README

Quick start

composer install
cd examples
../bin/faker-template owner
../bin/faker-template owner -r 10 -o result/owner.json
../bin/faker-template pet_type -r inf -o result/pet_type.json
../bin/faker-template pet -r 10 -o result/pet.json
../bin/faker-template visit -r 10 -o result/visit.json

Template

Template is a simple php file that return an array :

<?php

return [
    'id' => ['incrementId'],
    'first_name' => ['firstName'],
    'last_name' => ['lastName'],
    'city' => ['city'],
    'telephone' => ['phoneNumber']
];

The template is equal as:

$faker = \Faker\Factory::create();

return [
    'id' => $faker->incrementId(),
    'first_name' => $faker->firstName(),
    'last_name' => $faker->lastName(),
    'city' => $faker->city(),
    'telephone' => $faker->phoneNumber()
];

Note all key starts with _ will be discard when output. You can use key starts with _ to store temporal data to facilitate data faker-templateeration.

Template value type can be one of:

array

When template is an array, it interpret as ['method', 'arg1', 'arg2', ...]。

Same as :

call_user_func_array([$faker, 'method'], ['arg1', 'arg2', ...]);

string

When template is an string, first it split the string using ..

if first part of the string is an entry of current result, then get the entry of result.

if first part of the string is not present in current result, then use $faker->pickup($name) random pickup one from the dataset.

The rest part of the string use as the index for the entry.

For example: pet_type will random choose one from pet_type.json.

iterator

When template is an iterator, it will get the next value of the iterator.

For example:

<?php

return [
    'type' => new ArrayIterator(['a', 'b'])
];

This will generator two rows:

[
  {"type":"a"},
  {"type":"b"}
]

Note the \Generator is also an iterator, so this is same as previous one:

<?php

return [
    'type' => function() {
        foreach (['a', 'b'] as $type) {
            yield $type;
        }
    }
];

closure

When the template is an closure, the call result of the closure will be used. if the call result is an iterator, the iterator value will use instead.

For example:

<?php

return [
    'type' => function($faker) {
        return ['a', 'b'];
    }
];

The will generate :

[
  {"type": ["a", "b"]}
]

But:

<?php

return [
    'type' => function($faker) {
        return new ArrayIterator(['a', 'b']);
    }
];

It generates:

[
  {"type":"a"},
  {"type":"b"}
]

Config

You can create a file .faker-config in current directory or home directory. The config file is in json format which contains:

• locale the locale for faker generator
• template the template directory
• dataset the data set directory
• options additional command line options

generators

incrementId($name = 'default', $start = 1)   // 1, 2, 3, ...
pickup($dataSetName)
dataset($dataSetName)

Tips

• use $faker->optional() to create nullable value
• use $faker->unique() to create unique value