Laravel Beginners Guide: Creating Models, Migrations, Seeders, and Many-to-Many Relationships

In this guide, I’ll walk you through how to create a table, insert fake data, and build relationships between tables — all using Laravel’s powerful artisan commands.

Step 1: Install Laravel and Set Up the Database

After installing Laravel, open the .env file and update your database settings:

DB_DATABASE=your_db_name
DB_USERNAME=your_db_user
DB_PASSWORD=your_db_password

Now run:

php artisan migrate

This will create default tables like users, password_resets, etc.

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✅ Step 2: Create a New Table (employees)

Let’s say we want to create a new table called employees. Use this command:

php artisan make:migration create_employees_table

Open the new migration file in database/migrations/ and define the table structure like:

Schema::create('employees', function (Blueprint $table) {
    $table->id();
    $table->string('name');
    $table->string('email');
    $table->timestamps(); // important for created_at & updated_at
});

Then run:

php artisan migrate

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✅ Step 3: Create Model, Factory, Seeder, and Controller

To save time, generate all at once:

php artisan make:model Employee -c -f -s

Or if you haven’t created a migration file yet:

php artisan make:model Employee -c -f -s -m

This creates:

• Model: app/Models/Employee.php
• Controller: app/Http/Controllers/EmployeeController.php
• Factory: database/factories/EmployeeFactory.php
• Seeder: database/seeders/EmployeeSeeder.php
• Migration (optional)

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✅ Step 4: Edit Files for Fake Data

Model (Employee.php)

protected $fillable = ['name', 'email'];

Factory (EmployeeFactory.php)

public function definition()
{
    return [
        'name' => $this->faker->name,
        'email' => $this->faker->unique()->safeEmail,
    ];
}

Seeder (EmployeeSeeder.php)

public function run()
{
    \App\Models\Employee::factory()->count(10)->create();
}

Run the seeder:

php artisan db:seed --class=EmployeeSeeder

⚠️ Tip: Make sure timestamps() is included in your migration; otherwise, factory-generated data won’t work properly.

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✅ Step 5: Create Another Table (jobrolls)

Now, repeat the same for jobrolls:

php artisan make:model Jobroll -c -f -m -s

Define the table in the migration:

Schema::create('jobrolls', function (Blueprint $table) {
    $table->id();
    $table->string('jobname');
    $table->timestamps();
});

Update:

• Jobroll model → fillable property
• JobrollFactory → define jobname
• JobrollSeeder → use factory to create records

Then run:

php artisan migrate
php artisan db:seed --class=JobrollSeeder

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✅ Step 6: Setup Many-to-Many Relationship

Create a pivot table between employees and jobrolls:

php artisan make:migration create_employee_jobroll_table --create=employee_jobroll

Define the pivot table structure:

Schema::create('employee_jobroll', function (Blueprint $table) {
    $table->id();
    $table->foreignId('employee_id')->constrained()->onDelete('cascade');
    $table->foreignId('jobroll_id')->constrained()->onDelete('cascade');
    $table->timestamps();
});

Run:

php artisan migrate

Now update the relationship in the models.

In Employee.php

public function jobrolls()
{
    return $this->belongsToMany(Jobroll::class);
}

In Jobroll.php

public function employees()
{
    return $this->belongsToMany(Employee::class);
}

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✅ Step 7: Assign Jobrolls to Employees

You can use Laravel Tinker to assign relationships:

php artisan tinker

Inside tinker:

use App\Models\Employee;
$employee = Employee::find(1);
$employee->jobrolls()->attach([1, 3]); // assign jobrolls with IDs 1 and 3

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🔄 Useful Artisan Commands Summary

Task	Command
Create Model + C/F/S/M	php artisan make:model ModelName -c -f -s -m
Run migrations	php artisan migrate
Reset all tables	php artisan migrate:reset
Fresh migrate & seed	php artisan migrate:fresh --seed
Run a specific seeder	php artisan db:seed --class=ClassNameSeeder
Use Laravel console	php artisan tinker

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💡 Final Thoughts

Laravel makes it super easy to handle database structures, fake data, and relationships — all with clean and readable code. If you’re a beginner, try creating small projects like this to practice working with models and relationships.

Have questions or suggestions? Get in touch with me!