From 28288426d6db95be9cb065ade606fc7accfa6af3 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: Coleman Watts <coleman@civicrm.org>
Date: Mon, 17 Oct 2016 18:29:49 -0400
Subject: [PATCH 1/2] Check for required mbstring extension

---
 CRM/Utils/Check/Component/Env.php | 19 +++++++++++++++++++
 1 file changed, 19 insertions(+)

diff --git a/CRM/Utils/Check/Component/Env.php b/CRM/Utils/Check/Component/Env.php
index 2a370562eba0..f2b9bc977348 100644
--- a/CRM/Utils/Check/Component/Env.php
+++ b/CRM/Utils/Check/Component/Env.php
@@ -698,4 +698,23 @@ public function checkDbEngine() {
     return $messages;
   }
 
+  /**
+   * Check for required mbstring extension
+   * @return array
+   */
+  public function checkMbstring() {
+    $messages = array();
+
+    if (!function_exists('mb_substr')) {
+      $messages[] = new CRM_Utils_Check_Message(
+        __FUNCTION__,
+        ts('The required PHP Multibyte String extension is not enabled on your server. Ask your system administrator to install it.'),
+        ts('Missing mbstring Extension'),
+        \Psr\Log\LogLevel::ERROR,
+        'fa-server'
+      );
+    }
+    return $messages;
+  }
+
 }

From ade9995eeaa5ab7a9c9e2c5a333cdfb4f5403aea Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: Coleman Watts <coleman@civicrm.org>
Date: Mon, 17 Oct 2016 19:55:54 -0400
Subject: [PATCH 2/2] Downgrade mbstring to warning, make usage conditional

---
 CRM/Utils/Check/Component/Env.php   | 4 ++--
 templates/CRM/Dashlet/Page/Blog.tpl | 2 +-
 2 files changed, 3 insertions(+), 3 deletions(-)

diff --git a/CRM/Utils/Check/Component/Env.php b/CRM/Utils/Check/Component/Env.php
index f2b9bc977348..6a96017204c5 100644
--- a/CRM/Utils/Check/Component/Env.php
+++ b/CRM/Utils/Check/Component/Env.php
@@ -708,9 +708,9 @@ public function checkMbstring() {
     if (!function_exists('mb_substr')) {
       $messages[] = new CRM_Utils_Check_Message(
         __FUNCTION__,
-        ts('The required PHP Multibyte String extension is not enabled on your server. Ask your system administrator to install it.'),
+        ts('The PHP Multibyte String extension is needed for CiviCRM to correctly handle user input among other functionality. Ask your system administrator to install it.'),
         ts('Missing mbstring Extension'),
-        \Psr\Log\LogLevel::ERROR,
+        \Psr\Log\LogLevel::WARNING,
         'fa-server'
       );
     }
diff --git a/templates/CRM/Dashlet/Page/Blog.tpl b/templates/CRM/Dashlet/Page/Blog.tpl
index 6d4f8a93c8b6..eee9b94da56d 100644
--- a/templates/CRM/Dashlet/Page/Blog.tpl
+++ b/templates/CRM/Dashlet/Page/Blog.tpl
@@ -61,7 +61,7 @@
       <div class="crm-accordion-wrapper collapsed">
         <div class="crm-accordion-header">
           <span class="crm-news-feed-item-title">{$article.title}</span>
-          <span class="crm-news-feed-item-preview"> - {$article.description|strip_tags|ltrim|mb_substr:0:100}…</span>
+          <span class="crm-news-feed-item-preview"> - {if function_exists('mb_substr')}{$article.description|strip_tags|mb_substr:0:100}{else}{$article.description|strip_tags}{/if}</span>
         </div>
         <div class="crm-accordion-body">
           <div>{$article.description}</div>