I have a working app using web2py `(1, 99, 7, datetime.datetime(2012, 3, 4, 22, 12, 8), 'stable'); Python 2.5.4: C:\Program Files (x86)\web2py\web2py_no_console.exe`) and MySQL 5.5. If I change one field to add `unique=True` the web2py migration fails with this error: `"<type 'exceptions.KeyError'> 'institution_name'"` where institution_name is the name of the field in question.
I've recreated the problem using a single-table application in web2py using MySQL. Here's the model code: To start off (field not defined as unique): ... (usual model/db.py boilerplate) db = DAL('mysql://w2ptest:abcde...@mysql5.server.com:3307/abc_web2py') ... db.define_table('Institution', Field('Institution_name', 'string', length=60, required=True), format='%(Institution_name)s') I go to the appadmin page and everything looks fine. Then, making Institution_name unique: db.define_table('Institution', Field('Institution_name', 'string', length=60, required=True, unique=True), format='%(Institution_name)s') I then refresh the appadmin page and get a ticket with the error. The error line in the traceback is the last line of the modified statement above. And, to make things worse, I can go in and undo the `unique=True`, but web2py doesn't respond if I refresh the appadmin page...or any page served by that web server, even in other applications! The cpu is <b>not</b> pinned while in this state. I have to recreate the app and database to clear the problem. (Well, I think I have to go that far. Just restarting web2py doesn't clear it in the full case, but does clear it in my little one-table test case.) I try to stop the server (web2py_no_console.exe), but it fails to respond. Instead of the `unique=True` I can `db.executesql('ALTER TABLE abc_web2py.Institution ADD UNIQUE INDEX UX_Iname (Institution_name) ;');` but I'd rather not, particularly as then I have to `try` that statement because MySQL has no `...IF NOT EXIST...` capability for index creation. Also, if I start off the model with `unique=True` in the first place, everything is fine, and MySQL even shows the unique index as created.