Default value for TextField

[Vitaly Yakubenko]

Hi! I start testing Django 1.7beta1. I use MySQL database.
I add new TextField into my model like that:

class Article(models.Model):
    title = models.CharField(max_length=200)
    pub_date = models.DateField()
    text = models.TextField()
    text2 = models.TextField() #new TextField

When I type "python manage.py makemigrations" I am asked to enter default value.
But BLOB/TEXT columns can't have a default value and if i will type something like 'blabla' then after command "python manage.py migrate" i will see error. I think it is bug :)

[loic84]

Hi @Nevsky, default is actually handled at the Python level, not added to the SQL, so that shouldn't be an issue.

I can reproduce that adding a TextField() triggers the questioner which is probably confusing, I wonder if we can't just use '' as default automatically when default=NOT_PROVIDED and empty_strings_allowed=True. Accepting the ticket on this basis.

Regarding the error with 'blabla', did you actually type the quotes? That prompt interprets Python, so if you just type blabla it'll throw an error because it can't find a variable named "blabla".

[Vitaly Yakubenko]

Replying to loic84:

I can reproduce that adding a TextField() triggers the questioner which is probably confusing, I wonder if we can't just use as default automatically when default=NOT_PROVIDED and empty_strings_allowed=True. Accepting the ticket on this basis.

Yes I think correct is to use "None" as default in this instance.

Regarding the error with 'blabla', did you actually type the quotes? That prompt interprets Python, so if you just type blabla it'll throw an error because it can't find a variable named "blabla".

Yes, I type the quotes and migration successfully making. I confused commands "migrate" and "magemigrations" in ticked description. I get error when I trying to apply created migration because it contains default value for field that can't have default value in MySQL database :)

[Tim Graham]

Loic, I'm not sure using '' as an automatic default is better than the current situation. Why not give the user the option of entering something else besides that (especially if blank=False)?

[loic84]

Fixed the name of the commands in the ticket description.

I originally assumed this was an issue before the migrate step, but it's indeed an SQL issue due to one-off defaults, Django uses db defaults for these.

The fix for MySQL is to not provide a default for BLOB/TEXT in the SchemaEditor. Although we'll now need to propagate the default value manually.