Laravel in a Container

Migrations & Eloquent

Lesson 3 of 4

What you'll learn

Write a migration that builds a Postgres table
Understand migrations as version control for your schema
Read and write rows with an Eloquent model

You don't create Postgres tables by hand — you write migrations: PHP files that describe schema changes and run in order. They're version control for your database, so every environment (your laptop, the container, production) ends up identical.

// database/migrations/2026_05_31_000000_create_posts_table.php
use Illuminate\Database\Schema\Blueprint;

public function up(): void
{
    Schema::create('posts', function (Blueprint $table) {
        $table->id();                 // BIGSERIAL PRIMARY KEY in Postgres
        $table->string('title');
        $table->text('body')->nullable();
        $table->timestamps();         // created_at, updated_at
    });
}

Run it inside the container: docker compose exec app php artisan migrate. Laravel translates that Blueprint into Postgres DDL and records which migrations have run.

Eloquent

An Eloquent model is a class that maps to a table. Once it exists, you read and write rows with expressive methods — no SQL strings:

class Post extends Model {}

$post = Post::create(['title' => 'Hello', 'body' => 'First post']);
$all  = Post::where('title', 'Hello')->get();
$one  = Post::find(1);

Convention over configuration

The Post model maps to the posts table automatically (plural, snake_case), uses id as the key, and manages created_at/updated_at for you. Learn the conventions and you write far less config.

The challenge is a fluent schema builder — the same idea as a migration's Blueprint, compiling to Postgres DDL. Run it.

A migration, compiled to SQL

The builder records columns and emits Postgres DDL — like Blueprint does. Run it, then add a column.

Loading editor…

Next: connecting tables together with relationships and querying them.

PreviousRoutes & controllers Next Relationships & queries