Symptoms

1. When you're upgrading a JIRA application, a data truncation error may be encountered.
2. After configuring a User Directory, synchronization fails with truncation errors.
3. When adding a group to a Notification, this error will occur.

The following appears in the atlassian-jira.log:

...
Caused by: com.atlassian.crowd.embedded.ofbiz.db.DataAccessException: org.ofbiz.core.entity.GenericEntityException: while inserting: [GenericEntity:DirectoryAttribute][directoryId,10100][name,ldap.user.filter][value,(&(objectclass=unicornRider)(!(ou:dn:=Guardians of The Globe))(|(memberof=cn=Lightning Strike Thunderdome,ou=Groups,ou=The Avengers)(memberof=cn=jiradmins,ou=Groups,ou=The Avengers)(memberof=cn=strikeforceone,ou=Groups,ou=The Avengers)(memberof=cn=UAT,ou=Groups,ou=The Avengers)(memberof=cn=myspace,ou=Groups,ou=The Avengers))] (SQL Exception while executing the following:INSERT INTO cwd_directory_attribute (directory_id, attribute_name, attribute_value) VALUES (?, ?, ?) (Data truncation: Data too long for column 'attribute_value' at row 1))
...

Cause

Most description columns in JIRA applications database have a maximum column width of 255 characters. For example, cwd_group.description or cwd_directory_attribute.attribute_value. Attempting to add a value greater than that column width will result in truncation errors. There are several bugs that have been raised for this behaviour within JIRA applications:

• JRA-13329 - Getting issue details... STATUS
• JRA-19990 - Getting issue details... STATUS
• JRA-24526 - Getting issue details... STATUS
• JRASERVER-36979 - Getting issue details... STATUS

And an Improvement request has been raised to add this restriction to the GUI:  JRA-28805 - Getting issue details... STATUS

Workaround

The columns within the database could be altered with the following SQL. This may require changes depending on your DBMS.

alter table cwd_group modify description varchar (400);
alter table cwd_group modify lower_description varchar (400);
alter table cwd_directory_attribute modify attribute_value varchar (400);

If you're using PostgreSQL, it will be:

alter table cwd_group alter column description type varchar (400);
alter table cwd_group alter column lower_description type varchar (400);
alter table cwd_directory_attribute alter column attribute_value type varchar (400);

If you're using MS SQL, it will be:

alter table cwd_group alter column description type varchar (400);
alter table cwd_group alter column lower_description type varchar (400);
alter table cwd_directory_attribute alter column attribute_value type varchar (400);

It is indeed possible that the number "(400)" may not be large enough for some instances. Adjust the number as necessary if the error occurs again even with the initial increase.

You can quickly check the changes by running the following SQL:

select column_name, data_type, character_maximum_length from information_schema.columns where table_name = 'myTable'

alter table cwd_group alter column lower_description nvarchar (400);

alter table cwd_group alter column description nvarchar (400);

alter table cwd_directory_attribute alter column attribute_value nvarchar (400);