Laravel 5.1 Unknown database type enum requested

Question

While running php artisan migrate, I got the following error

[Doctrine\DBAL\DBALException]
Unknown database type enum requested, Doctrine\DBAL\Platforms\MySqlPlatform may not support it.

How to resolve this issue.

Code:

public function up() {
    Schema::table('blogs', function (Blueprint $table) {
        $table->string('wordpress_id')->nullable();
        $table->string('google_blog_id')->nullable()->change();
    });
}

Answer 1

It is a known issue as stated in Laravel 5.1 documentation.

Note: Renaming columns in a table with a enum column is not currently supported.

It happens when you have a enum column in your database table. Whether you are trying to rename another column, or change another column to nullable, this bug will appear. It's an issue with Doctrine\DBAL.

An easy fix for this is to just add this constructor method in your database migration file.

public function __construct()
{
    DB::getDoctrineSchemaManager()->getDatabasePlatform()->registerDoctrineTypeMapping('enum', 'string');
}

This will map all the ENUM columns to VARCHAR(), and the column will accept any string.

This worked for me on Laravel 5.1 and Laravel 5.3. I hope this bug can be fixed soon.

Credit to @Gmatkowski's answer at https://stackoverflow.com/a/32860409/1193201

Answer 2

The official Laravel 5.1 documentation states:

Note: Renaming columns in a table with a enum column is not currently supported.

It doesn't matter if you're trying to change another column, if the table contains a enum anywhere it won't work. It's a Doctrine DBAL issue.

As a workaround you could either drop the column and add a new one (column data will be lost):

public function up()
{
    Schema::table('users', function(Blueprint $table)
    {
        $table->dropColumn('name');
    });

    Schema::table('users', function(Blueprint $table)
    {
        $table->text('username');
    });
}

or use a DB statement:

public function up()
{
    DB::statement('ALTER TABLE projects CHANGE slug url VARCHAR(200)');
}

public function down()
{
    DB::statement('ALTER TABLE projects CHANGE url slug VARCHAR(200)');
}

Source: https://github.com/laravel/framework/issues/1186

Answer 3

A real dirty solution, that gets the job done none the less would be to

update Doctrine/DBAL/Schema/MySqlSchemaManager.php 

by ading these lines just above line 113

$this->_platform->registerDoctrineTypeMapping('enum', 'string');
$type = $this->_platform->getDoctrineTypeMapping($dbType);

Beware that updating vendor files directly is not advisable because in the event the vonder chooses to update the plugin, you changes could be overwritten

Answer 4

I get rid of this problem by creating a new Migration Class and making my migrations extending from it. There are multiple ways to make more "standard" but this is just a very simple case which works perfectly for me.

use Doctrine\DBAL\Types\{StringType, Type};
use Illuminate\Database\Migrations\Migration;
use Illuminate\Support\Facades\{DB, Log};

/**
 * Class ExtendedMigration
 * Use it when the involved table(s) has enum type column(s)
 */
class ExtendedMigration extends Migration
{
    /**
     * ExtendedMigration constructor.
     * Handle Laravel Issue related with modifying tables with enum columns
     */
    public function __construct()
    {
        try {
            DB::getDoctrineSchemaManager()->getDatabasePlatform()->registerDoctrineTypeMapping('enum', 'string');
            Type::addType('enum', StringType::class);
        } catch (\Exception $exception) {
            Log::info($exception->getMessage());
        }
    }
}

Then as explained before just extend your migration from it

class SampleMigration extends ExtendedMigration
{
    public function up()
    {
        Schema::create('invitations', function (Blueprint $table) {
            ...
            $table->enum('status', ['sent', 'consumed', 'expired'])->default('sent');
            ...
        });
    }

    public function down()
    {
        Schema::dropIfExists('invitations');
    }
}