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Inside this article we will understand CakePHP 4 Run Database Seeder in Non Shell Environment. Article contains classified information about generating seeders for database table.

Non Shell Environment means executing functions without using shell / terminal etc.

Seeders are those files which generates “test data” for database table. Database Seeding means Inserting Sample data inside database tables. This is usually we do to Test application.

In this article we will seed data for table products. Product table will have the columns and their attributes as –

id [INTEGER]
name [STRING]
cost [INTEGER]
description [TEXT]
status [ENUM]
created_at [TIMESTAMP]

Here, we will create migration of “products” table and seed data via non shell environment.

use Migrations\Migrations;

Above class of CakePHP 4 we will use to run migrations in non shell environment.

Learn More –

Let’s get started.

CakePHP 4 Installation

To create a CakePHP project, run this command into your shell or terminal. Make sure composer should be installed in your system.

$ composer create-project --prefer-dist cakephp/app:~4.0 mycakephp

Above command will creates a project with the name called mycakephp.

Database Connection

Open app_local.php file from /config folder. Search for Datasources. Go to default array of it.

You can add your connection details here to connect with your database. It will be like this –

//...

'Datasources' => [
        'default' => [
            'host' => 'localhost',
            /*
             * CakePHP will use the default DB port based on the driver selected
             * MySQL on MAMP uses port 8889, MAMP users will want to uncomment
             * the following line and set the port accordingly
             */
            //'port' => 'non_standard_port_number',

            'username' => 'root',
            'password' => 'sample@123',

            'database' => 'mydatabase',
            /*
             * If not using the default 'public' schema with the PostgreSQL driver
             * set it here.
             */
            //'schema' => 'myapp',

            /*
             * You can use a DSN string to set the entire configuration
             */
            'url' => env('DATABASE_URL', null),
        ],
  
     //...

//...

You can pass host, username, password and database.

Successfully, you are now connected with the database.

Create Migration

Let’s create a migration file for “products” table.

Open project into terminal and run this command

$ bin/cake bake migration CreateProducts

This command will create a migration file inside /config/Migrations folder. File name will be prefixed with the timestamp value and look like 20220217021429_CreateProducts.php

Open migration file and write this code into it to create “products” table schema.

<?php

declare(strict_types=1);

use Migrations\AbstractMigration;

class CreateProducts extends AbstractMigration
{
    /**
     * Change Method.
     *
     * More information on this method is available here:
     * https://book.cakephp.org/phinx/0/en/migrations.html#the-change-method
     * @return void
     */
    public function change()
    {
        $table = $this->table('products');

        $table->addColumn('name', 'string', [
            'limit' => 120,
            'null' => false,
        ]);
        $table->addColumn('cost', 'integer', [
            'limit' => 5,
            'null' => false,
        ]);
        $table->addColumn('description', 'text', [
            'null' => true,
        ]);
        $table->addColumn('status', 'enum', [
            'values' => [1, 0],
            'default' => 1
        ]);
        $table->addColumn('created_at', 'timestamp', [
            'default' => 'CURRENT_TIMESTAMP',
            'null' => false,
        ]);

        $table->create();
    }
}

Run Migration

To Run migrations in non shell environment, follow these steps.

Use & Load Migrations Class
Call Migrations Methods

Use & Load Migrations Class

Inside you controller or wherever you are running migrations, you can import this class.

use Migrations\Migrations;

Next, we need to create an instance / object of this class to use it’s methods.

$migrations = new Migrations();

Call Migration Methods

To Migrate Migrations file we use migrate() method.

$migrate = $migrations->migrate();

It will return true if success. If an error occurred, an exception will be thrown. When it executes we should see “products” table in database.

table-structure-cakephp-4-migrations-create-tutorial-with-no-shell-environment

In this table we will seed data.

Create & Run Seeder

To create data seeder, run this command to terminal.

$ bin/cake bake seed Products

It will create a file ProductsSeed.php inside /config/Seeds folder.

Open ProductsSeed.php and write this code into it.

<?php
declare(strict_types=1);

use Migrations\AbstractSeed;

/**
 * Products seed.
 */
class ProductsSeed extends AbstractSeed
{
    /**
     * Run Method.
     *
     * Write your database seeder using this method.
     *
     * More information on writing seeds is available here:
     * https://book.cakephp.org/phinx/0/en/seeding.html
     *
     * @return void
     */
    public function run()
    {
        $data = [
            [
                "name" => "Sample Product 1",
                "cost" => 140,
                "description" => "This is sample content for this Sample Product 1",
                "status" => 1
            ],
            [
                "name" => "Sample Product 2",
                "cost" => 180,
                "description" => "This is sample content for this Sample Product 2",
                "status" => 1
            ],
            [
                "name" => "Sample Product 3",
                "cost" => 130,
                "description" => "This is sample content for this Sample Product 3",
                "status" => 0
            ]
        ];

        $table = $this->table('products');
        $table->insert($data)->save();
    }
}

Inside above code we are inserting 3 Test rows of products into table.

Run Seeder

To Seed Seeder files we use seed() method in non shell environment.

$dataSeeder = $migrations->seed();

It will return true if success. If an error occurred, an exception will be thrown. When it executes we should see data inside “products” table.

Additionally if you want to seed only a specific seeder file in non shell environment, you can use like this.

$dataSeeder = $migrations->seed([
    "seed" => "ProductsSeed"
]);

We hope this article helped you to learn about CakePHP 4 Run Database Seeder in Non Shell Environment Tutorial in a very detailed way.

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