Iain Freestone

Posted on Jul 20, 2020 • Updated on Aug 13, 2020

20 Resources for generating fake and mock data

#webdev #javascript #beginners

Speed up development of your website or app using fake or mock data, everything from fake company logos and addresses to random user photos.

1. Faker JS

faker.js - generate massive amounts of fake data in the browser and node.js

Demo

https://rawgit.com/Marak/faker.js/master/examples/browser/index.html

Faker Cloud

Don't have a local development setup ready?

Try our hosted version of Faker at https://fakercloud.com/api

https://github.com/faker/faker-cloud

Usage

Browser

    <script src = "faker.js" type = "text/javascript"></script>
    <script>
      var randomName = faker.name.findName(); // Caitlyn Kerluke
      var randomEmail = faker.internet.email(); // Rusty@arne.info
      var randomCard = faker.helpers.createCard(); // random contact card containing many properties
    </script>

Node.js

    var faker = require('faker');
    var randomName = faker.name.findName(); // Rowan Nikolaus
    var randomEmail = faker.internet.email(); // Kassandra.Haley@erich.biz
    var randomCard = faker.helpers.createCard

…

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2. fony

fony is a simple command line tool that generates dummy JSON data from a provided template.

fony

fony is a simple command line tool that generates dummy JSON data from a provided template.

The application utilizes Chance.js under the hood so any data type supported by Chance.js is supported by fony.

fony is intended to provide a simple solution to the most common data generation needs. You can use the command line to pipe output from fony to other tools and integrate it into your workflow.

Installation

npm install --global fony

Usage

  Usage: fony [options]

  Options:

    -h, --help                 output usage information
    -V, --version              output the version number
    -t, --template <template>  JSON template for data to be generated
    -c, --count [count]        The number of elements to create, defaults to 1

Example

Mac and Linux folks can use single quotes around a double-quoted string of JSON like this:

fony -t '{"name": "name", "age": "age", "address": "address"}' -c 2

But Windows handles quotes on the command line differently, so…

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Fake data generator

LOOKING FOR CONTRIBUTORS

https://github.com/boo1ean/casual/issues/109

Installation

npm install casual

Usage

var casual = require('casual');

// Generate random sentence
// You don't need function call operator here
// because most of generators use properties mechanism
var sentence = casual.sentence;

// Generate random city name
var city = casual.city;

// Define custom generator
casual.define('point', function() {
    return {
        x: Math.random(),
        y: Math.random()
    };
});

// Generate random point
var point = casual.point;

// And so on..

Casual uses javascript properties for common generators so you don't need to use function call operator

Embedded generators

// Address
casual.country              // 'United Kingdom'
casual.city                 // 'New Ortiz chester'
casual.zip(digits = {

…

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4. Fake Data - A form filler you won't hate

Chrome Extension, Fake Data will help you insert random values in any form field. Generate random names, emails, addresses, phone numbers and many more types of data.

fakeStoreApi is a free online REST API that you can use whenever you need Pseudo-real data for your e-commerce or shopping website without running any server-side code. It's awesome for teaching purposes, sample codes, tests, etc.

6. Chance

Chance - Random generator helper for JavaScript

chancejs / chancejs

Chance - Random generator helper for JavaScript

Chance

Chance - Random generator helper for JavaScript

Homepage: http://chancejs.com

Many more details on http://chancejs.com but this single library can generate random numbers, characters, strings, names, addresses dice, and pretty much anything else.

It includes the basic building blocks for all these items and is built on top of a Mersenne Twister so it can generate these things with repeatability, if desired.

Usage

See the full docs for details on installation and usage.

Dependent tools

Chance CLI - Use Chance on the command line.
Chance Token Replacer - Replace tokens in a string with Chance generated items.
Dream.js - Lightweight json data generator
Fake JSON Schema - Use chance generators to populate JSON Schema samples.
Mocker Data Generator - Minimal JSON data generator.
swagger-mock-api - Generate API mocks from a Swagger spec file enriched with Chance types and constraints
fony - A simple command line tool for generating fake data…

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7. Mock

Mock.js is a simulation data generator to help the front-end to develop and prototype separate from the back-end progress and reduce some monotony particularly while writing automated tests.

nuysoft / Mock

A simulation data generator

Mock.js

Mock.js is a simulation data generator to help the front-end to develop and prototype separate from the back-end progress and reduce some monotony particularly while writing automated tests.

The official site: http://mockjs.com

Features

Generate simulated data according to the data template
Provide request/response mocking for ajax requests
~~Generate simulated data according to HTML-based templates~~

This library is loosely inspired by Elijah Manor's post Mocking Introduction, mennovanslooten/mockJSON, appendto/jquery-mockjax and victorquinn/chancejs.

Questions?

If you have any questions, please feel free to ask through New Issue.

Reporting an Issue

Make sure the problem you're addressing is reproducible. Use http://jsbin.com/ or http://jsfiddle.net/ to provide a test page. Indicate what browsers the issue can be reproduced in. What version of Mock.js is the issue reproducible in. Is it reproducible after updating to the latest version?

License

Mock.js is available under the terms of the MIT License.

