laravel Seeding and Datatbase from Scratch

Database Migration and Database seeding is one of the most amazing feature of Laravel Framework. Database seeding is feature through which we insert the dummy record / data using Seed Class in the DB table for testing purpose. Seed Classes name can be anything but it is good to follow the standard practice for naming Convention, Example of Seed Classes is UserTableSeeder, UserSeeder etc.

All the Seeder Classes is stored in database / seeds Directory folder. By default DatabaseSeeder is defined in seeds Folder.

Whenever we download the laravel project Folder at that time by default PHP Faker Package is also get installed in the Project folder. Php Faker package help us to generate the Fake data for Database seeding.

Artisan command to create the Seeder Class for populating Data in the table.

php artisan make:seeder seederName

SeederName whatever it get created using Artisan Command will be stored in database / seeds Directory. By Default Seeder class contain only one method that is run().

Artisan Command to run the seed Class is below for your Reference.

php artisan db:seed

php artisan db:seed --class UserTableSeeder

php artisan db:seed artisan command will run the DatabaseSeeder Class by default, which can call other seed class. If you want to run some particular Seed Class to populate the Database table then we have to use php artisan db:seed --class seederName

DatabaseSeeder Class code is below what we get in the database/seeds directory while installing the project.

use Illuminate\Database\Seeder;

class DatabaseSeeder extends Seeder
{
    /**
     * Run the database seeds.
     *
     * @return void
     */
    public function run()   // By Default Artisan Command will Run This
    {
        // $this->call(UsersTableSeeder::class);
    }
}

How to Implement The Laravel Database Seeding?

Step 1:  Create Model with migration using Artisan Command. Below is the command to create Model with migration.

  php artisan make:model model-Name  -m (-m is for migration )

Now check your Migration folder inside Database Folder in your laravel project.

In the migration folder the migration file will be created and if you open that you will get default up() function and down() function for the table whatever it is. I have modified the post_masters table by adding First_name and Last_name. 

   public function up()
     {
        Schema::create('post_masters', function (Blueprint $table) {
            $table->increments('id');
            $table->string('First_name', 50);
            $table->string('Last_name', 50);
            $table->timestamps();
        });
     }

    /**
     * Reverse the migrations.
     *
     * @return void
     */
    public function down()
    {
        Schema::dropIfExists('post_masters');
    }

Method 1st to implement the Database Seeding in Laravel

Step 2: Now go to database / seeds directory and open the default DatabaseSeeder.php file which we get by default. Below is the code for your reference purpose. Start writing the code in the run() function.

use Illuminate\Database\Seeder;

class DatabaseSeeder extends Seeder
{
    /**
     * Run the database seeds.
     *
     * @return void
     */
    public function run() 
    {
        DB::table('post_masters')->insert([
            'First_name' => Str::random(10),
            'Last_name' => Str::random(10),
        ]);
    }
}

In the above code Str::random(10) will generate random strong which will  have the length 10 Character. Run the Artisan Command for Database table seeding, once it will run It will generate the random string that can be anything which will not have any sense. This Artisan Command will call the run() method by default.

php artisan db:seed

So now we will use PHP Faker package to generate some sensible data in below method.

Method 2nd to implement the Database Seeding in Laravel

In 2nd Method for each Migration Table we will create individual seeding class following the Naming convention using Artisan command and by using PHP Faker package for generating the data.

So Let's start with Example, create separate seeding Class for post_masters  table using Artisan Command. Below is the Command for your reference.

php artisan make:seeder PostMasterSeeder

Once you run the above Artisan command you will get the PostMasterSeeder.php file in database/seeds Directory. Below Code is the reference of  PostMasterSeeder.php. Now we will write the code for our Post_master table to create the fake Data for testing.

use Illuminate\Database\Seeder;
class PostMasterSeeder extends Seeder {     /**      * Run the database seeds.      *      * @return void      */     public function run()     {         //     } }

You can read more about the PHP Faker here Now Open the DatabaseSeeder.php file and call the PostMasterSeeder.php file for seeding.

use Illuminate\Database\Seeder; class DatabaseSeeder extends Seeder {     /**      * Run the database seeds.      *      * @return void      */     public function run()     {           $this->call(App\PostMasterSeeder::class, 50);
    } }

Now go to database / factories root folder there by default UserFactory.php will be there. We will create the PostMasterFactory using Artisan Command. Below is the Artisan command for your reference.

                                    php artisan make:model PostMasterFactory   

Above Artisan command will create the Factory for Post_master table. By Default it will give the code which is below for your reference. Above Command will create the Factory without model detail.

use Faker\Generator as Faker; $factory->define(Model::class, function (Faker $faker) {     return [             ]; });

                        php artisan make:factory PostMasterFactory --model=PostMaster

Above  Artisan command above will create the Factory with model which we can use for Database seeding for particular table.

use Faker\Generator as Faker; $factory->define(App\PostMaster::class, function (Faker $faker) {     return [         //     ]; });

Now add the code in the above PostMasterFactory.php file.

use Faker\Generator as Faker;

$factory->define(App\PostMaster::class, function (Faker $faker) {     return [         'First_name' => $faker->firstName,         'Last_name' => $faker->lastName,     ]; });

After doing all the previous Step run the Artisan Command to generate the record. Artisan command is below for your reference.

                                                        php artisan make:seed

Finally it will generate the sensible Fake data in Post_master table.