Plant

Plant is a bundle for Laravel that offers an easy way to seed your project and/or tests with data using "seeds". Works well in combination with the excellent Faker library.

Getting started

1. Install by running php artisan bundle:install plant

2. Enable the plant bundle in application/bundles.php

3. Create a seeds folder in your application directory.

4. Create seed files. For example:

   <?php // file: /application/seeds/users.php
   
   class Seed_Users extends \S2\Seed {
   
       public function grow()
       {
           $user = new User;
           $user->username = 'johndoe';
           $user->password = '12345678';
           $user->save();
   
           $user = new User;
           $user->username = 'janedoe';
           $user->password = '12345678';
           $user->save();
       }
   
       // This is optional. It lets you specify the order each seed is grown.
       // Seeds with a lower number are grown first.
       public function order()
       {
           return 100;
       }
   
   }
   

Controlling the order that seeds are grown

Each seed class may contain an order() method that returns a sort order integer. Seeds with a lower sort order are grown first.

Growing Seeds

All at once

run php artisan plant::seed all

Excluding seeds

You can exclude specific seeds from being grown by using the --not option. Separate multiple exclusions with a comma.

e.g. php artisan plant::seed all --not=users,posts

Multiple seeds (e.g. users,posts)

run php artisan plant::seed users,posts

Regardless of the order you list the seeds in the CLI command, Plant will always grow them according to each seed's sort order.

Individual seeds (e.g. users)

run php artisan plant::seed users

If multiple seeds with the same filename exist, they will all be grown. This could happen when seeds are stored in bundles. e.g. application/seeds/users.php and bundles/plant/seeds/users.php

Sort orders are still used.

References

If a seed needs to reference an object that was created in another seed, use the references feature as shown below.

<?php // file: /application/seeds/users.php

class Seed_Users extends \S2\Seed {

    public function grow()
    {
        $user = new User;
        $user->username = 'johndoe';
        $user->password = '12345678';
        $user->save();

        $this->addReference('user-a', $user);
    }

    public function order()
    {
        return 100;
    }

}

<?php // file: /application/seeds/posts.php

class Seed_Posts extends \S2\Seed {

    public function grow()
    {
        $post = new Post;
        $post->user_id = $this->getReference('user-a')->id;
        $post->title = 'Lorem Ipsum Foo Foo';
        $post->save();
    }

    // This seed must be grown after the users seed
    // so that it can access the "user-a" reference.
    public function order()
    {
        return 200;
    }

}

Issues

If you find any bugs or have suggestions, please add them to the Issue Tracker.