Installation

Install the plugin and one data generator in your CakePHP application:

composer require --dev dereuromark/cakephp-fixture-factories fakerphp/faker

Faker works with the plugin's PHP 8.2 minimum. You can instead install johnykvsky/dummygenerator on PHP 8.3 or newer; see Generators. The plugin auto-detects the installed generator, preferring Faker when both are present.

Load the plugin

bin/cake plugin load --only-debug CakephpFixtureFactories

This adds the plugin to config/plugins.php with onlyDebug => true. Keep test configuration separate from production databases and ensure debug is enabled when running development commands. An optional configuration entry also permits production builds without development dependencies:

// Within the existing config/plugins.php array:
'CakephpFixtureFactories' => [
    'onlyDebug' => true,
    'optional' => true,
],

Baking factories requires the CakePHP Bake plugin. If your application does not already include it, install and load it:

composer require --dev cakephp/bake
bin/cake plugin load --only-debug Bake

Prepare the test database

Configure a separate test connection in your application and create its schema using your application's migrations. Factories create records in existing tables; they do not create the schema. The CakePHP testing guide explains test connection aliases. Setup covers migration and transaction cleanup options.

Continue with Getting started to bake and run one factory.