Change formats of MySQL database variables?

[kleinhev]

Is it possible to modify the formats of varaibles in the MySQL database? For example to reformat variable "title" in table "idx_link" from varchar(100) to varchar(200) ? This is quickly done in phpMyAdmin but are there any negative impacts on IndexU and/or which scripts need to be modified?

[Bruceper]

Yes it is possible to change the values in mysql. But just as a note they are not called variables, variables only exist in PHP (or other programming language).

Nothing else needs to be modified that I know of.

[esm]

Is it possible to modify the formats of varaibles in the MySQL database? For example to reformat variable "title" in table "idx_link" from varchar(100) to varchar(200) ? This is quickly done in phpMyAdmin but are there any negative impacts on IndexU and/or which scripts need to be modified?

as per brucepr, they are called columns (and are grouped in rows of the table). Back in the old days, such things were referred to as fields of the record and records were stored in a file. Big advancement there.

In general, the only thing that I can think of is if a input form uses a "text" field with a maxlength attribute. "Textarea" fields don't have a limit unless you use something like javascript to limit the number of characters.

I don't recall any displayed pages that restrict the number of displayed characters but I really have looked at all of the html code in v5.4.

also, the template may be designed on the basis of only a certain number of characters. If you change the number of characters, it may "mess up" the look of the displayed page.

one last note. if you reinstall INDEXU, it will use the original field information unless you change the install code.

and you should check any future updates if you choose to upgrade to a later version. You would need to check the install code of the upgrade to see if any fields (columns) you have changed are changed in the upgrade. There may or may not be a problem.



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