Passing a quantity or other arguments to a Laravel seeder

Question

I would like to pass an argument as to define how many records I want to create during database seeding, without having to edit the factory manually.

I have tried different variations on php artisan db:seed --class=UsersTableSeeder [using different args here]

I can't seem to find any documentation, so I don't know if that functionally exists. Does something like that exist?

class UsersTableSeeder extends Seeder
{
    public $limit = null;

    public function __construct($limit = 1) {
        $this->limit = $limit;
    }

    public function run()
    {
      echo $this->limit;
    }
}

Answer 1

There is no way to directly specify an argument.

If you want to specify a parameter via the command line, you could use an environment variable.

class UsersTableSeeder extends Seeder
{
    public function run()
    {
        $limit = env('SEEDER_LIMIT', 1);

        echo $this->limit;
    }
}

Call like this:

SEEDER_LIMIT=10 php artisan db:seed --class=UsersTableSeeder

Answer 2

You can set it up this way:

public function run($count = 1)

And then you can pass the argument this way:

$this->call(ClientSeeder::class, false, ['count' => 500]);

Answer 3

From what I know there's no such thing as parameters for seeders, but you could implement it yourself. You could create a new command which accepts parameters and calls a seeder programmatically with those additional parameters.

Something like this should do the trick:

use Illuminate\Database\Seeder;

class UsersTableSeeder extends Seeder
{

    public function run(int $limit)
    {
        echo $limit;
        // Seed some stuff
    }
}

namespace App\Console\Commands;

use Illuminate\Console\Command;
use UsersTableSeeder;

class SeedCommand extends Command
{
    protected $signature = 'app:seed {limit}';

    public function handle(UsersTableSeeder $seeder)
    {
        $limit = $this->argument('limit');
        $seeder->run($limit);
    }
}

Answer 4

you can ask for that limit before call any other seeders using

// DatabaseSeeder.php

$limit = $this->command->ask('Please enter the limit for creating something !!');

and then you can pass that limit to any additional seeders from 'DatabaseSeeder' like this

//DatabaseSeeder.php

$this->call(AnyAdditionalSeeder::class, false, compact('limit'));

then in 'AnyAdditionalSeeder' you can add parameter and name it $limit to the run() method like this

public function run($limit)
{
   // you can access limit variable here
}

then when you run the command php artisan db:seed it will ask you for the limit :)

Answer 5

As of Laravel 8 you can use callWith to pass parameters to the run method of your seeders. Something like this:

class UsersTableSeeder extends Seeder
{    
    public function run($count = 1)
    {
        User::factory()->count($count)->create();
    }
}

And then your could use those seeders in other seeders like this:

class DatabaseSeeder extends Seeder
{
    public function run()
    {
        $this->callWith(UsersTableSeeder::class, ['count' => 10]);
    }
}

Note that the parameter array you give to callWith is associative, and its keys should match the run method's parameters, because the call will ordinarily be resolved through the Laravel's application container.

Answer 6

my solution:

// MemberSeeder.php (example for Members Table)

namespace Database\Seeders;

use Illuminate\Database\Seeder;
use App\Models\Member as ModelsMember;

class MemberSeeder extends Seeder
{
    /**
     * Run the database seeds.
     *
     * @return void
     */
    static function run(int $nRec=1) {
        ModelsMember::factory()->times($nRec)->create();
    }
}

Call from a .php file

// Members.php
namespace App\Http\Livewire;

use Livewire\Component;
use App\Models\Member;
use Database\Seeders\MemberSeeder;

class Members extends Component
{
    public $members, $name, $email, $phone_number, $status, $member_id;
    public $bldModal = '';
    ...
    ...
    public function generaRecords() {
        MemberSeeder::run(2);
    }
}

Schema for to create table

        Schema::create('members', function (Blueprint $table) {
            $table->id();
            $table->string('name');
            $table->string('email')->unique();
            $table->string('phone_number');
            $table->char('status',1);
            $table->timestamps();
        });

Shortly: to change

public function run() {

To

static function run(int $nRec=1) {

Answer 7

you can pass a parameter as quantity to a seeder like this:

First, create a custom command

php artisan make:command generateFakeCompanyData

generateFakeCompanyData.php

<?php

namespace App\Console\Commands;

use Illuminate\Console\Command;
use Database\Seeders\CreateFakeCompanySeeder;

class generateFakeCompanyData extends Command
{
    /**
     * The name and signature of the console command.
     *
     * @var string
     */
    protected $signature = 'create:fake-comapnies {count}';

    /**
     * The console command description.
     *
     * @var string
     */
    protected $description = 'Command description';

    /**
     * Create a new command instance.
     *
     * @return void
     */
    public function __construct()
    {
        parent::__construct();
    }

    /**
     * Execute the console command.
     *
     * @return int
     */
    public function handle(CreateFakeCompanySeeder $seeder)
    {
        $limit = $this->argument('count');
        $seeder->run($limit);
 
    }
}

create seeder file:

php artisan make:seeder CreateFakeCompanySeeder

CreateFakeCompanySeeder.php

<?php

namespace Database\Seeders;

use Illuminate\Database\Console\Seeds\WithoutModelEvents;
use Illuminate\Database\Seeder;

class CreateFakeCompanySeeder extends Seeder
{
    /**
     * Run the database seeds.
     *
     * @return void
     */
    public function run(int $limit)
    {
        \App\Models\Company\Company::factory($limit)->create();
    }
}

create factory file

php artisan make:factory Company\CompanyFactory --model=Company

CompanyFactory.php

<?php

namespace Database\Factories\Company;

use Illuminate\Database\Eloquent\Factories\Factory;
use Illuminate\Support\Str;
use App\Models\Blog;

/**
 * @extends \Illuminate\Database\Eloquent\Factories\Factory<\App\Models\Company\Company>
 */
class CompanyFactory extends Factory
{
    /**
     * Define the model's default state.
     *
     * @return array<string, mixed>
     */
    public function definition()
    {
        return [
            
            'name' => $this->faker->company,
            'email' => $this->faker->unique()->email,
            'logo' => $this->faker->imageUrl(640,480),
            'website' => Str::slug($this->faker->name).'.com',
            // 'website' => $this->faker->text(),
            
        ];
    }
}

in route: web.php

Route::controller(CompanyController::class)->group(function() {

    Route::prefix('company')->group(function () {
        Route::post('/store', 'companyInsert')->name('company.add'); 
    });

});

in controller: CompanyController.php

class CompanyController extends Controller{

    public function companyInsert(Request $request){

         $limit = $request->no_of_company;

         \Artisan::call('create:fake-comapnies '.$limit);

          return redirect()->back()->with('crudMsg','Total of '.$limit.' Company 
          Successfully Added');
    }
}