Problem identified

In 2019 a "band aid" was put in by @alikon to prevent JSON data getting truncating when saving a module where the params data exceeded the 65535 limit.

#24635

I believe there have been multiple discussions in regards to increasing the field size in MySQL but the consensus is to keep it as it is for performance reasons.

We have a scenario where the data in "params" for a module exceeds the 65535 limit. We don't wish to save the data in the table but to save it as a file. To do this we run a routine within onExtensionBeforeSave However that routine will never run as the "check the data" routine happens before the "Trigger the before save event".

// Prepare the row for saving
        $this->prepareTable($table);

        // Check the data.
        if (!$table->check()) {
            $this->setError($table->getError());

            return false;
        }

        // Trigger the before save event.
        $result = Factory::getApplication()->triggerEvent($this->event_before_save, [$context, &$table, $isNew]);

        if (\in_array(false, $result, true)) {
            $this->setError($table->getError());

            return false;
        }

        // Store the data.
        if (!$table->store()) {
            $this->setError($table->getError());

            return false;
        }

Proposed solution

Logically I would have thought it should be Prepare, Trigger before save, Check the Data, Store. So I am proposing that the check and trigger change order.

// Prepare the row for saving
        $this->prepareTable($table);

        // Trigger the before save event.
        $result = Factory::getApplication()->triggerEvent($this->event_before_save, [$context, &$table, $isNew]);

        if (\in_array(false, $result, true)) {
            $this->setError($table->getError());

            return false;
        }

// Check the data.
        if (!$table->check()) {
            $this->setError($table->getError());

            return false;
        }


        // Store the data.
        if (!$table->store()) {
            $this->setError($table->getError());

            return false;
        }

Open questions

The above seems logically to me but I'm hoping a discussion would highlight any potential issues with this.