MySQL STRICT_TRANS_TABLES mode and truncated text values

I just upgraded Apache, PHP and MySQL to their current versions on my development system. After that a unit test of one of my PHP classes failed on inserting a row in a MySQL table. The test inserts text with a greater length than the maximum column length of a VARCHAR column.

This test fails because the new server runs with STRICT_TRANS_TABLES mode. It means that a inserted value must be equal to the stored value or the statement fails. Without the mode setting the inserted value is truncated to the column’s maximum length.

Building a barebones CMS

The article Building a Barebones Content Management System: An Introduction is the start of a tutorial that explains how to put a barebones CMS together with PHP and MySQL using three available APIs:

• yaapi: a programming interface that makes displaying articles on your webpage easy.
• patTemplate: a versatile templating engine that supports a wide range of features.
• patUser: a user management class that helps you with authentication, group and permission management, statistics and more.