Introduction

This document provides an overview of how seeders work in Laravel FilamentPHP for the AureusERP system. It explains how to create and register seeders within the plugin while maintaining a well-structured directory hierarchy.

Understanding Seeders in Laravel

Seeders in Laravel allow pre-populating the database with test or initial production data. They are useful for setting up default configurations, roles, permissions, and system settings.

Key Concepts

1. Seeder Classes: Extend Laravel’s Seeder class to define seeding logic.
2. DatabaseSeeder: The main seeder class that calls other seeders.
3. Registering Seeders: Defined within the DatabaseSeeder and referenced in the package service provider.

Directory Structure for Seeders

For better organization, seeders are stored in the plugins/webkul/blogs/database/seeders/ directory as follows for each plugins :

+-- plugins
|   +-- webkul
|   |   +-- blogs
|   |   |   +-- database
|   |   |   |   +-- factories
|   |   |   |   +-- migrations
|   |   |   |   +-- seeders
|   |   |   |   |   +-- PostSeeder.php
|   |   |   |   |   +-- PostCategorySeeder.php
|   |   |   |   +-- settings
|   |   |   +-- resources
|   |   |   +-- src

Creating a Seeder

To create a seeder, use the following command:

php artisan make:seeder PostSeeder

This will generate a new seeder file inside the Laravel default Seeders directory, you have to move the seeder into the give directory structure as shown above and also you have to update the namespace accordingly.

Example PostSeeder:

<?php

namespace Webkul\Blog\Database\Seeders;

use Illuminate\Database\Seeder;
use Illuminate\Support\Facades\DB;

class PostSeeder extends Seeder
{
    /**
     * Seed the database with sample posts.
     */
    public function run(): void
    {
        DB::table('blogs_posts')->delete();

        DB::table('blogs_posts')->insert([
            [
                'title'         => 'Sample Post',
                'sub_title'     => 'Introduction to AureusERP',
                'content'       => 'This is a sample blog post for AureusERP.',
                'slug'          => 'sample-post',
                'author_name'   => 'John Doe',
                'is_published'  => true,
                'published_at'  => now(),
                'category_id'   => 1,
                'author_id'     => 1,
                'creator_id'    => 1,
                'last_editor_id'=> 1,
                'created_at'    => now(),
                'updated_at'    => now(),
            ]
        ]);
    }
}

Registering the Seeder in DatabaseSeeder

The main DatabaseSeeder is responsible for calling all individual seeders:

<?php

namespace Webkul\Blog\Database\Seeders;

use Illuminate\Database\Seeder;

class DatabaseSeeder extends Seeder
{
    /**
     * Seed the application's database.
     *
     * @param  array  $parameters
     * @return void
     */
    public function run($parameters = [])
    {
        $this->call([
            PostSeeder::class,
        ]);
    }
}

Registering the Seeder in BlogServiceProvider.php

To make Laravel recognize the Blog module’s seeder, register it inside the BlogServiceProvider.php file:

<?php

namespace Webkul\Blog;

use Webkul\PluginManager\Console\Commands\InstallCommand;
use Webkul\PluginManager\Console\Commands\UninstallCommand;
use Webkul\PluginManager\Package;
use Webkul\PluginManager\PackageServiceProvider;

class BlogServiceProvider extends PackageServiceProvider
{
    public static string $name = 'blogs';

    public static string $viewNamespace = 'blogs';

    public function configureCustomPackage(Package $package): void
    {
        $package->name(static::$name)
            ->hasViews()
            ->hasTranslations()
            ->hasMigrations([])
            ->runsMigrations()
            ->hasSeeder('Webkul\\Blog\\Database\\Seeders\\DatabaseSeeder')
            ->hasDependencies([
                'website',
            ])
            ->hasInstallCommand(function (InstallCommand $command) {
                $command
                    ->installDependencies()
                    ->runsMigrations()
                    ->runsSeeders();
            })
            ->hasUninstallCommand(function (UninstallCommand $command) {});
    }
}

You can register multiple seeder classes at once using hasSeeders(...) instead of hasSeeder(...).

With this, the install command automatically executes DatabaseSeeder.php whenever the Blog module is installed — the runsSeeders() call on the InstallCommand is what triggers the registered seeder classes during installation.

Running the Seeder Manually

Once everything is registered, you can seed the blog module manually using:

php artisan db:seed --class="Webkul\Blog\Database\Seeders\DatabaseSeeder"

Or, if you only want to seed blog posts:

php artisan db:seed --class="Webkul\Blog\Database\Seeders\PostSeeder"