yIi2 generate demo data with migrations - yii2

Question

I need to setup demo sites quickly with demo data, including hourly reset of data for a public demo site. Since our data uses timestamps relative to "now" (e.g. archived_timestamp), we cannot just restore an sql dump with fixed timestamps.
My idea is to use Yii2 migrations for that task with PHP code generating timestamps and inserting the demo data.
How to achieve that?
Are Yii2 migrations the right tool for that?
Is it recommended to store the migration file in a seperate subdirectory that our demo setup does not interfere with ordinary "migrate/up" and "migrate/down" processes?
Is this migration bound to a file naming scheme or can this be e.g. demo-data-setup.php ?

Answer 1

Are Yii2 migrations the right tool for that?
Could be if you need a proper sequence of sql command and instruction for create and populate a specific set of table and data you can use the funtcion up for creation an popluation and the function down for drop delete (or delete) what you need.
I*s it recommended to store the migration file in a seperate subdirectory that our demo setup does not interfere with ordinary "migrate/up" and "migrate/down" processes? Of course
Is this migration bound to a file naming scheme or can this be e.g. demo-data-setup.php ? In yii2 (but also in the other migration tools ) the migration file are related to a proper template, tipically datetime_migration_name.php
But for my experience for a proper and recurrent create/populate and drop/update/delete could be useful in some situation use a controller, especially if these activities are to be launched by web page or a URL without having to launch console commands use a controller with the appropriate action can be even up and down and possibly a view to an appropriate echo the results of operations

Answer 2

Yes, you could assign command name using controller map, configure migration path & table and use it without interfering with the original migration command.
In the console app's config, add a controller map with demo
'controllerMap' => [
'demo-setup' => [
'class' => 'yii\console\controllers\MigrateController',
'migrationPath' => '#common/migrations/demo',
'migrationTable' => '{{%demo_setup_migration}}'
],
cd to your console app directory and use demo-setup command as you would use migrate command.
./yii demo-setup/create schema
./yii demo-setup/create sample-data
./yii demo-setup
You may wish to setup a cron job to re-create db and apply migration or re-apply migration to existing db to override demo data.

Answer 3

Are Yii2 migrations the right tool for that?
As long as you store your demo migrations in a separate location than your main migration. To be honest, when I start a new Yii2 project I always start with creating migrations for demo data (I also create the first user with migration). I usually use faker, and some of my own classes to generate demo data.
Is it recommended to store the migration file in a seperate subdirectory that our demo setup does not interfere with ordinary "migrate/up" and "migrate/down" processes? Yes, you should!
Is this migration bound to a file naming scheme or can this be e.g. demo-data-setup.php? From the official Yii2 documentation about naming migrations:
Note: Because the name argument will be used as part of the generated migration class name, it should only contain letters, digits, and/or underscore characters.
Ps.: don't overengineer your projects

Answer 4

Are Yii2 migrations the right tool for that?
No, migrations are for database structure changes (add a column, set index,..) more than fill tables with data. In your case, I would write a component, that have delete / create function for every model you need to restore. Then, you can call your component with a cron task.

Answer 5

You can use fixtures.
Fixtures are an important part of testing. Their main purpose is to set up the environment in a fixed/known state so that your tests are repeatable and run in an expected way. Yii provides a fixture framework that allows you to define your fixtures precisely and use them easily both when running your tests with Codeception and independently.