@xtopher what do you mean when you say “image the json column”? It’s either or for the second question, as far as I know the code base hasn’t drifted apart enough to matter currently.
As far as I'm aware, Maria's json column type is compatible with mysql's json column type, and has been since mariadb 10.2.something
"better" is subjective.. at the end of the day the only real notable difference between Mysql and maria is maria is fully open source, community-driven, whereas mysql is owned and managed by oracle.
somehow the querying the database isn't working because i keep getting
Syntax error or access violation: 1064 You have an error in your SQL syntax; check the manual that corresponds to your MariaDB server version for the right syntax to use near 'meta->' $."price"
I tried changing the migration file to LONGTEXT but still not working