Steven you will also need to fix the other supported databases AND to alter the update sql scripts otherwise this wouldnt work on existing sites

Brian

I added postrgresql - I don't have access to azuresql - so you will need to have someone check that - but it looks like it should be fine.

mssql would look like this:

[attribs] nvarchar NOT NULL,

Additionally update sql-files are needed for all three databases in administrator/components/com_admin/sql/updates/

mysql:
ALTER TABLE #__content CHANGE attribs attribs TEXT NOT NULL;

postgresql:
ALTER TABLE "#__content" ALTER COLUMN "attribs" TYPE text;

mssql:
ALTER TABLE [#__content] ALTER COLUMN [attribs] nvarchar NOT NULL;

Can this be merged in? it has been some time. Both mysql and postgresql are part of this PR. I can't test MS SQL.

This is getting annoying not having this in and I have to continue modifying the database structure.

I will create a new PR for the updates (only for mysql and postgresql - again I can't test mssql)

After looking at the update sql scripts - what is the best format/naming scheme to perform the update?

Whatever the next version is planned to be plus the date you've made the change. So for now you can go with 3.4.4-2015-07-20.sql.

As far as the Microsoft drivers go, it doesn't look like they need a change. Using https://www.mssqltips.com/sqlservertutorial/2203/mysql-to-sql-server-data-type-comparisons/ as a source, it seems several of the MySQL field types (including varchar and text) map to SQL Server's nvarchar field and we're already using nvarchar(max) for the field definition.

@spignataro This can't be merged because it is incomplete nor does it have any tests.

@spignataro Thank you for your contribution.

The last comment here was on 4 November. Can you please follow-up on this issue? If not this will be closed within 4 weeks

Thanks for understanding!

Brian - I do not know how to make any tests for this as well as I have no way of testing the other databases other than the ones I have access to. What needs to be done to get this merged? I have to hack all the time to get this to work properly.

I'm going to close this issue for a few reasons:
1) It was a deliberate decision to use text rather than varchar (53e91f4)
2) I don't want to encourage people to use the attribs to store custom stuff. You can create custom database tables to do this. There's no reason to hack into com_content's attribs column.