diff --git a/app/helpers/application_helper.rb b/app/helpers/application_helper.rb
index 4706708304c..ed065bc4155 100644
--- a/app/helpers/application_helper.rb
+++ b/app/helpers/application_helper.rb
@@ -1,5 +1,6 @@
 require 'digest/md5'
 module ApplicationHelper
+  include Utils::CharEncode
 
   def gravatar_icon(user_email)
     gravatar_host = request.ssl? ? "https://secure.gravatar.com" :  "http://www.gravatar.com"
diff --git a/app/helpers/commits_helper.rb b/app/helpers/commits_helper.rb
index ae7826712a5..98ec9936f11 100644
--- a/app/helpers/commits_helper.rb
+++ b/app/helpers/commits_helper.rb
@@ -1,6 +1,4 @@
 module CommitsHelper
-  include Utils::CharEncode
-
   def old_line_number(line, i)
 
   end
diff --git a/lib/utils.rb b/lib/utils.rb
index 17c9dfe3dd2..2de14761444 100644
--- a/lib/utils.rb
+++ b/lib/utils.rb
@@ -18,13 +18,14 @@ module Utils
 
   module CharEncode
     def encode(string)
+      return '' unless string
       cd = CharDet.detect(string)
       if cd.confidence > 0.6
         string.force_encoding(cd.encoding)
       end
       string.encode("utf-8", :undef => :replace, :replace => "?", :invalid => :replace)
     rescue
-      "Invalid code encoding"
+      "Invalid Encoding"
     end
   end