I don’t share this fact often, but SugarCRM fields can change types if you do it from the database. Assuming there are no vardefs specifying otherwise, here’s how I converted a set of dropdown (enum) fields to open-text (varchar) fields…
Caution, though! You can lose data if your change data types or shorten a field in a live database. Use your head. There’s a reason the SugarCRM Studio doesn’t do this for you.
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This is even simpler if you dont use Studio to create custom fields. The metadata is available for you in the custom/Extension/modules//Ext/Vardefs directory. No need to be writing SQL, and a repair and rebuild will apply the changes. Of course Mathew’s caveat about cropping data still applies