Laravel 5 dynamically run migrations

so I have created my own blog package in a structure of Packages/Sitemanager/Blog I have a service provider that looks like the following:

namespace SitemanagerBlog;

use IlluminateSupportServiceProvider as LaravelServiceProvider;

class BlogServiceProvider extends LaravelServiceProvider {

    /**
     * Indicates if loading of the provider is deferred.
     *
     * @var bool
     */
    protected $defer = false;

    /**
     * Bootstrap the application events.
     *
     * @return void
     */
    public function boot() {

        $this->handleConfigs();
        $this->handleMigrations();
        $this->handleViews();
        $this->handleRoutes();
    }

    /**
     * Register the service provider.
     *
     * @return void
     */
    public function register() {

        // Bind any implementations.
        $this->app->make('SitemanagerBlogControllersBlogController');
    }

    /**
     * Get the services provided by the provider.
     *
     * @return array
     */
    public function provides() {

        return [];
    }

    private function handleConfigs() {

        $configPath = __DIR__ . '/config/blog.php';

        $this->publishes([$configPath => config_path('blog.php')]);

        $this->mergeConfigFrom($configPath, 'blog');
    }

    private function handleTranslations() {

        $this->loadTranslationsFrom(__DIR__.'/lang', 'blog');
    }

    private function handleViews() {

        $this->loadViewsFrom(__DIR__.'/views', 'blog');

        $this->publishes([__DIR__.'/views' => base_path('resources/views/vendor/blog')]);
    }

    private function handleMigrations() {

        $this->publishes([__DIR__ . '/migrations' => base_path('database/migrations')]);
    }

    private function handleRoutes() {

        include __DIR__.'/routes.php';
    }
}

Now, what i would like to do is run the migrations dynamically if they have never been run before or within an installation process i suppose. I’ve seen in older documentation you could so something like this:

Artisan::call('migrate', array('--path' => 'app/migrations'));

However, this is invalid in laravel 5, how can I approach this?

Answer

Artisan::call('migrate', array('--path' => 'app/migrations'));

will work in Laravel 5, but you’ll likely need to make a couple tweaks.

First, you need a use Artisan; line at the top of your file (where use IlluminateSupportServiceProvider... is), because of Laravel 5’s namespacing. (You can alternatively do Artisan::call – the is important).

You likely also need to do this:

Artisan::call('migrate', array('--path' => 'app/migrations', '--force' => true));

The --force is necessary because Laravel will, by default, prompt you for a yes/no in production, as it’s a potentially destructive command. Without --force, your code will just sit there spinning its wheels (Laravel’s waiting for a response from the CLI, but you’re not in the CLI).

I’d encourage you to do this stuff somewhere other than the boot method of a service provider. These can be heavy calls (relying on both filesystem and database calls you don’t want to make on every pageview). Consider an explicit installation console command or route instead.