How to seed database in yii2?

Question

I am new to Yii framework. I want to seed my database like it can be done in Laravel framework using Faker. I tried this http://www.yiiframework.com/forum/index.php/topic/59655-how-to-seed-yii2-database/ but it does not provide much details. I would really appreciate if someone can help me out with the steps in details.

Please check this one -> http://stackoverflow.com/questions/17114708/how-to-seed-in-yii — Mihriban Minaz, Jan 25 '16 at 15:24
You can build [migration](http://www.yiiframework.com/doc-2.0/guide-db-migrations.html) scripts based on [yii2-faker](https://github.com/yiisoft/yii2-faker) extension. — Salem Ouerdani, Jan 25 '16 at 15:27
Thanks for the reply. I am actually looking to seed my database with dummy data. Like it can be done using Faker. — Faisal Qureshi, Jan 25 '16 at 15:29
Hi Salem. Thanks for your reply. Can you please provide the example with steps? — Faisal Qureshi, Jan 25 '16 at 15:35

Faisal Qureshi · Answer 1 · 2016-01-26T04:36:43.187

Creating console command and using Faker inside the console command controller to seed the database worked for me.
Following is the SeedController.php file which I created under commands folder:

// commands/SeedController.php
namespace app\commands;

use yii\console\Controller;
use app\models\Users;
use app\models\Profile;

class SeedController extends Controller
{
    public function actionIndex()
    {
        $faker = \Faker\Factory::create();

        $user = new Users();
        $profile = new Profile();
        for ( $i = 1; $i <= 20; $i++ )
        {
            $user->setIsNewRecord(true);
            $user->user_id = null;

            $user->username = $faker->username;
            $user->password = '123456';
            if ( $user->save() )
            {
                $profile->setIsNewRecord(true);
                $profile->user_id = null;

                $profile->user_id = $user->user_id;
                $profile->email = $faker->email;
                $profile->first_name = $faker->firstName;
                $profile->last_name = $faker->lastName;
                $profile->save();
            }
        }

    }
}

And used yii seed command to run the controller.

This is actually quite a good method of creating your own seeds. Could have thought of this, Good job! — melledijkstra, Nov 21 '16 at 19:15
What is the purpose of that for loop? I don't see you using it anywhere. If you call a model outside a loop it will only create one record in the database. — Hamfri, Aug 29 '21 at 13:38

score 6 · Answer 2 · answered Jan 25 '16 at 15:47

6

See at fixtures and faker realization in yii2-app-advanced tests. In project you also can write in console php yii fixture/load to load seeds in database and php yii fixture/generate-all to generate seed by faker.

yii.php should have right fixture controller in controllerMap array:

[
    'controllerMap' => [
        'fixture' => [
            'class' => 'yii\console\controllers\FixtureController',
            'namespace' => 'common\ActiveRecords'
        ]
    ]
]

See more info in documentation.

answered Jan 25 '16 at 15:47

Onedev_Link

1,981
13
26

Thanks for the reply. I created the new file YiiBasic\tests\unit\templates\fixtures\users.php. Following is the content: $faker->firstName, 'password' => 123456 ]; ///////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// And after running 'php yii fixture/generate users' command. I get the following error in my command prompt: The following fixtures templates were NOT found: * users No fixtures template files matching input conditions were found under the pa C:\xampp\htdocs\YiiBasic/tests/codeception/unit/templates/fixtures – Faisal Qureshi Jan 25 '16 at 16:21
@FaisalQureshi you should configure faker generator template files for `generate` method. (example: `php yii fixture/templates --templatePath='@app/path/to/my/custom/templates'`). For seeds i recommend don't use faker, it is better to fill database determined data with corrected foreign keys, known passwords, etc... – Onedev_Link Jan 27 '16 at 10:55

score 0 · Answer 3 · answered Jul 04 '20 at 03:58

You can also use batch insert if you do not want any validations and simply pass arrays to your custom console command like.

<?php
namespace app\commands;
use Yii;
use yii\console\Controller;
use yii\console\ExitCode;
use yii\db\Command;

class SeedController extends Controller
{
    
       

   
    public function actionUsers()
    {
        Yii::$app->db->createCommand()->batchInsert('users',
        [ 
            'username',
            'password',            
            'createdAt' ,
            'updatedAt'
            ],
            [

               ['user1', 'yourhashedpass', new \yii\db\Expression('NOW()'),new \yii\db\Expression('NOW()')],
['user2', 'yourhashedpass', new \yii\db\Expression('NOW()'),new \yii\db\Expression('NOW()')],
 
                
        ])->execute();
 return ExitCode::OK;

    }
}

And run it by

php yii seed/users

How to seed database in yii2?

3 Answers3