Before going to start our coding we need to know about Laravel Migration and how it helps us.
First of all, if we want to build a project. We need to design our database first. So what can we do? We can design our database directly. If you miss some field/column or some datatype, you need to fix it directly into the database which is a bad practice in Laravel.
In another scenario, Suppose you have a project and it needs to set up to your friend's device, you might need to send the SQL file; which is painful.
Now think if you have the feature like you pull the project and run a command, Boom your database is being set up. Isn't it very helpful?
Laravel migration does the same. You don't need to take the pain of SQL file or if you miss a data type or any spelling mistake, you can fix it through your coding. You need not work directly with the database. You will fix it to your code and just run php artisan migrate:refresh. So hopefully you got the benefit of Laravel migration.
Now let's jump to another scenario.
Sometimes we are much worried when we need to add or modify our existing database table.
For example, we have a User Model and users migration table and it contains name, username, email_verified_at password.
<?php
use Illuminate\Database\Migrations\Migration;
use Illuminate\Database\Schema\Blueprint;
use Illuminate\Support\Facades\Schema;
class CreateUsersTable extends Migration
{
/**
* Run the migrations.
*
* @return void
*/
public function up()
{
Schema::create('users', function (Blueprint $table) {
$table->bigIncrements('id');
$table->string('name');
$table->string('email')->unique();
$table->timestamp('email_verified_at')->nullable();
$table->string('password');
$table->rememberToken();
$table->timestamps();
});
}
/**
* Reverse the migrations.
*
* @return void
*/
public function down()
{
Schema::dropIfExists('users');
}
}
But after deploying our project and after having our many users we found, we need to add a new field in our table like phone_number. Also mentioned, we need to keep our existing data.
So, we will create a new migration file for adding a new column in our existing table.
Now use this command:
php artisan make:migration add_phone_number_to_users_table
Here we need to ensure that the table's name needs to match the new migration file like we use users in both places.
After using the command we can see a new migration file like this:
<?php
use Illuminate\Database\Migrations\Migration;
use Illuminate\Database\Schema\Blueprint;
use Illuminate\Support\Facades\Schema;
class AddPhoneNumberToUsersTable extends Migration
{
/**
* Run the migrations.
*
* @return void
*/
public function up()
{
Schema::table('users', function (Blueprint $table) {
//
});
}
/**
* Reverse the migrations.
*
* @return void
*/
public function down()
{
Schema::table('users', function (Blueprint $table) {
//
});
}
}
Now you can add your desire field in this migration file. As we need a phone_number field.
<?php
use Illuminate\Database\Migrations\Migration;
use Illuminate\Database\Schema\Blueprint;
use Illuminate\Support\Facades\Schema;
class AddPhoneNumberToUsersTable extends Migration
{
/**
* Run the migrations.
*
* @return void
*/
public function up()
{
Schema::table('users', function (Blueprint $table) {
$table->string('phone_number')->unique()->after('email');
});
}
/**
* Reverse the migrations.
*
* @return void
*/
public function down()
{
Schema::table('users', function (Blueprint $table) {
//
});
}
}
Here we added phone_number field after email in up() method. You have the flexibility to put that column where ever you want by using after() or before(). You can learn more modifier from Laravel Documentation Column Modifier
Now we are one step behind from our job done.
<?php
use Illuminate\Database\Migrations\Migration;
use Illuminate\Database\Schema\Blueprint;
use Illuminate\Support\Facades\Schema;
class AddPhoneNumberToUsersTable extends Migration
{
/**
* Run the migrations.
*
* @return void
*/
public function up()
{
Schema::table('users', function (Blueprint $table) {
$table->string('phone_number')->unique()->after('email');
});
}
/**
* Reverse the migrations.
*
* @return void
*/
public function down()
{
Schema::table('users', function (Blueprint $table) {
$table->dropColumn('phone_number');
});
}
}
Here you can see that we are adding $table->dropColumn('phone_number'); so that if we run the rollback command and it will work properly. If you have many filed you can use array of dropcolumn like this $table->dropColumn(['phone_number']);
And finally, here we go...
Now you need to run this command:
php artisan migrate
And we have done our job. :D
You can visit Laravel Migration Documentation for more migration options.
Hope it will help you.
Top comments (13)
Thank you. It saved me time.
I though with ORM it's only one way. Thanks for this great article.
Well discussed. It worked for me. Thank you
Thanks.
Thank you for this . it save my life.
So I'm pretty damns sure if I run php artisan migrate it will without any question run all my migration files and delete all of the data. I see people thanking you here like they did not lose all their data but it always removes all the data every time I run that command. So I simply run the 1 migration file with: php artisan migrate --path=/database/migrations/full_migration_file_name_migration.php
I just tried this. Before I always used
php artisan migrate:refresh, but I needed schema altering with data retention.For me
php artisan migrateonly applied the new migration and left the data of unmodified tables untouched, opposed to the above refresh-modifier.Maybe it has been, like you described, in an old Laravel version?
If unsure there is also
php artisan migrate --pretend. It shows the SQL the migrations would produce without executing them.php artisan migratewill execute the files which is not inmigrationstable. Please read the documentation carefully.Thanks!
Welcome Brother.
Thanks. This is very helpful
You are welcome <3
So basically guys, if I try to add phone_number inside the users migration file 1, it will drop table and create another one? So my data will be lost