Number of characters of Short Descriptions addon

[DML73]

In the Short Descriptions mod here:

http://www.zen-cart.com/index.php?ma...roducts_id=271

the SQL patch instructs to add the following lines to the database:


-----
INSERT INTO configuration (configuration_title, configuration_key, configuration_value, configuration_description, configuration_group_id, sort_order, last_modified, date_added, use_function, set_function) VALUES ('Display Product Short Descriptions', 'PRODUCT_LIST_SHORT_DESC', '3', 'Set to 0 to disable, set to 1-99 to enable.', 8, 11, now(), now(), NULL, NULL);

ALTER TABLE products_description ADD products_short_desc VARCHAR( 255 ) DEFAULT NULL AFTER products_description;
ALTER TABLE categories_description ADD categories_description_sub TEXT NOT NULL;

INSERT INTO configuration (configuration_title, configuration_key, configuration_value, configuration_description, configuration_group_id, sort_order, last_modified, date_added, use_function, set_function) VALUES ('Product Info - Display Product Short Descriptions', 'PRODUCT_INFO_SHORT_DESC', '1', 'Show Product''s short Description<br />0= off<br />1= on', 18, 30, now(), now(), NULL, 'zen_cfg_select_drop_down(array(array(''id''=>''0'', ''text''=>''Off''), array(''id''=>''1'', ''text''=>''On'')),');
----



So now my questions is, how can I change the number of characters from 255 to for example 30000? I guess I need to reload the line:


---
ALTER TABLE products_description ADD products_short_desc VARCHAR( 255 ) DEFAULT NULL AFTER products_description;
ALTER TABLE categories_description ADD categories_description_sub TEXT NOT NULL;
---


but can I simply change it to:


---
ALTER TABLE products_description ADD products_short_desc VARCHAR( 30000 ) DEFAULT NULL AFTER products_description;
ALTER TABLE categories_description ADD categories_description_sub TEXT NOT NULL;
---


and submit it via Admin -> Tools -> Install SQL Patches ?

[DrByte]

Um, last time I checked, "30,000" characters was NOT a "short description".


If you insist it is, you'll have to change VARCHAR(255) to TEXT

[DML73]

Hehe yes you are probably right, 30000 characters is not a short text.

I changed:

ALTER TABLE products_description ADD products_short_desc VARCHAR( 255 ) DEFAULT NULL AFTER products_description;

to


ALTER TABLE products_description ADD products_short_desc TEXT DEFAULT NULL AFTER products_description;

and used the SQL Query Executor to send it to the database, but got the error:

ERROR: Cannot ADD column products_short_desc because it already exists


Is there a way to replace or update the current statement without deleting the existing characters I already have in the database (I already have a lot of less than 255 character descriptions that I would like to avoid deleting)?
Could I use the REPLACE or UPDATE statement?

My SQL knowledge is pretty bad so any help is much appreciated.

[DrByte]

change ADD to CHANGE COLUMN and repeat the column name.

Or, within phpMyAdmin just edit the table structure and change the column type directly.

[DML73]

Thanks a lot! I changed the values in phpMyAdmin and now all of my 30000 character "short" description shows up.