Existing database integration with Laravel 5.0 - database

Question

I am new to laravel. I've got the whole database designed in phpmyadmin. Now I want to integrate the existing database in Laravel. Is there any way to do that? If so then do I have to create models?

Answer 1

Yes, you can use your database in laravel but at first you have to provide your database credentials to allow the framework/Laravel to access your database. So, you can use a .env file or simply you can use the config/database.php to provide credentials, for example, to use your mySql database all you need to setup the database configuration as follows:
'default' => env('DB_CONNECTION', 'mysql'),
'mysql' => [
'driver' => 'mysql',
'host' => env('DB_HOST', 'localhost'),
'port' => env('DB_PORT', '3306'),
'database' => env('DB_DATABASE', 'your_database_name'),
'username' => env('DB_USERNAME', 'your_database_username'),
'password' => env('DB_PASSWORD', 'your_database_password'),
'charset' => 'utf8',
'collation' => 'utf8_unicode_ci',
'prefix' => '',
'strict' => false,
'engine' => null,
]
Then regarding your second question, yes, you have to create models for each table or you can use DB facade to run queries directly from your controllers (not recommended). For example, to access your posts table you can create a Post model in app folder which may look something like this:
<?php
namespace App;
use Illuminate\Database\Eloquent\Model;
class Post extends Model {
// If your table name is other than posts
// then use this property to tell Laravel
// the table name.
protected $table = 'posts';
}
Then you can use something like this:
$posts = \App\Post::all(); // Get all posts
$post = \App\Post::find(1); // Get the post with id 1
If you don't want to use Eloquent Model like one I've created above then you may use something like this:
$posts = \DB::table('posts')->get(); // Get allp posts
These are some basic examples to get you start. To learn more about the use cases of models/database you should visit Laravel website and read the manual (find Database section and check Query Builder and Eloquent).