How to run data populator after successfully creating table in Laravel app?

Question

I'm developing a blogging application in Laravel 8.

I'm preparing to deploy it on a live server, and I want the deployment process to be very user-friendly.

To this end, I have been developing an "installer" for the application:

In routes\web.php I have:

Route::get('/install', [InstallController::class, 'index']);

In app\Http\Controllers\InstallController.php I have this code in order to run the migration If there is no user Table:

class InstallController extends Controller
{
    public function index() {
      if (!Schema::hasTable('users')) {
        Artisan::call('migrate'); 
      } 
      return redirect('/register')->with('success', 'Way to go! You can create an account.');
    }
}

The code above works, all tables are created and the (first) user is invited to register.

question

The problem is that I haven't found a way to have the controller run the database seeder after successfully creating the table.

How to achieve this in a simple and friendly way?

Answer 1

You can do this by running php artisan db:seed or via the Artisan look and feel, such as Artisan::call('db:seed');

Your code will be:

class InstallController extends Controller
{
    public function index() {
      if (!Schema::hasTable('users')) {
        Artisan::call('migrate');
        Artisan::call('db:seed'); 
      } 
      return redirect('/register')->with('success', 'Way to go! You can create an account.');
    }
}

source: https://laravel.com/docs/9.x/seeding#running-seeder

However, I recommend not going this route and instead creating a deployment script that will do all of this for you. As such, you expose this route to all users who will use the application, and malicious users can exploit it.