README

Current version: 2.6.1

Laravel Visual Migrator is a powerful visual database schema design tool integrated directly into your Laravel application. Model your tables, fields, and relationships visually and transform them into Laravel migration files instantly.

Key Features

• 🎨 Visual Architecture Builder: Design your database schema using a highly interactive and intuitive diagram interface powered by Vue Flow.
• 🔄 Bidirectional Synchronization:
  • Import: Automatically scan your database/migrations folder and visualize your existing tables.
  • Export: Generate clean, PSR-compliant Laravel migration PHP files from your visual design.
• 🛡️ Draft & Persistence System: Added tables (Drafts) are preserved in your browser's local storage until you officially save them to migrations, preventing work loss on refresh.
• � Layout Stability: Smart merging logic ensures that your custom node positions are preserved even after backend synchronization.
• ⚡ Real-time Change Detection: Automatically detects when migration files are modified on the server and notifies you to sync.
• � Table Selection: Choose specifically which tables you want to export or sync, giving you granular control over your codebase.

Efficiency & Performance

• Optimized Network Traffic: Uses debounced requests for layout saving and throttled polling for change detection.
• Tab Visibility Awareness: Polling automatically pauses when the browser tab is inactive to save system resources.
• Lightweight Metadata: Relationship and layout data are stored efficiently in a single JSON file within your migrations folder.

Installation

Install the package via composer:

composer require ekosuprianto96/laravel-visual-migrator

Publish and setup the package automatically:

php artisan visual-migrator:install

This command will publish assets, configuration, and offers to run the database migrations for you.

Important

If you choose not to run migrations during installation, make sure to run them manually afterwards:

php artisan migrate

How to Access

After installation, the Visual Migrator dashboard is available at:

http://your-app.test/visual-migrator

Note

By default, the dashboard is only accessible in the local environment. You can change the URL path and middleware in the config/visual-migrator.php file.

Useful Commands

Reset Metadata

If you need to reset all visual layout data (node positions), you can use the refresh command:

php artisan visual-migrator:refresh

Cleanup Orphaned Data

If you delete migration files manually, you can clean up the orphaned visual metadata from the database:

php artisan visual-migrator:cleanup

Testing

Run the unit tests using PHPUnit:

cd packages/laravel
composer install
./vendor/bin/phpunit

Configuration

The configuration file is located at config/visual-migrator.php. You can customize the following options:

return [
    /**
     * The URL path where the visual migrator dashboard will be accessible.
     * Default: 'visual-migrator'
     */
    'path' => 'visual-migrator',

    /**
     * The middleware applied to the visual migrator routes.
     * Usually 'web' is sufficient for local development.
     */
    'middleware' => ['web'],

    /**
     * List of migration tables to be ignored by the visual migrator.
     * These tables will not be parsed or displayed in the diagram dashboard.
     * Perfect for hiding Laravel system/boilerplate tables.
     */
    'ignore_migrations' => [
        'users', 'password_reset_tokens', 'failed_jobs', 
        'personal_access_tokens', 'cache', 'jobs', 
        'job_batches', 'sessions',
    ],
];

Important

For security reasons, the dashboard is only accessible in the local environment by default.

Why Use Laravel Visual Migrator?

1. Speed up Prototyping: Stop writing migrations by hand. Drag, drop, and click to build your core architecture in minutes.
2. Visual Documentation: Your diagram is your living documentation. New team members can understand the database structure at a glance.
3. Reduced Human Error: Ensure foreign keys and data types are consistent across tables without worrying about syntax errors.
4. Non-Destructive: It works alongside your existing migrations. You can selectively sync only what you need.

Future Roadmap

• Visual Seeders: Generate factory and seeder data directly from the diagram.
• Export to Laravel Blueprint: Support for the popular Laravel Blueprint syntax.
• Collaborative Mode: Real-time collaborative design for teams.
• Reverse Engineering Support: Advanced parsing for complex raw SQL dumps.

Contributing

Please see CONTRIBUTING for details.

Credits

• Eko Suprianto
• All Contributors

License

The MIT License (MIT). Please see License File for more information.