sabarinathan/ci4-schema-to-migration

Generate CodeIgniter 4 migration files from an existing database schema.

dev-main 2026-01-15 19:00 UTC

Requires

• php: ^7.4 || ^8.0
• codeigniter4/framework: ^4.0

MIT

• Sabarinathan

README

A CodeIgniter 4 package that generates migration files from your existing database tables.

Installation

Option 1: Via Composer (Recommended)

Run the following command in your CodeIgniter 4 project root:

composer require sabarinathan/ci4-schema-to-migration

Option 2: Manual Installation (Local Repositories)

If the package is not available on Packagist yet, you can refer to it locally.

1. Open your CI4 project's composer.json.
2. Add a repositories section:

   "repositories": [
       {
           "type": "vcs",
           "url": "https://github.com/sabarinathan/ci4-schema-to-migration"
       }
   ],

3. Run:

   composer require sabarinathan/ci4-schema-to-migration:dev-main

Command Discovery

After installation, the command dbmigration:generate will be automatically discovered by CodeIgniter 4's Spark CLI through the composer autoloading. You don't need to manually register it.

Verify it is listed by running:

php spark list

You should see dbmigration:generate under the Database group.

Usage

Run the Spark command to generate a migration for a specific table:

php spark dbmigration:generate <table_name>

Or generate migrations for ALL tables in the database:

php spark dbmigration:generate --all

Example:

php spark dbmigration:generate users

This will create a new migration file in app/Database/Migrations/.

Features

• Inspects Database: Reads column definitions, types, defaults, and nullability.
• Keys Support: Detects Primary Keys, Foreign Keys, and other Indexes.
• CI4 Compatibility: Generates standard CodeIgniter\Database\Migration classes using Forge.
• Safe: Uses createTable(..., true) to prevent errors if the table already exists (IF NOT EXISTS).

Structure

• src/Commands/GenerateMigration.php: The Spark command.
• src/Libraries/DatabaseInspector.php: Abstraction for reading DB schema.
• src/Libraries/MigrationGenerator.php: Logic to build migration code.
• src/Templates/migration.tpl.php: Template for the migration file.