Smart Seeder

Safe, intelligent database seeding for Laravel with preview capabilities, idempotent operations, environment awareness, and full rollback support.

Features

• Preview before execution - See exactly what will happen with seed:plan
• Idempotent operations - Run seeders multiple times safely
• Multiple seeding modes - upsert, insert_ignore, insert_only, update_only, sync
• Validation support - Validate records before insertion
• Dependency resolution - Automatically run seeders in the correct order
• Rollback support - Undo seeder operations with seed:undo
• AutoFaker - Smart fake data generation based on field names
• Laravel Factory support - Use existing factories in seeders
• Lifecycle hooks - Run custom logic after insert/update operations
• Data transformation - Transform and mutate records before insertion
• History tracking - Track all seeder executions

Requirements

• PHP ^8.3 || ^8.4
• Laravel ^11.0 || ^12.0

Installation

composer require marwen-brini/smart-seeder --dev

Publish and run the migrations for history tracking:

php artisan vendor:publish --tag="smart-seeder-migrations"
php artisan migrate

Optionally publish the config file:

php artisan vendor:publish --tag="smart-seeder-config"

Quick Start

Create a Seeder

php artisan seed:make ProductsSeeder

Define Your Seeder

<?php

namespace Database\Seeders;

use Filler\Filler;

class ProductsSeeder extends Filler
{
    protected array $uniqueBy = ['sku'];
    protected string $mode = 'upsert';

    public function table(): string
    {
        return 'products';
    }

    public function data(): array
    {
        return [
            ['sku' => 'LAPTOP-001', 'name' => 'Laptop Pro', 'price' => 999.99],
            ['sku' => 'MOUSE-001', 'name' => 'Wireless Mouse', 'price' => 49.99],
        ];
    }
}

Preview Changes

php artisan seed:plan ProductsSeeder

Execute Safely

php artisan seed:safe ProductsSeeder

Seeding Modes

| Mode | Insert New | Update Existing | Delete Missing | |------|------------|-----------------|----------------| | upsert | Yes | Yes | No | | insert_ignore | Yes | No | No | | insert_only | Yes | Error | No | | update_only | No | Yes | No | | sync | Yes | Yes | Yes |

Data Generation

Manual Data

public function data(): array
{
    return [
        ['name' => 'Product 1', 'price' => 99.99],
        ['name' => 'Product 2', 'price' => 149.99],
    ];
}

AutoFaker

AutoFaker automatically detects field types and generates appropriate fake data:

public function data(): array
{
    return $this->fake(10, [
        'price' => fn($faker) => $faker->randomFloat(2, 10, 500),
    ]);
}

Laravel Factory

Use existing Laravel factories:

protected ?string $model = Product::class;

public function data(): array
{
    return [
        ...$this->factory(5),                    // 5 regular products
        ...$this->factory(3, ['premium']),       // 3 with state
        ...$this->factorySequence([              // specific values
            ['name' => 'Item A'],
            ['name' => 'Item B'],
        ]),
    ];
}

Validation

protected array $rules = [
    'name' => 'required|string|min:3',
    'price' => 'required|numeric|min:0',
    'email' => 'required|email',
];

protected string $onValidationError = 'skip'; // 'abort', 'skip', 'log'

Dependencies

Define seeder dependencies to ensure correct execution order:

protected array $dependencies = [
    CategoriesSeeder::class,
    BrandsSeeder::class,
];

Run with dependencies:

php artisan seed:safe ProductsSeeder --with-dependencies

Commands

seed:plan

Preview what a seeder will do:

php artisan seed:plan ProductsSeeder
php artisan seed:plan ProductsSeeder --limit=20

seed:safe

Execute a seeder safely:

php artisan seed:safe ProductsSeeder
php artisan seed:safe ProductsSeeder --force
php artisan seed:safe ProductsSeeder --with-dependencies
php artisan seed:safe ProductsSeeder --dry-run
php artisan seed:safe --all  # Run all Filler seeders

seed:undo

Rollback the last seeder execution:

php artisan seed:undo
php artisan seed:undo --seeder=ProductsSeeder
php artisan seed:undo --batch=5

seed:status

View seeder history:

php artisan seed:status
php artisan seed:status --limit=20

seed:make

Generate a new seeder:

php artisan seed:make ProductsSeeder
php artisan seed:make ProductsSeeder --table=products

Lifecycle Hooks

Run custom logic after records are inserted or updated:

protected function afterInsert(array $record, int $id): void
{
    // Called after each record is inserted
    // $id contains the auto-incremented ID
    cache()->forget('products_count');
}

protected function afterUpdate(array $record, object $existing): void
{
    // Called after each record is updated
    // $existing contains the original record before update
    Log::info("Product updated: {$existing->name}");
}

Data Transformation

Transform records before they are inserted:

protected function transform(array $record): array
{
    $record['slug'] = Str::slug($record['name']);
    return $record;
}

Use mutators for field-level transformations:

protected array $mutators = [
    'password' => 'hash',           // Hash passwords
    'email' => 'lowercase',         // Lowercase emails
    'name' => 'trim',               // Trim whitespace
];

Environment Awareness

Restrict seeders to specific environments:

protected array $environments = ['local', 'staging'];

Full Example

<?php

namespace Database\Seeders;

use App\Models\Product;
use Filler\Filler;

class ProductsSeeder extends Filler
{
    protected array $uniqueBy = ['sku'];
    protected string $mode = 'upsert';
    protected string $version = '2.0';
    protected ?string $model = Product::class;

    protected array $dependencies = [
        CategoriesSeeder::class,
    ];

    protected array $environments = ['local', 'staging'];

    protected array $rules = [
        'sku' => 'required|string',
        'name' => 'required|string|min:3',
        'price' => 'required|numeric|min:0',
    ];

    protected string $onValidationError = 'skip';

    public function table(): string
    {
        return 'products';
    }

    public function data(): array
    {
        return [
            // Manual data
            ['sku' => 'FEATURED-001', 'name' => 'Featured Product', 'price' => 299.99],

            // Factory generated
            ...$this->factory(10),

            // AutoFaker generated
            ...$this->fake(5, ['sku' => fn($f) => 'AUTO-' . $f->unique()->randomNumber(5)]),
        ];
    }
}

Testing

composer test

Changelog

Please see CHANGELOG for more information on what has changed recently.

Contributing

Please see CONTRIBUTING for details.

Security Vulnerabilities

If you discover a security vulnerability, please send an email to [email protected]. All security vulnerabilities will be promptly addressed.

Credits

• Marwen Brini

License

The MIT License (MIT). Please see License File for more information.