# LBF Forms and Value Size **URL:** \ **Category:** Management and Administration\ **Created:** [April 17, 2011, 9:48pm UTC](https://community.open-emr.org/t/lbf-forms-and-value-size/1678 "2011-04-17T21:48:05Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![system](https://discourse-uploads-openemr.s3.dualstack.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/original/2X/b/bb9e4e8ae2ea7faac2e952fd9e38a3ce03aac403.png) [@system](https://community.open-emr.org/u/system)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2011, 9:48pm UTC](https://community.open-emr.org/t/lbf-forms-and-value-size/1678/1 "2011-04-17T21:48:05Z")
**[midder](https://sourceforge.net/u/midder/)** wrote on [Sunday, April 17, 2011](https://sourceforge.net/p/openemr/discussion/202505/thread/b186b88b/#db21): Hello It looks as though the ‘value’ field for the LBF forms is varchar 255? Is there a way to allow more than 255 characters? Other than changing the database field type? I have a client who wants to put much more data in that in a textarea field. Thanks ---
**Author:** ![system](https://discourse-uploads-openemr.s3.dualstack.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/original/2X/b/bb9e4e8ae2ea7faac2e952fd9e38a3ce03aac403.png) [@system](https://community.open-emr.org/u/system)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2011, 10:23pm UTC](https://community.open-emr.org/t/lbf-forms-and-value-size/1678/2 "2011-04-17T22:23:50Z")
**[sunsetsystems](https://sourceforge.net/u/sunsetsystems/)** wrote on [Sunday, April 17, 2011](https://sourceforge.net/p/openemr/discussion/202505/thread/b186b88b/#5dc1): There is a “textarea” field type already, type 3. Rod [www.sunsetsystems.com](http://www.sunsetsystems.com) ---
**Author:** ![system](https://discourse-uploads-openemr.s3.dualstack.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/original/2X/b/bb9e4e8ae2ea7faac2e952fd9e38a3ce03aac403.png) [@system](https://community.open-emr.org/u/system)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2011, 3:37pm UTC](https://community.open-emr.org/t/lbf-forms-and-value-size/1678/3 "2011-04-18T15:37:59Z")
**[midder](https://sourceforge.net/u/midder/)** wrote on [Monday, April 18, 2011](https://sourceforge.net/p/openemr/discussion/202505/thread/b186b88b/#6345): Apologies I guess I wasn’t clear. The field is indeed rendered as a text field. The problem is that the field in the database holding the value is varchar255, so the value gets truncated at 255 characters. Is there a way around this limitation? ---
**Author:** ![system](https://discourse-uploads-openemr.s3.dualstack.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/original/2X/b/bb9e4e8ae2ea7faac2e952fd9e38a3ce03aac403.png) [@system](https://community.open-emr.org/u/system)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2011, 3:38pm UTC](https://community.open-emr.org/t/lbf-forms-and-value-size/1678/4 "2011-04-18T15:38:24Z")
**[midder](https://sourceforge.net/u/midder/)** wrote on [Monday, April 18, 2011](https://sourceforge.net/p/openemr/discussion/202505/thread/b186b88b/#0ec1): By “text field” I mean textarea. ---
**Author:** ![system](https://discourse-uploads-openemr.s3.dualstack.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/original/2X/b/bb9e4e8ae2ea7faac2e952fd9e38a3ce03aac403.png) [@system](https://community.open-emr.org/u/system)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2011, 8:02pm UTC](https://community.open-emr.org/t/lbf-forms-and-value-size/1678/5 "2011-04-18T20:02:29Z")
**[yehster](https://sourceforge.net/u/yehster/)** wrote on [Monday, April 18, 2011](https://sourceforge.net/p/openemr/discussion/202505/thread/b186b88b/#e0ce): Just change the field yourself using MySQL workbench or the like. ALTER TABLE `openemr`.`lists` CHANGE COLUMN `title` `title` VARCHAR(1024) NULL DEFAULT NULL  ; I’m not even sure which column it is as I don’t use LBF. ---
**Author:** ![system](https://discourse-uploads-openemr.s3.dualstack.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/original/2X/b/bb9e4e8ae2ea7faac2e952fd9e38a3ce03aac403.png) [@system](https://community.open-emr.org/u/system)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2011, 4:35pm UTC](https://community.open-emr.org/t/lbf-forms-and-value-size/1678/6 "2011-04-19T16:35:31Z")
**[midder](https://sourceforge.net/u/midder/)** wrote on [Tuesday, April 19, 2011](https://sourceforge.net/p/openemr/discussion/202505/thread/b186b88b/#0d20): Right. I had considered that, but wanted to see if there was a better way to do this. The 255 character limit was done by design, I suppose? Is there a way around it? Thanks for your reply. ---
**Author:** ![system](https://discourse-uploads-openemr.s3.dualstack.