Database identifiers shortened in v5

In Strapi 5, database identifiers can't be longer than 55 characters.

This page is part of the breaking changes database and provides information about the breaking change and additional instructions to migrate from Strapi v4 to Strapi 5.

 Is this breaking change affecting plugins?Yes

 Is this breaking change automatically handled by a codemod?Yes

(This breaking change is actually handled by a data migration script that runs when your Strapi project is upgraded to Strapi 5.)

Breaking change description

In Strapi v4

Database identifiers could be longer than 55 characters, potentially causing issues with some databases.

In Strapi 5

Database identifiers can't be longer than 55 characters and will be shortened.

Migration

This section regroups useful notes and procedures about the introduced breaking change.

Notes

• A hashing key will be added when shortening database identifiers to avoid conflicts. It will consist in the first 6 characters of SHA-256. For example, my_very_very_very_very_very_very_very_too_long_identifier_unique will be shortened to my_very_very_very_very_very_very_very_very_a2dx3_uq in Strapi v5.

• Some suffixes will be used:

  Suffix	Short version
  component_type_index	cmpix
  component	cmp
  components	cmps
  entity_fk	etfk
  field_index	flix
  fk	fk
  id_column_index	idix
  index	idx
  inv_fk	ifk
  links	lnk
  morphs	mph
  order_fk	ofk
  order_index	oidx
  order_inv_fk	oifk
  order	ord
  primary	pk
  unique	uq

Manual procedure

Strapi should handle everything when starting the application in Strapi v5.

However, be aware that if you have hard-coded references to database tables or columns, you may need to manually update them.