---
title: "Important: Four job columns are nullable now"
manual: "Academic Jobs"
version: "main"
permalink: "https://docs.typo3.org/permalink/fgtclb/academic-jobs:important-1785882500@main"
source: "Changelog/2.4/Important-JobTextColumnsAreNullable.rst"
rendered: "2026-10-12T10:12:12+00:00"
---

# Important: Four job columns are nullable now {#important-1785882500}

## Description {#description}

Four columns of `tx_academicjobs_domain_model_job` were declared as
`TEXT` with a default value:

```sql
company_name text NOT NULL DEFAULT '',
sector text NOT NULL DEFAULT '',
required_degree text NOT NULL DEFAULT '',
contractual_relationship text NOT NULL DEFAULT '',
```

MySQL cannot store a literal default value on a `TEXT` column. TYPO3 v13
works around that by expressing the default in the `DEFAULT ('')` syntax
MySQL 8.0.13 introduced. TYPO3 v12 does not. There the columns were created
`NOT NULL` with no default at all, and every statement that did not name
them was rejected:

```text
Field 'company_name' doesn't have a default value
```

Imports and data sets are the reachable case. The frontend form and the
backend are not affected: the form persists a full record, and the
backend fills the columns from their `default` in TCA.

The columns keep their type, lose the default and accept `NULL`:

```sql
company_name text DEFAULT NULL,
sector text DEFAULT NULL,
required_degree text DEFAULT NULL,
contractual_relationship text DEFAULT NULL,
```

## Impact {#impact}

Job records can be written on TYPO3 v12 with MySQL without naming these
four columns.

Records written that way now store `NULL` where they previously
stored an empty string. Existing rows are not changed, so a column can
hold both. The domain model is unaffected, Extbase casts `NULL` to
an empty string for its `string` properties. Code reading the
columns directly should compare with `empty()` rather than with
`''`.

## Affected Installations {#affected-installations}

All installations of this extension. The database schema has to be
updated, either in **Admin Tools > Maintenance > Analyze Database
Structure** or with `vendor/bin/typo3 extension:setup`. The change only
relaxes the columns, so no data is converted and nothing can be lost.