Seeder by CartThrob Version 1.2.0

About CartThrob Seeder

CartThrob Seeder is a Data Seeding Platform for ExpressionEngine 6.1 and above. It allows for the Seeding of Channel Entries and Members into an ExpressionEngine installation through both ExpressionEngine Actions and Command Line tools. It also allows third party developers the ability to create their own custom "Seeds".

Table of Contents

• About CartThrob Seeder
  • Features
• How CartThrob Seeder Works
  • Create Fake Data
  • Members
    • Command Line
    • Action URL
  • Channel Entries
    • Command Line
    • Action URL
    • Command Line
    • Action URL
  • Extensibility
  • Remove Fake Data
  • Remove By Type
    • Command Line
    • Action URL
  • Complete Reset
    • Command Line
    • Action URL
• Channel Entry Library
• Creating a Channel Entry FieldType
• Creating Seed Objects
• Changelog

Features

1. Adds and Removes fake data to your ExpressionEngine website.
2. Robust API to create your own Seed objects for use.
3. Works with both ExpressionEngine Actions and Commands.
4. API for FieldType developers to implement their Fields into Seeder.

How CartThrob Seeder Works

CartThrob Seeder allows you to specify which type of data to Seed, how many of them to create, which child data to create, and will keep a record internally so the creation can be reversed. All data is sandboxed solely with Seeded data (with few exceptions) and can be purged when ready.

Create Fake Data

Out of the box, CartThrob Seeder allows you to create both ExpressionEngine Members and Channel Entries. For both, CartThrob Seeder uses your configured Fields (Channel and Member Fields) to determine what type of data to create. For example, the Email Field will contain a fake email, the URL field will include a fake URL, the Rich Text Editor contains a few paragraphs of Lorem Ipsum, etc.

Members

Command Line

./system/eecli.php cartthrob:seeder:seed --type member --limit 10 --role members

Action URL

https://yoursite.com/?ACT=XX&type=member&role=members

All created Members have obfuscated and impractical credentials (for security) but every Member Field will contain data.

Channel Entries

Command Line

php ./system/eecli.php cartthrob:seeder:seed --type entry --limit 10 --channel news

Action URL

https://yoursite.com/?ACT=XX&type=entry&channel=news

CartThrob Seeder operates by reading your Channel configuration and dynamically generates content based on the Channel Field Type used. For example, the Channel Entry Title is generated using random Lorem Ipsum words, the Rich Text Editor Field Type generates random HTML, and the Colorpicker Field Type generates a random color code for the field, etc.

Note this requires at least 100 Fake Members be created before processing or they'll be created as well and will be required to add the Member Role flag like the below:

Command Line

php ./system/eecli.php cartthrob:seeder:seed --type entry --limit 10 --channel news --role members

Action URL

https://yoursite.com/?ACT=XX&type=entry&channel=news&role=members

Extensibility

Note that CartThrob Seeder uses the Faker PHP library to generate Fake data.

CartThrob Seeder has 3 methods of extensibility:

1. Custom Seeds API
2. Seeder Channel Field API
3. User Defined Config Overrides

Remove Fake Data

Once you're done, Seeder can remove all Fake data from across your system. You can do this in 2 ways:

Remove By Type

If you only want to remove XX amount of a Seed Type, you can do this with a simple command:

Command Line

php ./system/eecli.php cartthrob:seeder:cleanup --type entry --limit 10

Action URL

https://yoursite.com/?ACT=YY&type=entry&limit=10

Complete Reset

To remove all Seeded data from your system:

Command Line

php ./system/eecli.php cartthrob:seeder:purge

Action URL

https://yoursite.com/?ACT=YY&type=reset