Setting MySQL to Use UTF-8 on MAMP (MySQL 5.5.9, or 5+)

I wanted to setup MySQL to use utf-8 on the MAMP installation on my Mac.

I tried the instructions from this article: http://cameronyule.com/2008/07/configuring-mysql-to-use-utf-8/

However, I kept getting error messages that are similar to this one

[ERROR] /Applications/MAMP/Library/bin/mysqld: unknown variable 'default-collation=utf8_general_ci'

I did some search and realized that several variables are deprecated.

Reference: http://dev.mysql.com/doc/refman/5.1/en/server-options.html

Therefore, I added the following lines into /Applications/MAMP/conf/my.cnf

[mysql]
character-set-server=utf8

[client]
character-set-server=utf8

[mysqld]

character-set-server=utf8
collation-server=utf8_general_ci
init-connect='SET NAMES utf8'

I restarted the server and mysql run successfully with relevant variables being set correctly.

In the "Variables" tab under phpMyAdmin interface (ex. http://localhost:8888/MAMP/?language=English)

character set client utf8
character set connection utf8
character set database  utf8
character set filesystem binary
character set results utf8
character set server utf8
character set system utf8

collation connection utf8_general_ci
collation database utf8_general_ci
collation server utf8_general_ci

Character set related variables set to utf-8.