What is faker?
The faker npm package is a powerful tool for generating massive amounts of fake data in Node.js and the browser. It is commonly used for testing, bootstrapping databases, and creating realistic-looking UI prototypes. Faker can generate data for various categories, including names, addresses, phone numbers, dates, and more.
What are faker's main functionalities?
Generating Names
Generates a random full name. Useful for creating user profiles or contact lists in testing environments.
faker.name.findName();
Generating Addresses
Produces a random street address. This can be used to test address forms or display sample addresses on a map.
faker.address.streetAddress();
Generating Internet-related Information
Creates a random email address. Ideal for testing email validation or populating a database with unique user emails.
faker.internet.email();
Generating Lorem Ipsum Text
Generates random 'Lorem Ipsum' text. This is particularly useful for designers and developers who want to fill their layouts with placeholder text to check text formatting and layouts.
faker.lorem.paragraphs();
Generating Random Numbers
Generates a random number within a specified range. This can be used for creating randomized data points for testing calculations or generating mock analytics data.
faker.random.number({ min: 1, max: 100 });
Other packages similar to faker
chance
Chance is a minimalist generator of random strings, numbers, etc. to help reduce some monotony particularly while writing automated tests or anywhere else you need anything random. It is somewhat similar to faker but with a focus on simplicity and smaller size.
casual
Casual is a fake data generator for JavaScript that aims to provide an easy way to generate random data for various types of information, similar to faker. It differentiates itself with a more straightforward API and the ability to define custom generators.
mockaroo
Mockaroo is not an npm package but a web service that allows you to generate large datasets of fake data for testing and development. Unlike faker, which is a library you integrate into your code, Mockaroo is used via its website or API to create data based on your specifications.
faker.js - generate massive amounts of fake data in the browser and node.js
Demo
https://cdn.rawgit.com/Marak/faker.js/master/examples/browser/index.html
Hosted API Microservice
http://faker.hook.io
- Supports all Faker API Methods
- Full-Featured Microservice
- Hosted by hook.io
curl http://faker.hook.io?property=name.findName&locale=de
Usage
Browser
<script src = "faker.js" type = "text/javascript"></script>
<script>
var randomName = faker.name.findName(); // Caitlyn Kerluke
var randomEmail = faker.internet.email(); // Rusty@arne.info
var randomCard = faker.helpers.createCard(); // random contact card containing many properties
</script>
Node.js
var faker = require('faker');
var randomName = faker.name.findName(); // Rowan Nikolaus
var randomEmail = faker.internet.email(); // Kassandra.Haley@erich.biz
var randomCard = faker.helpers.createCard(); // random contact card containing many properties
API
Faker.fake()
faker.js contains a super useful generator method Faker.fake
for combining faker API methods using a mustache string format.
Example:
console.log(faker.fake("{{name.lastName}}, {{name.firstName}} {{name.suffix}}"));
This will interpolate the format string with the value of methods name.lastName()
, name.firstName()
, and name.suffix()
JSDoc API Browser
http://marak.github.io/faker.js/
API Methods
- address
- zipCode
- city
- cityPrefix
- citySuffix
- streetName
- streetAddress
- streetSuffix
- streetPrefix
- secondaryAddress
- county
- country
- countryCode
- state
- stateAbbr
- latitude
- longitude
- commerce
- color
- department
- productName
- price
- productAdjective
- productMaterial
- product
- company
- suffixes
- companyName
- companySuffix
- catchPhrase
- bs
- catchPhraseAdjective
- catchPhraseDescriptor
- catchPhraseNoun
- bsAdjective
- bsBuzz
- bsNoun
- database
- column
- type
- collation
- engine
- date
- past
- future
- between
- recent
- month
- weekday
- fake
- finance
- account
- accountName
- mask
- amount
- transactionType
- currencyCode
- currencyName
- currencySymbol
- bitcoinAddress
- iban
- bic
- hacker
- abbreviation
- adjective
- noun
- verb
- ingverb
