gistfile1.md

For the scenario, imagine posts has a foreign key user_id referencing users.id

public function up()
{
	Schema::create('posts', function(Blueprint $table) {
		$table->increments('id');
		$table->string('title');
		$table->text('body');
		$table->integer('user_id')->unsigned();
		$table->foreign('user_id')->references('id')->on('users')->onDelete('cascade');
		$table->timestamps();
	});
}

running seeds with truncate() will trigger a constraint violation if foreign key checks is not disabled.

	Syntax error or access violation: 1701 Cannot truncate a table referenced in a foreign key constraint ...

The fix:

DatabaseSeeder.php

class DatabaseSeeder extends Seeder {

	/**
	 * Run the database seeds.
 	 *
	 * @return void
	 */
	public function run()
	{
		Eloquent::unguard();

		//disable foreign key check for this connection before running seeders
		DB::statement('SET FOREIGN_KEY_CHECKS=0;');
			
		$this->call('UsersTableSeeder');
		$this->call('PostsTableSeeder');

		// supposed to only apply to a single connection and reset it's self
		// but I like to explicitly undo what I've done for clarity
		DB::statement('SET FOREIGN_KEY_CHECKS=1;');
		
	}

}

fix from here http://stackoverflow.com/questions/14666277/laravel-4-working-with-relationships-in-seeds

As pointed out in the comments at SO you wouldn't want to disable foreign key checks on a production app but you really don't want to run seed files in production either so obviously this is not intended for production but helpful in development.