Persisting variables that are long Strings throws Exception

[jmaru]

Hi all,

I am running the Activiti engine against H2 database with history level set to 'full'. When I set a variable with a value which is a large XML string, I get the following exception. First of all, is this just specific to H2 and will it go away if I move to PostGres/Oracle? If not, how can I store a String which has more than 4000 characters using variables in Activiti?

Thanks,
Jeegar


### Cause: org.h2.jdbc.JdbcSQLException: Value too long for column "TEXT_ VARCHAR(4000)": "STRINGDECODE('<Data xmlns=\""http://xml.odc.com/XMLSchema\"">\n  <Request>\n    <DARequestID>1348500422386… (6271)"; SQL statement:
insert into ACT_HI_DETAIL (ID_, TYPE_, PROC_INST_ID_, EXECUTION_ID_, ACT_INST_ID_, TASK_ID_, NAME_, REV_, VAR_TYPE_, TIME_, BYTEARRAY_ID_, DOUBLE_, LONG_ , TEXT_, TEXT2_)
    values (
      ?,
      'VariableUpdate',
      ?,

[ronald_van_kuij]

Create a bytearray from it…. That way it is stored in te bytearray table which does not have te limit of 4000 chars. The other solution is to change the table definition…

[adevore]

Are there any side effects of removing the limit of 4000? Preferably, I would rather not have a limit but I understand that removing the limit could affect things like indices. So is there anything internal that depends on the limit 4000 for the "text_" column in ACT_HI_DETAIL?

For more context we're using Postgres, which shouldn't make a difference, and getting the a similar error: "org.postgresql.util.PSQLException: ERROR: value too long for type character varying(4000)". After completing a task it tries to insert all our data into the "text_" column of ACT_HI_DETAIL.

[martin_grofcik]

Hi Anton,

LongString has changed during the last 3 years. Are you aware of these changes?
e.g. https://forums.activiti.org/content/insert-acthivarinst-causes-ora-01401-inserted-value-too-large-co...

Regards
Martin

[adevore]

I wasn't aware of that article but unless the fix introduced works with Postgres then I don't see how it would help. We're on version 5.19.0 of Activiti which I believe is higher than the version in that forum.

We haven't written any code to touch ACT_HI_DETAIL specifically, this is internal to Activiti in terms of how it tries to complete a User Task. We try to complete a task and Activiti attempts to store all the information from a form in the "text_" column in ACT_HI_DETAIL. I'm simply asking if there is a known reason for setting a limit to 4000 characters and what are the repercussions of removing that limit.

[martin_grofcik]

Hi Anton,

I am not sure now (it was a long time ago) :-), but oracle has limit for varchar2 column size (2000 or 4000 chars). That's why there is this limit.

Regards
Martin

[adevore]

Okay, but I'm using Postgres, not Oracle. So it sounds like there is no significant reason for the limit and no negative side effects or removing the limit.

Anton