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.

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;
       }
   
   }
   

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

run php artisan plant::seed all

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

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.

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.

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;
    }

}

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