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8. Generate Data

Ever needed custom formatted sample / test data, like, bad? Well, that's the idea of this script. It's a free, open source tool written in JavaScript, PHP and MySQL that lets you quickly generate large volumes of custom data in a variety of formats for use in testing software, populating databases, and... so on and so forth.

9. Fake Data Generator

Just a small open-source script to create fake data given a simple JSON model.

Cambalab / fake-data-generator

Just a small open-source script to create fake data given a simple JSON model.

Fake Data Generator

Just a small open-source script to create fake data given a simple JSON model.

Introduction

This is a tiny package motivated by the need of generating certain amount of fake data to populate backend fixtures. We started implementing and editing a single .js file with specific characteristics of some backend models and the desired amount we wanted to generate until we ended up with something like this. We personally decided to use the output files in the API endpoints of a test server but you could use them any way you like, they're just .json files.

Built-In Dependencies

Faker: we use the Faker API to create fake data

Installation

There are a few ways you can get this library installed:

Install as a standalone forked repository

# clone our project or fork your own
git clone https://github.com/Cambalab/fake-data-generator.git
# install dependencies
npm install

Install as an npm…

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10. Mocker Data Generator

A simplified way to generate massive mock data based on a schema, using the awesome fake/random data generators like (FakerJs, ChanceJs, CasualJs and RandExpJs), all in one tool to generate your fake data for testing.

danibram / mocker-data-generator

A simplified way to generate masive mock data based on a schema, using the awesome fake/random data generators like (FakerJs, ChanceJs, CasualJs and RandExpJs), all in one tool to generate your fake data for testing.

mocker-data-generator

Now the library has been migrated 100% to typescript typing are included.

You can test online here: https://danibram.github.io/mocker-data-generator/

Getting started

Install the module with npm install mocker-data-generator

Import it

var mocker = require('mocker-data-generator').default (vainilla way)

or

import mocker from 'mocker-data-generator' (ES6 or Typescript way)

Then use it:

var user = {
    firstName: {
        faker: 'name.firstName'
    },
    lastName: {
        faker: 'name.lastName'
    },
    country: {
        faker: 'address.country'
    },
    createdAt: {
        faker: 'date.past'
    },
    username: {
        function: function() {
            return (
                this.object.lastName.substring(0, 5

…

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11. Random User

A free, open-source API for generating random user data. Like Lorem Ipsum, but for people.

12. JSON Schema Faker

Use JSON Schema along with fake generators to provide consistent and meaningful fake data for your system.

json-schema-faker / json-schema-faker

JSON-Schema + fake data generators

Use JSON Schema along with fake generators to provide consistent and meaningful fake data for your system.

What's next?

Breaking-changes towards v0.5.x API:

deprecated — You will not longer be able to call jsf() and get a fully-dereferenced result. It will just generate given refs and inline ones, nothing else
- jsf.generate() is the sync-version, with partial dereferencing through given refs, etc.
- jsf.resolve() is the async-version, with full dereferencing, given refs are also supported.
deprecated — TypeScript sources are not longer used, however d.ts definitions will be updated on time.

Usage info from README.md was moved to docs/, read more.

Contributors

We are more than happy to welcome new contributors, our project is still being developed, but we need more feedback!

Please see our contribution guide to learn how.

We are looking for your help!

We have a gitter room for…

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13. Fake Logos

A selection of fake but convincing company logos for real-looking test data.

pigment / fake-logos

Fake Logos

A selection of fake but convincing company logos for real-looking test data.

Usage

Download or link to the logos from the table below

The logos are accessible by:

{number}.png for tools wanting to pull in a random logo
Company name for direct access

The Logos

Color Logo	Grayscale Logo	Sizes
		svg, small, medium, large

Color Logo	Grayscale Logo	Sizes
		svg, small, medium, large

Color Logo	Grayscale Logo	Sizes
		svg, small, medium, large

Color Logo	Grayscale Logo	Sizes
		svg, small, medium, large

Color Logo	Grayscale Logo	Sizes
		svg, small, medium, large

Color Logo	Grayscale Logo	Sizes
		svg, small, medium, large

Color Logo	Grayscale Logo	Sizes
		svg, small, medium, large

Color Logo	Grayscale Logo	Sizes
		svg, small, medium, large

Color Logo	Grayscale Logo	Sizes
		svg,

…

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14. Mockaroo

Need some mock data to test your app? Mockaroo lets you generate up to 1,000 rows of realistic test data in CSV, JSON, SQL, and Excel formats.

15. JSON Placeholder

JSONPlaceholder is a simple fake REST API for testing and prototyping.

typicode / jsonplaceholder

A simple online fake REST API server

JSONPlaceholder

JSONPlaceholder is a simple fake REST API for testing and prototyping.

It's like an image placeholder but for web developers.

JSONPlaceholder is powered by JSON Server.

Why?

Most of the time when trying a new library, hacking a prototype or following a tutorial, I found myself in need of some data.

I didn't like the idea of using some public API because I had the feeling that I was spending more time registering a client and understanding a complex API than focusing on my task.

But I liked the idea of image placeholders for web designers. So I decided to code a little Express server inspired by that and here is JSONPlaceholder.

You can find it running here and are free to use it in your developments: https://jsonplaceholder.typicode.com.

I hope you will find it useful.