Generate Fake Data Using Faker in Laravel

Hello Friends,

Today, I would like to share with you how to generate fake data using faker in laravel application. laravel provide Faker package to generate fake data.

Faker is a library that generates fake data for a variety of data types. Faker is shipped with Laravel by default so you don't have to install it as a third-party package.

Faker can be used to generate the following data types.

Numbers

Lorem text

Person i.e. titles, names, gender etc.

Addresses

Phone numbers

Companies

Text

DateTime

Internet i.e. domains, URLs, emails etc.

User Agents

Payments i.e. MasterCard

Colour

Files

Images

uuid

Barcodes

Miscellaneous

I will give you full example for generate fake data using faker in laravel,So Let's see the bellow step.You will follow the bellow

Step 1 : Install Laravel App

In this step, You can install laravel fresh app. So open terminal and put the bellow command.

composer create-project --prefer-dist laravel/laravel blog

Step 2 : Setup Database Configuration

After successfully install laravel app thenafter configure databse setup. We will open ".env" file and change the database name, username and password in the env file.

DB_CONNECTION=mysql
DB_HOST=127.0.0.1
DB_PORT=3306
DB_DATABASE=Enter_Your_Database_Name
DB_USERNAME=Enter_Your_Database_Username
DB_PASSWORD=Enter_Your_Database_Password

Step 3 : Create Table Migration and Model

In this step we have to create migration for blogs table and blog Model using Laravel php artisan command, so first fire bellow command:

php artisan make:model Blog -m

After this command you have to put bellow code in your migration file for create blogs table.

/database/migrations/2020_05_27_100722_create_blogs_table.php

<?php

use Illuminate\Database\Migrations\Migration;
use Illuminate\Database\Schema\Blueprint;
use Illuminate\Support\Facades\Schema;

class CreateBlogsTable extends Migration
{
    /**
     * Run the migrations.
     *
     * @return void
     */
    public function up()
    {
        Schema::create('blogs', function (Blueprint $table) {
            $table->id();
            $table->string('title');
            $table->longText('description');
            $table->string('auther_name');
            $table->timestamps();
        });
    }

    /**
     * Reverse the migrations.
     *
     * @return void
     */
    public function down()
    {
        Schema::dropIfExists('blogs');
    }
}

Now we require to run migration be bellow command:

php artisan migrate

After you have to put bellow code in your Blog model file for create blogs table.

app/Blog.php

<?php

namespace App;

use Illuminate\Database\Eloquent\Model;

class Blog extends Model
{
    protected $fillable = ['title','description','auther_name'];
}

Step 4 : Install Faker Package

In this step,We have to need faker package.So install faker package using bellow command open terminal and run bellow command:

composer require fzaninotto/faker

Step 5 : Create Blog Seeder

In this step,We have to create blog seeder using artisan command So lets open terminal and run bellow artisan command to create blog seeder:

php artisan make:seeder BlogSeeder

Open BlogSeeder and put the bellow code to insert fake record in database in blog table.

database/seeds/BlogSeeder.php

<?php

use Illuminate\Database\Seeder;
use App\Blog;

class BlogSeeder extends Seeder
{
    /**
     * Run the database seeds.
     *
     * @return void
     */
    public function run()
    {
        $faker = Faker\Factory::create();

        $limit = 10;

        for ($i = 0; $i < $limit; $i++) {
            Blog::create([
                'name' => $faker->sentence($nbWords = 6, $variableNbWords = true),
                'auther_name' => $faker->name,
                'description' => $faker->paragraph($nbSentences = 3, $variableNbSentences = true),
                'created_at' => \Carbon\Carbon::now(),
                'updated_at' => \Carbon\Carbon::now(),
            ]);
        }
    }
}

Step 6 : Create Route

now, we need to add route for Blog controller in laravel application. so open your "routes/web.php" file and add following route.

routes/web.php

Route::get('fake-blog', 'BlogController@fakeBlogs');

Step 7 : Create Controller

Here this step now we should create new controller as BlogController. So run bellow command and create new controller.

php artisan make:controller BlogController

After successfully run above command . So, let's copy bellow code and put on BlogController.php file.

app/http/controller/BlogController.php

<?php

namespace App\Http\Controllers;

use Illuminate\Http\Request;
use App\Blog;

class BlogController extends Controller
{
    /**
     * Display a listing of the resource.
     *
     * @return \Illuminate\Http\Response
     */
    public function fakeBlogs()
    {
        $blogs = blog::get();
        return view('fakeData',compact('blogs'));
    }

}

Step 8 : Create Blade File

In last step. In this step we have to create two blade file. So finally you have to create following file and put bellow code:

/resources/views/fakeData.blade.php

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
    <title>Generate Fake Data Using Faker in Laravel - NiceSnippets.com</title>
    <link rel="stylesheet" href="https://cdnjs.cloudflare.com/ajax/libs/twitter-bootstrap/4.5.0/css/bootstrap.min.css" integrity="sha256-aAr2Zpq8MZ+YA/D6JtRD3xtrwpEz2IqOS+pWD/7XKIw=" crossorigin="anonymous" />
    <script src="https://cdnjs.cloudflare.com/ajax/libs/twitter-bootstrap/4.5.0/js/bootstrap.min.js" integrity="sha256-OFRAJNoaD8L3Br5lglV7VyLRf0itmoBzWUoM+Sji4/8=" crossorigin="anonymous"></script>
</head>
<body>
    <div class="container">
        <div class="row">
            <div class="col-md-8 offset-2">
                <div class="card mt-5">
                    <div class="card-heading bg-info">
                        <h3 class="text-center text-white p-3"><strong>Generate Fake Data Using Faker in Laravel - NiceSnippets.com</strong></h3>
                    </div>
                    <div class="card-body">
                        <div class="table-responsive">
                            <table class="table table-bordered">
                                <thead>
                                    <tr>
                                        <th>No.</th>
                                        <th>Name</th>
                                        <th>Author Name</th>
                                        <th>Description</th>
                                    </tr>
                                </thead>
                                <tbody>
                                    @foreach($blogs as $blog)
                                        <tr>
                                            <td>{{ $blog->id }}</td>
                                            <td>{{ $blog->title }}</td>
                                            <td>{{ $blog->auther_name }}</td>
                                            <td>{{ \Str::limit($blog->description,50) }}</td>
                                        </tr>
                                    @endforeach
                                </tbody>
                            </table>
                        </div>
                    </div>
                </div>
            </div>
        </div>
    </div>
</body>
</html>

Now we are ready to run our example so run bellow command for quick run:

php artisan serve

Now you can open bellow URL on your browser:

http://localhost:8000/fake-blog

Table Preview

It will help you...