the solution I have found on some forums when you have charset problems - I need to have support for Croatian letters as the site is multilingual)

//define('DB_CHARSET', 'utf8');
//define('DB_COLLATE', '');

but still nothing. :(
This is so frustrating...

Yes, I could not save any form whatsoever. BUT, I have found both the problem and the solution. For the explanation's sake, let's call the problematic site - site#1

Since I have three more sites running on wordpress, I have installed Gravity forms on my another WP multilingual site (let's call it site#2) just to check what's going on. And there, it worked just fine: installed correctly and saved forms correctly.

Since the initial Gravity Forms installation problem (which I have c/p in my second post) said it had problems with creating tables (CREATE TABLE wp_rg_* errors) I guessed the problem lied there.

Then, after installing GF on site#2, I logged into the site#1 and site#2 cPanel, went to PhpMyAdmin and checked which new tables had the plugin created in my site#2 database. And they there were: wp_rg_* tables which still did not exist in my site#1 database (not even after several re-installs of the plugin). And the system threw error on creating those tables.

So I have selected above mentioned, newly-created tables from site#2 database, exported them and imported them back into site#1 database.

And now it works.

How I see this:
The problem with the Gravity Forms plugin was that it attempted to create database tables only after the first, clean install. After it failed, due to charset problems - it never tried again to create them (not even after I resolved the tables and database collation problem). Why?

You, as the developers, just have to figure out (and let me know, if that is not a problem) - is that a bug in the plugin or it does not try to re-create tables on any but the first (clean) install due to some SQL data integrity protection?
Why doesn't the plugin (after uninstall and on re-install) try to check if the tables exist in the database, and re-create them again if they are not there?

I just used common sense, analyzed DB errors I copy/pasted in my second post and luckily had another WP site to compare database to. But, if the plugin just checked for the tables on re-install, and just threw any warning or DB table error note - wouldn't that help to solve many 'Error saving form' problems like this one was in the first place? Is that possible to implement in the future?

Thank you for you answers. :)

No problem :)
I'm curious about their feedback so please post it here if that's not too much of a fuss :)

No problem. The issue is solved anyway, I'd just like to know the possible cause.

Thank you too!

Hi Alex, and thank you for the reply.

In couple of my numerous attempts to make the plugin work I also tried to uninstall it by Settings -> Uninstall option. If that built-in option really does work, meaning it forces the plugin to re-create the database tables afterwards, maybe I happened to use it before I solved the database collation issue so the tables didn't create because of that initial problem.
I really cannot remember at which point have I used Uninstall option in plugin (I just know it was two or three attempts), because I have been re-installing it at least 15 times through past 2 days.

Anyhow, I hope my feedback will help you in making this plugin even better, you have cleared some things to me now and thank you for taking time to reply.