# Maximal length of task descriptions

**URL:** <https://forum.flowable.org/t/maximal-length-of-task-descriptions/737>\
**Category:** Flowable Engine\
**Created:** [July 19, 2017, 7:41am UTC](https://forum.flowable.org/t/maximal-length-of-task-descriptions/737 "2017-07-19T07:41:47Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![janp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/a587f6/32.png) [@janp](https://forum.flowable.org/u/janp)\
**Post date:** [July 19, 2017, 7:41am UTC](https://forum.flowable.org/t/maximal-length-of-task-descriptions/737/1 "2017-07-19T07:41:47Z")

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Hello!

We are using version 5.22.0 and sometimes there are problems regarding task descriptions (tables ACT\_HI\_TASKINST, ACT\_RU\_TASK) that are too long to be persisted into the database after the containing expressions have been evaluated, e.g. \> 2000 characters in Oracle UTF-8 (java.sql.SQLIntegrityConstraintViolationException: ORA-01401: inserted value too large for column).

I know there was a similar issue previously regarding process variables. The used solution there was to store everything \< 2000 characters as text in the table and everything bigger as a byte array in a different field.

Is there currently a solution or workaround to support longer task descriptions (especially for Oracle databases)?

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**Author:** ![joram](https://yyz1.discourse-cdn.com/flex035/user_avatar/forum.flowable.org/joram/32/26_2.png) [@joram](https://forum.flowable.org/u/joram)\
**Post date:** [July 19, 2017, 7:47am UTC](https://forum.flowable.org/t/maximal-length-of-task-descriptions/737/2 "2017-07-19T07:47:43Z")

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If your database supports it (by default it indeed defaults to 2000 for Oracle), you can change the max length limit by setting the ‘maxLengthStringVariableType’ property on the engine configuration (see [https://github.com/flowable/flowable-engine/blob/flowable-5.23.0/modules/flowable-engine/src/main/java/org/activiti/engine/impl/cfg/ProcessEngineConfigurationImpl.java#L605](https://github.com/flowable/flowable-engine/blob/flowable-5.23.0/modules/flowable-engine/src/main/java/org/activiti/engine/impl/cfg/ProcessEngineConfigurationImpl.java#L605)).

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**Author:** ![martin.grofcik](https://yyz1.discourse-cdn.com/flex035/user_avatar/forum.flowable.org/martin.grofcik/32/71_2.png) [@martin.grofcik](https://forum.flowable.org/u/martin.grofcik)\
**Post date:** [July 19, 2017, 7:51am UTC](https://forum.flowable.org/t/maximal-length-of-task-descriptions/737/3 "2017-07-19T07:51:49Z")

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Hi,  
The default implementation task description length is limited.  
DESCRIPTION\_ varchar(4000),  
You have several possibilities to extend it. e.g:

1. Use variable to describe a task instead
2. Use description as a pointer to the real description value.
3. Implement your own mechanism to persist tasks (and description too)  
…

Regards  
Martin