README

A simple PHP tool to create test data from existing database by mixing records.

Sometimes you want to test your application with the same amount of data what you have in your production enviroment. This script reads your exisiting data and mix its content.

Installation

composer --require-dev rrd108/data-mixer

Usage

1. Create a backup of your production data and copy it to your development enviroment. NEVER use this tool in production, as you can accidently mix your data. NO RESTORE, NO UNDO, NO CANCEL method, what is mixed once, can not be reverted without a backup.

2. Create a new object in your code. DataMixer accepts the same arguments as PDO. $dataMixer = new DataMixer('mysql:dbname=test;host=localhost', 'user', 'superSecret');

3. Define your selected fields to be mixed in the $fields variable.

4. Get your mixed data and modify it if you want. $mixed = $dataMixer->getMixed($table, $fields);

5. Update your records in tha database. This will actually update your database, so be careful, NO RESTORE, NO UNDO, NO CANCEL method. $dataMixer->updateRows($mixed);

$fields array

The fields defined in $fields array will be mixed.

Simple mixing

$fields = ['first_name', 'last_name'];

In this case in the $table database table all records' first_name and last_name values will be mixed randomly. All other table fields will be unchaned.

Let's say we have the following starter table.

The simple mixing may give us the following result

You can see the names are mixed, but all other data (passport_number and sex) is unchanged.

Dependent mixing

$fields = [
    ['first_name' => 'sex'], 
    'last_name'
];

In this case in the $table database table all records' first_name and last_name values will be mixed randomly like in simple mixing, but first_name set to be dependent on the value of the sex field. It means on mixing the script will only select first names from other records where the value of the sex field is the same.

The dependent mixing may give us the following result from the same starter table

As we had only one female in our table and first_name is dependent on sex, there was nobody to mix with the first name. That is why Jane kept her first name.

CLI Usage

The package can be used as a shell script. $ vendor/bin/datamixer

The script will ask the PDO dsn string, username and password for connecting to the database, than the table name and the fileds array.

The fileds array shoud be define like this: first_name => sex, last_name