Changes to eck.schema.yml trigger field changes

I've managed to reproduce the issue. Let's see if we can fix it.

This issue is actually introduced in #2825144: Refactor EckEntity.php instead of #2797775: Simplify eck.schema.yml.

Attached patch adds an update path. Please test this thoroughly on a backed-up database as I've only tested it on a single entity type.

The patch hasn't worked for my case.
It fails on applying updates in eck_update_8005()

$manager = \Drupal::entityDefinitionUpdateManager();
$manager->applyUpdates();

with the error:

SQLSTATE[22004]: Null value not allowed: 1138 Invalid use of NULL value: ALTER TABLE {author} CHANGE `id` `id` INT unsigned NOT NULL;

It first deletes ID field (!) from both tables (which is indeed a wrong thing to do), and then adds it back with obviously NULL values, but since it can not be NULL according to its definition the operation fails.

Sharing my solution instead.

WARNING: this hook is mysql-specific!

/**
 * Upgrades ECK tables (ID columns should be of unsinged int type) and installs new definitions from code.
 */
function HOOK_update_NNN() {
  $connection = Drupal::database();
  $entity_definition_update_manager = Drupal::service('entity.definition_update_manager');
  $entity_types = Drupal::entityTypeManager()->getDefinitions();
  $eck_entity_types = Drupal::entityTypeManager()->getStorage('eck_entity_type')->loadMultiple();

  /** @var \Drupal\Core\Entity\ContentEntityType $entity_type */
  foreach (array_intersect_key($entity_types, $eck_entity_types) as $entity_type) {
    // Update database tables
    $connection->query('ALTER TABLE {' . $entity_type->getBaseTable() . '} MODIFY id int(10) unsigned NOT NULL AUTO_INCREMENT');
    $connection->query('ALTER TABLE {' . $entity_type->getDataTable() . '} MODIFY id int(10) unsigned NOT NULL');
    // Install new definitions from code
    $entity_definition_update_manager->installEntityType($entity_type);
  }
}

So I've taken the suggestion from #5 and adjusted it to use Drupal's database abstraction layer. This is a far cleaner solution! please test so we can quickly commit and roll an alpha3

Thank you, it looks much better now! I've never been good with Drupal Schema :^)

Can't test it though - have no old database by hand, but I hope other uses might check it out soon.

Worked for me!

Worked for me too, many thanks!

Thanks for the feedback guys. I'll commit this and roll a new alpha asap.

#6 works

Committed and pushed to 8.x-1.x, thanks!

Are there any solutions for a postgres database, which don't have unsigned int types?

This issue has left me in eck 1.0-alpha 1 for far too long and I think this might hold me back from updating into 8.8 from 8.7.12

Any help appreciated.