Seeders

Themes can define Laravel seeders to populate the database with initial data when running php artisan db:seed. This is useful for creating default menu links, sections, sample content, or any data your theme depends on.

Configuration

To register a seeder, add a seeder entry to your theme's theme.json:

{
  "uuid": "mytheme",
  "name": "My Theme",
  "version": "1.0",
  "seeder": {
    "file": "database/seeders/MyThemeSeeder.php",
    "class": "Database\\Seeders\\MyThemeSeeder"
  }
}

Key	Description
seeder.file	Path to the seeder file, relative to the theme root directory
seeder.class	Fully qualified class name of the seeder

Theme Structure

With a seeder, your theme directory should look like this:

resources/themes/mytheme/
├── config/
├── database/
│   └── seeders/
│       └── MyThemeSeeder.php
├── lang/
├── views/
├── theme.json
└── menus.json

Creating a Seeder

A theme seeder is a standard Laravel seeder class. Place it in the database/seeders/ directory of your theme:

<?php

namespace Database\Seeders;

use Illuminate\Database\Seeder;
use App\Models\Personalization\MenuLink;

class MyThemeSeeder extends Seeder
{
    public function run(): void
    {
        MenuLink::firstOrCreate(
            ['url' => '/about'],
            ['title' => 'About Us', 'type' => 'front', 'position' => 10]
        );

        MenuLink::firstOrCreate(
            ['url' => '/contact'],
            ['title' => 'Contact', 'type' => 'front', 'position' => 20]
        );
    }
}

Running the Seeder

Theme seeders are automatically registered when the theme is active. Run the standard artisan command:

php artisan db:seed

The theme seeder will be executed alongside all other registered seeders (modules, addons, etc.).

Important

Use firstOrCreate() or updateOrCreate() instead of create() in your seeders. This prevents duplicate entries if the seeder is run multiple times.

tip

The seeder only runs when the theme is active. If you switch themes, the previous theme's seeder will not be executed.