XF 1.5 Altering DB fields

[CvP]

What are the potential pitfalls for queries that change varchar to text for
1. Normal operation (creating polls etc).
2. During upgrade (esp to XF2)

For example:

ALTER TABLE `xf_poll`
CHANGE `question` `question` text COLLATE 'utf8_general_ci' NOT NULL AFTER `content_id`;

 

[CvP]

bump.

 

[Mike]

It's not really something we could recommend nor really be prepared to comment on a formal analysis. It may work without issue, though it may require further changes. We wouldn't generally automatically change a data type back during upgrades, but if we needed to change the column in question, your change may create issues and incompatibilities with this.

 

[CvP]

Thanks @Mike for your comment.

I'm not expecting a formal analysis. Just opinions based on experience.

I needed to change these to keep data during an import as previous platform allowed longer data.

Hopefully XF2 will not use varchar(100) for a lot of fields. Sometimes 100 chars are not enough