diff --git a/wise-webapp/src/main/webapp/WEB-INF/app.properties b/wise-webapp/src/main/webapp/WEB-INF/app.properties
index 1a7d7909..8fd1c8f9 100755
--- a/wise-webapp/src/main/webapp/WEB-INF/app.properties
+++ b/wise-webapp/src/main/webapp/WEB-INF/app.properties
@@ -4,7 +4,7 @@
 ##################################################################################
 
 # MySQL 5.X configuration properties
-#database.url=jdbc:mysql://localhost/wisemapping
+#database.url=jdbc:mysql://localhost/wisemapping?useUnicode=yes&characterEncoding=UTF-8
 #database.driver=com.mysql.jdbc.Driver
 #database.hibernate.dialect=org.hibernate.dialect.MySQL5Dialect
 #database.username=wisemapping