&gt; <i>the default MySQL datastore quietly drops strings longer than the field [...] I don&#x27;t know if that&#x27;s still true. If it is, then I&#x27;m glad I no longer have to deal with MySQL.</i><p>That&#x27;s still true, as I recall. To avoid this nonsense, you need to change the sql_mode - either globally in the server config, or only within your session by issuing an SQL query.<p>Documentation: <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;dev.mysql.com&#x2F;doc&#x2F;refman&#x2F;5.6&#x2F;en&#x2F;sql-mode.html#sqlmode_traditional" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;dev.mysql.com&#x2F;doc&#x2F;refman&#x2F;5.6&#x2F;en&#x2F;sql-mode.html#sqlmod...</a>