Mar

Drupal 7: Converting a text field to a long text (aka textarea) field

Mar 20, 2015

Realize later on that text field you created needs to actually be a long text field? You’re not alone.

After doing some research, I found zero complete solutions. The ones I found leave problemattic remnants in the database, which can cause hard to diagnose issues such as restricted field length. See references.

Luckily for you, the drush script below will do a more complete conversion.

Thanks go out to the references though, for getting me started.

<?php

/**
 * Change a field from textfield to textarea
 * Unlike other guides online, this one actually corrects the blob values
 * Run this using drush: `drush scr <filepath>`
 */

$field_name = "field_test_text_field_2";

$rows = db_query("SELECT id,data FROM {field_config} WHERE field_name = '{$field_name}' ")->fetchAll(PDO::FETCH_OBJ);

foreach ($rows as $row ){
 $row->data=unserialize($row->data);
 unset($row->data['settings']['max_length']);
 $row->type="text_long";
 drupal_write_record("field_config", $row, "id");
}

// Update field_config_instance
$rows = db_query("SELECT id,data FROM {field_config_instance} WHERE field_name = '{$field_name}'")->fetchAll(PDO::FETCH_OBJ);

foreach ($rows as $row ){
 $row->data=unserialize($row->data);
 $row->data['widget']['type']='text_textarea';
 unset($row->data['widget']['settings']['size']);
 $row->data['widget']['settings']['rows']=3;
 drupal_write_record("field_config_instance", $row, "id");
}

// Update the field table
db_change_field("field_data_{$field_name}", "{$field_name}_value", "{$field_name}_value", array(
 "type" => "varchar",
 "length" => "20000",
));
db_change_field("field_revision_{$field_name}", "{$field_name}_value", "{$field_name}_value", array(
 "type" => "varchar",
 "length" => "20000",
));

// Clear caches.
field_cache_clear(TRUE);

<?php

/**

* Change a field from textfield to textarea

* Unlike other guides online, this one actually corrects the blob values

* Run this using drush: `drush scr <filepath>`

$field_name = "field_test_text_field_2";

$rows = db_query("SELECT id,data FROM {field_config} WHERE field_name = '{$field_name}' ")->fetchAll(PDO::FETCH_OBJ);

foreach ($rows as $row ){

$row->data=unserialize($row->data);

unset($row->data['settings']['max_length']);

$row->type="text_long";

drupal_write_record("field_config", $row, "id");

}

// Update field_config_instance

$rows = db_query("SELECT id,data FROM {field_config_instance} WHERE field_name = '{$field_name}'")->fetchAll(PDO::FETCH_OBJ);

foreach ($rows as $row ){

$row->data=unserialize($row->data);

$row->data['widget']['type']='text_textarea';

unset($row->data['widget']['settings']['size']);

$row->data['widget']['settings']['rows']=3;

drupal_write_record("field_config_instance", $row, "id");

}

// Update the field table

db_change_field("field_data_{$field_name}", "{$field_name}_value", "{$field_name}_value", array(

"type" => "varchar",

"length" => "20000",

));

db_change_field("field_revision_{$field_name}", "{$field_name}_value", "{$field_name}_value", array(

"type" => "varchar",

"length" => "20000",

));

// Clear caches.

field_cache_clear(TRUE);

References:

http://www.pixelite.co.nz/article/convert-existing-textfield-textarea-drupal-7/
http://www.up2technology.com/blog/converting-drupal-fields/

11 thoughts on “Drupal 7: Converting a text field to a long text (aka textarea) field”

Mike on February 24, 2016 at 5:27 pm said:

Thanks for this!!

I am not a developer. Can I really run this drush script safely?

I have a lot of data in a textfield and need to convert it to a textarea.

Thanks!

Reply ↓
- admin on February 24, 2016 at 6:00 pm said:
  
  Hey Mike! I can’t guaranty that this will work 100%, therefor I would recommend you have a developer ready in case it fails.
  
  Reply ↓
  - admin on February 24, 2016 at 6:01 pm said:
    
    Also, do back up your database first!
    
    Reply ↓
    - Mike on February 24, 2016 at 6:08 pm said:
      
      Will test it on a duplicated environment. However, I am a little afraid of long term effects or errors which might occur later. 🙁
      
      I know you can’t guaranty anything. 🙂 I am just afraid of data corruptions or stuff like that which cannot be fixed and appear sometime later. Can you think of anything like that?
      
      Reply ↓
      - admin on February 24, 2016 at 6:16 pm said:
        
        I totally understand your concerns, and they are valid. It is certainly possible that you may have a conflicting module installed, or that I missed updating a reference some where.
        
        What I can tell you is that this script worked for me and did not seem to have any negative side-affects.
        
        Good luck!
Mike on February 24, 2016 at 6:19 pm said:

Will try it on our test server and test everything thoroughly. Thanks again! Will let you know here how it went. 🙂

Reply ↓
- admin on February 24, 2016 at 6:20 pm said:
  
  Thanks for the feedback, Mike!
  
  Reply ↓
Eugen Kraft on May 23, 2016 at 8:37 pm said:

It seems that if you have the same field in multiple node types, the script is not working correctly and only adjusting the first instance. It would need at least a loop in the instance section.

Reply ↓
- admin on September 20, 2016 at 5:26 pm said:
  
  Hmm, that could be true.
  
  Reply ↓
Yoann on November 24, 2016 at 3:40 am said:

Hi, thanks for this script !
Has mentioned it works only for the first node.

I added two loop to solve the problem :

$field_name = “field_sous_titre”;

$rows = db_query(“SELECT id,data FROM {field_config} WHERE field_name = ‘{$field_name}’ “)->fetchAll(PDO::FETCH_OBJ);

foreach ($rows as $row ){
$row->data=unserialize($row->data);
unset($row->data[‘settings’][‘max_length’]);
$row->type=”text_long”;
drupal_write_record(“field_config”, $row, “id”);
}

$rows = db_query(“SELECT id,data FROM {field_config_instance} WHERE field_name = ‘{$field_name}'”)->fetchAll(PDO::FETCH_OBJ);

foreach ($rows as $row ){
$row->data=unserialize($row->data);
$row->data[‘widget’][‘type’]=’text_textarea’;
unset($row->data[‘widget’][‘settings’][‘size’]);
$row->data[‘widget’][‘settings’][‘rows’]=3;
drupal_write_record(“field_config_instance”, $row, “id”);
}

// Update the field table
db_change_field(“field_data_{$field_name}”, “{$field_name}_value”, “{$field_name}_value”, array(
“type” => “varchar”,
“length” => “20000”,
));
db_change_field(“field_revision_{$field_name}”, “{$field_name}_value”, “{$field_name}_value”, array(
“type” => “varchar”,
“length” => “20000”,
));

// Clear caches.
field_cache_clear(TRUE);

Reply ↓
- admin on November 25, 2016 at 3:39 pm said:
  
  Thanks so much for the contribution! I updated the post to include your suggestions.
  
  Reply ↓