- phrase
- helpers
- randomize
- slugify
- replaceSymbolWithNumber
- replaceSymbols
- shuffle
- mustache
- createCard
- contextualCard
- userCard
- createTransaction
- image
- image
- avatar
- imageUrl
- abstract
- animals
- business
- cats
- city
- food
- nightlife
- fashion
- people
- nature
- sports
- technics
- transport
- dataUri
- internet
- avatar
- email
- exampleEmail
- userName
- protocol
- url
- domainName
- domainSuffix
- domainWord
- ip
- ipv6
- userAgent
- color
- mac
- password
- lorem
- word
- words
- sentence
- slug
- sentences
- paragraph
- paragraphs
- text
- lines
- name
- firstName
- lastName
- findName
- jobTitle
- prefix
- suffix
- title
- jobDescriptor
- jobArea
- jobType
- phone
- phoneNumber
- phoneNumberFormat
- phoneFormats
- random
- number
- arrayElement
- objectElement
- uuid
- boolean
- word
- words
- image
- locale
- alphaNumeric
- system
- fileName
- commonFileName
- mimeType
- commonFileType
- commonFileExt
- fileType
- fileExt
- directoryPath
- filePath
- semver
Localization
As of version v2.0.0
faker.js has support for multiple localities.
The default language locale is set to English.
Setting a new locale is simple:
faker.locale = "de";
- az
- cz
- de
- de_AT
- de_CH
- en
- en_AU
- en_BORK
- en_CA
- en_GB
- en_IE
- en_IND
- en_US
- en_au_ocker
- es
- es_MX
- fa
- fr
- fr_CA
- ge
- id_ID
- it
- ja
- ko
- nb_NO
- nep
- nl
- pl
- pt_BR
- ru
- sk
- sv
- tr
- uk
- vi
- zh_CN
- zh_TW
Individual Localization Packages
As of vesion v3.0.0
faker.js supports incremental loading of locales.
By default, requiring faker
will include all locale data.
In a production environment, you may only want to include the locale data for a specific set of locales.
var faker = require('faker/locale/de');
Setting a randomness seed
If you want consistent results, you can set your own seed:
faker.seed(123);
var firstRandom = faker.random.number();
faker.seed(123);
var secondRandom = faker.random.number();
console.log(firstRandom === secondRandom);
Tests
npm install .
make test
You can view a code coverage report generated in coverage/lcov-report/index.html.
Projects Built with faker.js
Fake JSON Schema
Use faker generators to populate JSON Schema samples.
See: https://github.com/pateketrueke/json-schema-faker/
CLI
Run faker generators from Command Line.
See: https://github.com/lestoni/faker-cli
Want to see your project added here? Let us know!
Meteor
Meteor Installation
meteor add practicalmeteor:faker
Meteor Usage, both client and server
var randomName = faker.name.findName();
var randomEmail = faker.internet.email();
var randomCard = faker.helpers.createCard();
Building faker.js
faker uses gulp to automate it's build process. Running the following build command will generate new browser builds, documentation, and code examples for the project.
npm run-script build
Building JSDocs
npm run-script doc
Version Release Schedule
faker.js is a popular project used by many organizations and individuals in production settings. Major and Minor version releases are generally on a monthly schedule. Bugs fixes are addressed by severity and fixed as soon as possible.
If you require the absolute latest version of faker.js
the master
branch @ http://github.com/marak/faker.js/ should always be up to date and working.
Maintainer
Marak Squires
faker.js - Copyright (c) 2017
Marak Squires
http://github.com/marak/faker.js/
faker.js was inspired by and has used data definitions from:
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a copy of this software and associated documentation files (the
"Software"), to deal in the Software without restriction, including
without limitation the rights to use, copy, modify, merge, publish,
distribute, sublicense, and/or sell copies of the Software, and to
permit persons to whom the Software is furnished to do so, subject to
the following conditions:
The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be
included in all copies or substantial portions of the Software.
THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND,
EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF
MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND
NONINFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE
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WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THE SOFTWARE.