Seeder and Model Factory in Laravel
- Tram Ho
Written by: Tran Cong Tu
Hi everybody. As you know, testing is a repetitive task in the application building process. That’s why we need a sample data set to serve that job. Instead of manually entering the manual, Laravel provided a Seeder to create data. In this article we will create a simple seeder and understand how it works.
What is a seeder?
Seeder is actually a class to create sample data for the database during application building process.
Steps to create a seeder
We go to the database / seeds / directory and we will see a file DatabaseSeeder.php , this is called the root seeder will be run when we add data, the original file content is as follows.
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 | <? php use Illuminate Database Seeder; class DatabaseSeeder extends Seeder { / ** * Seed the application's database. * * @return void * / public function run () { // } } |
As we can see, in the original seeder file, there is a run () function , and if we want to add data to the database we can write query statements in this function.
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 | <? php use Illuminate Database Seeder; class DatabaseSeeder extends Seeder { / ** * Seed the application's database. * * @return void * / public function run () { Schema :: disableForeignKeyConstraints (); DB :: table ('users') -> truncate (); $ users = [ ['TranCongTu', '12345678', 'visaodoncoi9x@gmail.com', '3'], ['NguyenThiXuan', '12345678', 'nguyenxuan@gmail.com', '3'], ]; foreach ($ users as $ user) { DB :: table ('users') -> insert ([ 'username' => $ user [0], 'password' => $ user [1], 'email' => $ user [2], 'role_id' => $ user [3] ]); } Schema :: enableForeignKeyConstraints (); } } |
However, if we add all the sample data to our database in this original seeder file, it will lead to confusion and difficult to control. In fact, we will split into small seeder files for each table, then call them into the function run () in the original seeder file. We will create a new seeder for users table.
Step 1 : Create a new seeder for users table named UsersTableSeeder.php
1 | php artisan make: seeder UsersTableSeeder |
Step 2 : Now we have a file UsersTableSeeder.php in the database / seeds / directory . We will add query statements to create seed for users table.
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 | <? php use Illuminate Database Seeder; use App Models as Database; class UsersTableSeeder extends Seeder { / ** * Run the database seeds. * * @return void * / public function run () { Schema :: disableForeignKeyConstraints (); DB :: table ('users') -> truncate (); $ users = [ ['TranCongTu', '12345678', 'visaodoncoi9x@gmail.com', '3'], ['NguyenThiXuan', '12345678', 'nguyenxuan@gmail.com', '3'], ]; foreach ($ users as $ user) { Database User :: create ([ 'username' => $ user [0], 'password' => $ user [1], 'email' => $ user [2], 'role_id' => $ user [3] ]); } Schema :: enableForeignKeyConstraints (); } } |
Step 3 : Now we just need to call the UsersTableSeeder.php class into the run () function in the original seeder file.
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 | <? php use Illuminate Database Seeder; class DatabaseSeeder extends Seeder { / ** * Run the database seeds. * * @return void * / public function run () { $ this-> call (UsersTableSeeder :: class); } } |
Step 4 : We will have 2 ways to run.
- Method 1: Specify the seeder class to run with the command
1 | php artisan db: seed --class = UsersTableSeeder |
- Method 2: Run all seeders that are called to the original seeder file.
1 | php artisan db: seed |
So we successfully created sample data into the database. Besides, we can also use a library to create fake Faker data. This library supports creating the same data as real data, so we do not have to think about names, phone numbers or emails .. etc ..
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 | <? php use Illuminate Database Seeder; use App Models User; use App class UsersTableSeeder extends Seeder { / ** * Run the database seeds. * * @return void * / public function run () { Schema :: disableForeignKeyConstraints (); User :: truncate (); Schema :: enableForeignKeyConstraints (); $ faker = Faker Factory :: create ('ja_JP'); $ limit = 100; $ lang = [User :: LANG_JAPANESE, User :: LANG_VIETNAMESE]; for ($ i = 0; $ i <$ limit; $ i ++) { $ randomKey = array_rand ($ lang); User :: create ([ 'login_id' => $ faker-> unique () -> ean8, 'username' => $ faker-> username, 'password' => Hash :: make (12345678), 'email' => $ faker-> unique () -> safeEmail, 'role_id' => Role :: all () -> random () -> id, ]); } } } |
Come here, you see everything is getting better right? So I ask a question. As in the example above with a small number of records, 2 records, we can manually add, then the number of records larger than 100 we will run 100 loops to add data. What about the number of records up to 10000 records? Do not worry! Laravel has provided us a machine that is Model Factory. Let’s learn how to operate 1 Model Factory.
Create Model Factory
We will continue the example with the users table by creating a Model Factory for it and feel it together.
Step 1 : Create the Model Factory for the users table with the name UserFactory.php
1 | php artisan make: factory UserFactory |
Step 2 : After completing step 1, we will get a UserFactory.php file in the database / factories / directory . Next, we will create the data, in the Model Factory, a built-in library of fake Faker data.
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 | <? php use Faker Generator as Faker; / * | ------------------------------------------------- ------------------------- | Model Factories | ------------------------------------------------- ------------------------- | | Thư mục này nên chứa một các định nghĩa máy ảnh cho | your application. Factories cung cấp một cách làm việc để tạo mới | model instances for testing / seeding your application's database. | * / $ factory-> define (App Model User :: class, function (Faker $ faker) { return [ 'login_id' => $ faker-> unique () -> ean8, 'username' => $ faker-> username, 'password' => Hash :: make (12345678), 'email' => $ faker-> unique () -> safeEmail, 'role_id' => App Models Role :: all () -> random () -> id, ]; }); |
Step 3 : Now in the run () function of the UsersTableSeeder class we use the factory () helper function with 2 transmission numbers:
- Class models need to create data.
- Number of records to create.
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 | <? php use Illuminate Database Seeder; use App Models User; JobTableSeeder class extends Seeder { / ** * Run the database seeds. * * @return void * / public function run () { factory (User :: class, 100) -> create (); } } |
So creating bulk sample data is no longer a problem to worry about, right? We can easily see that the pre-defined data structure needed to insert into the database will help us optimize the code and facilitate the process of editing or changing the number of records easily.
Conclude
So far, everyone has understood the seeder, model factory and how it works. Hope this article is interesting, as well as contribute a little knowledge to everyone. Wished everyone success.
Source : Viblo