Laravel 5.2 how to update migration without losing data

Question

I'm using laravel 5.2 and I usually update my database according to project requirements, so I'd like to do it without losing database records. I don't mean how to seed my database.. I mean when my database is live and I want to update it throw laravel migration. I was going throw Laravel Documentation but I found nothing, so I hope to find somebody help me

Answer 1

Since you already have data in your tables then instead of rolling back your migrations (which will cause existing data losses) you can create new migration files to update your tables. Suppose you have a table users with columns name, email, password. You stored data in that table. Then you realized that you also do need to add a new column named mobile_no to your users table. To do this you need to create a new migration file. Command will be:

php artisan make:migration add_mobile_no_columns_to_users_table --table=users 

This way a new migration file will be created. Set your column details there, run the migrations using php artisan migrate and that's all. You'll have this new column in your users table without losing previously stored data.