Migrations are a type of version control for your database. They allow a team to modify the database schema and stay up to date on the current schema state. Migrations are typically paired with the Schema Builder to easily manage your application's scheme.
To create a migration, you may use the migrate:make command on the Artisan CLI:
Creating A Migration
php artisan migrate:make create_users_table
The migration will be placed in your app/database/migrations folder, and will contain a timestamp which allows the framework to determine the order of the migrations.
You may also specify a --path option when creating the migration. The path should be relative to the root directory of your installation:
php artisan migrate:make foo --path=app/migrations
The --table and --create options may also be used to indicate the name of the table, and whether the migration will be creating a new table:
php artisan migrate:make create_users_table --table=users --create
Running All Outstanding Migrations
php artisan migrate
Running All Outstanding Migrations For A Path
php artisan migrate --path=app/foo/migrations
Running All Outstanding Migrations For A Package
php artisan migrate --package=vendor/package
Rollback The Last Migration Operation
php artisan migrate:rollback
Rollback all migrations
php artisan migrate:reset
Rollback all migrations and run them all again
php artisan migrate:refresh
php artisan migrate:refresh --seed
Laravel also includes a simple way to seed your database with test data using seed files. All seed files are stored in app/database/seeds. Seed files should be named according to the table they seed, and simply return an array of records.
Example Database Seed File
<?php
return array(
array('email' => '[email protected]', 'votes' => 10),
array('email' => '[email protected]', 'votes' => 20),
);
To seed your database, you may use the db:seed command on the Artisan CLI:
php artisan db:seed
You may also seed your database using the migrate:refresh command, which will also rollback and re-run all of your migrations:
php artisan migrate:refresh --seed