I think I figured it out.
At one point "mysql_real_escape_string" is called. Unfortunately, I decided to be brave somewhere along the line and use mysqli as a database type instead of mysql. Since the function isn't compatible with the database type, it fails. That's my guess, anyway. Thing is, it shouldn't work properly *at all* if this is the case, so I'm not sure why I was thinking it was working when manually triggered.
In any event, if I change my database type back to "mysql", the bug doesn't occur.
Autom8 (and every other plugin, unfortunately) will need to be recoded to not use "mysql" specific functions, since:
Quote:
This extension is deprecated as of PHP 5.5.0, and will be removed in the future. Instead, the MySQLi or PDO_MySQL extension should be used. See also MySQL: choosing an API guide and related FAQ for more information. Alternatives to this function include:
mysqli_real_escape_string()
PDO::quote()
Either that, or perhaps there's a Cacti internal function?