diff --git a/library/smarty/libs/plugins/modifiercompiler.to_charset.php b/library/smarty/libs/plugins/modifiercompiler.to_charset.php
new file mode 100644
--- /dev/null
+++ b/library/smarty/libs/plugins/modifiercompiler.to_charset.php
@@ -0,0 +1,32 @@
+<?php
+/**
+ * Smarty plugin
+ *
+ * @package    Smarty
+ * @subpackage PluginsModifierCompiler
+ */
+
+/**
+ * Smarty to_charset modifier plugin
+ * Type:     modifier<br>
+ * Name:     to_charset<br>
+ * Purpose:  convert character encoding from internal encoding to $charset
+ *
+ * @author Rodney Rehm
+ *
+ * @param array $params parameters
+ *
+ * @return string with compiled code
+ */
+function smarty_modifiercompiler_to_charset($params) {
+    if (!Smarty::$_MBSTRING) {
+        // FIXME: (rodneyrehm) shouldn't this throw an error?
+        return $params[0];
+    }
+
+    if (!isset($params[1])) {
+        $params[1] = '"ISO-8859-1"';
+    }
+
+    return 'mb_convert_encoding(' . $params[0] . ', ' . $params[1] . ', "' . addslashes(Smarty::$_CHARSET) . '")';
+}