Quickly bootstrap your laravel database using an alternate .env file (Can be used with Codeception)

_bootstrap.php

<?php
class LaravelTestDatabaseBootstrapper {

  protected static $_instance;

  protected $projectRoot;
  protected $envFile;
  protected $app = null;

  protected function __construct($envFile, $projectRoot) {
    $this->projectRoot = $projectRoot;
    $this->envFile = $envFile;
  }

  public static function initOrGetInstance($envFile=null, $projectRoot=null) {
    if ( !(self::$_instance instanceof self) ) {
      if (is_null($envFile) || is_null($projectRoot)) {
        throw new \InvalidArgumentException("Env file path and project root path are required.");
      }
      self::$_instance = new self($envFile, $projectRoot);
    }
    return self::$_instance;
  }

  public function bootstrap() {
    $app = $this->getApp();

    $kernel = $app->make('Illuminate\Contracts\Console\Kernel');
    $kernel->call('migrate', ['--force' => true]);

    foreach (explode("\n", $kernel->output()) as $line) {
      $line = trim($line);
      if (strlen($line) > 0)
        $this->log($line);
    };
  }

  protected function getApp() {
    if (is_null($this->app)) {
      $this->log("Using env at (" . $this->projectRoot . $this->envFile . ")");
      Dotenv::load($this->projectRoot, $this->envFile);

      $this->log("Initializing Laravel app.");
      require($this->projectRoot . "bootstrap/autoload.php");
      $app = require($this->projectRoot . "bootstrap/app.php");

      // Set environment
      $app->loadEnvironmentFrom($this->envFile);
      $this->app = $app;
    }
    return $this->app;
  }

  protected function log($msg) {
    echo "DatabaseBootstrapper : " . $msg . "\n";
  }
}

//running at tests/_bootstrap.php
LaravelTestDatabaseBootstrapper::initOrGetInstance('.env.testing', __DIR__ . '/../')->bootstrap();