README

This package provides sqlite-named driver that extends Laravel's sqlite driver.

Using this driver allows you to specify a database in the form named-memory:<name>. (<name> is an arbitrary string (including empty string))

It connects to SQLite's in-memory database as well as :memory:. :memory: creates a new database for each connection, whereas :named-memory:<name> returns the same connection　 if <name> is same.

INSTALL

composer require crhg/laravel-sqlite-named-memory-connection

CONFIGURATION

Specify sqlite-named for driver in config/database.php.

config/database.php:

    'connections' => [
        //...
        'sqlite-named' => [
            'driver' => 'sqlite-named',
            'url' => env('DATABASE_URL'),
            'database' => env('DB_DATABASE', database_path('database.sqlite')),
            'prefix' => '',
            'foreign_key_constraints' => env('DB_FOREIGN_KEYS', true),
        ],
        //...
    ],

.env:

DB_CONNECTION=sqlite-named
DB_DATABASE=:named-memory:foo

BACKGROUND

SQLite's in-memory database is effective to speed up tests using the database. However, using refreshApplication() caused the problem of emptying the database.

This is due to the following reasons.

• Since the IoC container is regenerated, \Illuminate\Database\DatabaseManager that was registered as singleton is discarded and replaced with a new one.
• Information on the connected database managed by DatabaseManager is not passed to the newly generated DatabaseManager.
• When a connection to the DB is requested for the first time after refreshApplication(), the DatabaseManager has no connection, so a new connection to :memory: is generated
• The connection to :memory: is a connection to a newly created empty in-memory database.

If you use :named-memory:<name> instead of :memory:, this problem can be avoided by returning the connection identified by <name> which was used before refreshApplication ().