protected function _getDataType($key) {
        $type= 'text';
        $actualKey = $this->getField($key, true);
        if ($actualKey !== false && isset($this->_fieldMeta[$actualKey]['dbtype'])) {
            $type= strtolower($this->_fieldMeta[$actualKey]['dbtype']);
        } elseif ($this->xpdo->getDebug() === true) {
            $this->xpdo->log(xPDO::LOG_LEVEL_DEBUG, "xPDOObject::_getDataType() -- No data type specified for field ({$key}), using `text`.");
        }
        return $type;
    }