Inverse seed generator (iSeed) is a Laravel 4 package that provides a method to generate a new seed file based on data from the existing database table.

Installation

1. Edit your project's composer.json file to require orangehill/iseed.

   "require": { "laravel/framework": "4.0.*", "orangehill/iseed": "dev-master" }

2. Update Composer from the CLI:

   composer update

3. Once this operation completes, add the service provider by opening a app/config/app.php file, and adding a new item to the providers array.

   'Orangehill\Iseed\IseedServiceProvider'

Usage

To generate a seed file for your users table simply call: \Iseed::generateSeed('users', 'connectionName', 'numOfRows');. connectionName and numOfRows are not required arguments.

This will create a file inside a /app/database/seeds, with the contents similar to following example:

<?php

// File: /app/database/seeds/UsersTableSeeder.php

class UsersTableSeeder extends Seeder {

    /**
     * Auto generated seed file
     *
     * @return void
     */
    public function run()
    {
        \DB::table('users')->truncate();
        \DB::table('users')->insert(array (
            0 =>
            array (
                'id' => '1',
                'email' => '[email protected]',
                'password' => '$2y$10$tUGCkQf/0NY3w1l9sobGsudt6UngnoVXx/lUoh9ElcSOD0ERRkK9C',
                'permissions' => NULL,
                'activated' => '1',
                'activation_code' => NULL,
                'activated_at' => NULL,
                'last_login' => NULL,
                'persist_code' => NULL,
                'reset_password_code' => NULL,
                'first_name' => NULL,
                'last_name' => NULL,
                'created_at' => '2013-06-11 07:47:40',
                'updated_at' => '2013-06-11 07:47:40',
            ),
            1 =>
            array (
                'id' => '2',
                'email' => '[email protected]',
                'password' => '$2y$10$ImNvsMzK/BOgNSYgpjs/3OjMKMHeA9BH/hjl43EiuBuLkZGPMuZ2W',
                'permissions' => NULL,
                'activated' => '1',
                'activation_code' => NULL,
                'activated_at' => NULL,
                'last_login' => '2013-06-11 07:54:57',
                'persist_code' => '$2y$10$C0la8WuyqC6AU2TpUwj0I.E3Mrva8A3tuVFWxXN5u7jswRKzsYYHK',
                'reset_password_code' => NULL,
                'first_name' => NULL,
                'last_name' => NULL,
                'created_at' => '2013-06-11 07:47:40',
                'updated_at' => '2013-06-11 07:54:57',
            ),
        ));
    }

}

This command will also update app/database/seeds/DatabaseSeeder.php to include a call to this newly generated seed class.

If you wish you can define custom iSeed template in which all the calls will be placed. You can do this by using #iseed_start and #iseed_end templates anywhere within app/database/seeds/DatabaseSeeder.php, for example:

<?php

// File: /app/database/seeds/DatabaseSeeder.php
class DatabaseSeeder extends Seeder {

    /**
     * Run the database seeds.
     *
     * @return void
     */
    public function run()
    {
        Eloquent::unguard();

        if(App::environment() == "local")
        {
            throw new \Exception('Only run this from production');
        }
        
        #iseed_start
        
        // here all the calls for newly generated seeds will be stored. 

        #iseed_end
    }

}

Alternatively you can run Iseed from the command line using Artisan, e.g. php artisan iseed users. For generation of multiple seed files comma separated list of table names should be send as an argument for command, e.g. php artisan iseed users,posts,groups.

In case you try to generate seed file that already exists command will ask you a question whether you want to overwrite it or not. If you wish to overwrite it by default use --force Artisan Command Option, e.g. php artisan iseed users --force.

If you wish to clear iSeed template you can use Artisan Command Option --clean, e.g. php artisan iseed users --clean. This will clean template from app/database/seeds/DatabaseSeeder.php before creating new seed class.

You can specify db connection that will be used for creation of new seed files by using Artisan Command Option --database=connection_name, e.g. php artisan iseed users --database=mysql2.

To limit number of rows that will be exported from table use Artisan Command Option --max=number_of_rows, e.g. php artisan iseed users --max=10. If you use this option while exporting multiple tables specified limit will be applied to all of them.

To (re)seed the database go to the Terminal and run Laravel's db:seed command (php artisan db:seed).

Please note that some users encountered a problem with large DB table exports (error when seeding from table with many records). The issue was solved by splitting input data into smaller chunks of elements per insert statement. As you may need to change the chunk size value in some extreme cases where DB table has a large number of columns, the chunk size is configurable in iSeed's config.php file:

'chunk_size' => 500 // Maximum number of rows per insert statement