how to create dummy data in laravel 8 Updated

Ok So we need to create a demo Project and for that we need demo data. We are going to use Laravel8 to solve this problem.

Here is how to start with generating demo data with laravel

Step 1: Create a Project

So first thing first create a project if you already have a project then you can skip this Step.

So for creating a project you need composer installed in your system. you can these Videos to get started with composer

Install Composer In Windows

Install Composer in MacOs

To use composer 2 you can run this command after installing composer, In-case you install composer 1.

composer self-update

Ok once you have composer installed run this command where you want your project to be

So for example if you want laravel project to setup in Desktop then

open terminal and navigate to Desktop and run this command

// if you want to create project inside a folder name then pass folder name

composer create-project laravel/laravel folder/project Name here

//Or if you created a folder and already inside the folder run this to install files in current folder

composer create-project laravel/laravel .

You can follow or guide for setting up laravel project. It works with Laravel 8

or check Laravel Official site.

Creating required Files in Laravel Project

One you have your project up we need to run this command in there using terminal

For this example we are going to generate demo data for category and posts.

So first let's generate files for category

// Here we are asking laravel to create required Model, Seeder and Migration files for category
// Notice -mfs means Migration, Factory, Seeder files

 php artisan make:model Category -mfs

// Similarly we run command for generating files for Post

 php artisan make:model Post -mfs

And files will be created under

Lets code to generate dummy content in Laravel

So add code like this to generate dummy Post content.

// In migration file under database/migrations add this code and change it as you like

public function up()
{
    Schema::create('posts', function (Blueprint $table) {
        $table->id();
        $table->string('title',150);
        $table->mediumText('content');
        $table->foreignId('category_id')->constrained();
        $table->timestamps();
    });
}

Similarly

In Category migration file

public function up()
{
    Schema::create('categories', function (Blueprint $table) {
        $table->id();
        $table->string('name', 150);
        $table->timestamps();
    });
}

So the fields we are requiring in our database are added in migration files. You can alter if you require something different.

Now lets edit factory files to generate dummy content in Laravel

Inside directory database/factory you will see PostFactory and CategoryFactory.

In PostFactory

public function definition()
{
    return [
        'title' => $this->faker->text(25),
        'content' => $this->faker->text(240),
        'category_id' => mt_rand(1, 10),
    ];
}

This code will add title of length 25and content of length 240, For categories it will save random numbers 1 to 10.

Similarly For Category

public function definition()
{
    return [
        'name' => $this->faker->text(25)
    ];
}

Here we add category name of length 25 characters.

Now edit Seeder file to add Factory files there to generate dummy content in Laravel

Inside database/seeder directory

you will see "Category Seeder" and "Post Seeder" files we add factory files in these files like this

In PostSeeder

public function run()
{
    // will generate 1000 demo posts.

    Post::factory(1000)->create();
}

And In CategorySeeder

public function run()
{
    // this will add 25 categories.

    Category::factory(25)->create();
}

Include Seeder files to "Database/Seeders/DatabaseSeeder.php" file. Like this

public function run()
{
    // Seeder files are required to be included here to make them work.

    $this->call(CategorySeeder::class);
    $this->call(PostSeeder::class);
}

Last but not least add "fillables in Models".

So laravel can insert data

Post Model will look like this

class Post extends Model
{
    use HasFactory;

    protected $fillable = ['title','content','category_id'];
}

Similarly for Category Model

class Category extends Model
{
    use HasFactory;

    protected $fillable = ['name'];
}

All is set make sure you have database selected in ".env" file. and database name matches.

Run command to generate data.

php artisan migrate:fresh --seed // here fresh makes database empty and reinserts data using seeder files.

If all goes well you will see the data