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/original/2X/b/bb9e4e8ae2ea7faac2e952fd9e38a3ce03aac403.png) [@system](https://community.open-emr.org/u/system)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2011, 6:25pm UTC](https://community.open-emr.org/t/lbf-forms-and-value-size/1678/7 "2011-04-19T18:25:01Z")
**[sunsetsystems](https://sourceforge.net/u/sunsetsystems/)** wrote on [Tuesday, April 19, 2011](https://sourceforge.net/p/openemr/discussion/202505/thread/b186b88b/#471a): Yes 255 seems too small for a textarea, I agree something should be done about that. Rod [www.sunsetsystems.com](http://www.sunsetsystems.com) ---
**Author:** ![system](https://discourse-uploads-openemr.s3.dualstack.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/original/2X/b/bb9e4e8ae2ea7faac2e952fd9e38a3ce03aac403.png) [@system](https://community.open-emr.org/u/system)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2011, 9:27pm UTC](https://community.open-emr.org/t/lbf-forms-and-value-size/1678/8 "2011-04-19T21:27:03Z")
**[midder](https://sourceforge.net/u/midder/)** wrote on [Tuesday, April 19, 2011](https://sourceforge.net/p/openemr/discussion/202505/thread/b186b88b/#08e2): Do you have any suggestions Rod? Is there a better way to make custom forms? I’ve read about the XML form generator but haven’t implemented anything yet. I’ve done a little bit w some custom PHP but would like to avoid that, if possible. Is there one method of creating forms that would be better than another? Better supported? etc. Thanks again. ---
**Author:** ![system](https://discourse-uploads-openemr.s3.dualstack.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/original/2X/b/bb9e4e8ae2ea7faac2e952fd9e38a3ce03aac403.png) [@system](https://community.open-emr.org/u/system)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2011, 10:08pm UTC](https://community.open-emr.org/t/lbf-forms-and-value-size/1678/9 "2011-04-19T22:08:09Z")
**[sunsetsystems](https://sourceforge.net/u/sunsetsystems/)** wrote on [Tuesday, April 19, 2011](https://sourceforge.net/p/openemr/discussion/202505/thread/b186b88b/#1afd): Suggest you edit the lbf\_data table definition using phpmyadmin, and change the data type of the field\_value column from “varchar(255)” to “mediumtext”.  Of course be sure to make a backup first.  I expect that’s all you need to do. Rod [www.sunsetsystems.com](http://www.sunsetsystems.com) ---
**Author:** ![system](https://discourse-uploads-openemr.s3.dualstack.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/original/2X/b/bb9e4e8ae2ea7faac2e952fd9e38a3ce03aac403.png) [@system](https://community.open-emr.org/u/system)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2011, 4:03pm UTC](https://community.open-emr.org/t/lbf-forms-and-value-size/1678/10 "2011-04-21T16:03:10Z")
**[penguin8r](https://sourceforge.net/u/penguin8r/)** wrote on [Thursday, April 21, 2011](https://sourceforge.net/p/openemr/discussion/202505/thread/b186b88b/#6e8f): ^ Rod’s suggestion above should work fine.  I have had to edit the data types for many forms, replacing varchar with mediumtext or text as needed to make things work.  The varchar problem comes from a change, I think between MySQL version 4 & version 5, at one point varchar could be up to 65535 characters, then it was restricted to 255. ---
**Author:** ![system](https://discourse-uploads-openemr.s3.dualstack.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/original/2X/b/bb9e4e8ae2ea7faac2e952fd9e38a3ce03aac403.png) [@system](https://community.open-emr.org/u/system)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2011, 4:05pm UTC](https://community.open-emr.org/t/lbf-forms-and-value-size/1678/11 "2011-04-21T16:05:59Z")
**[midder](https://sourceforge.net/u/midder/)** wrote on [Thursday, April 21, 2011](https://sourceforge.net/p/openemr/discussion/202505/thread/b186b88b/#1b18): I was actually just typing a reply when your note came through. I did just that. I altered the column so that it is now mediumtext as opposed to varchar. My testing last night went without issue, so it appears to have worked and is what I need for this. Thank you for your suggestion, Rod, and everyone else for taking the time to reply.