How to use Eloquent ORM without Laravel?

Question

Is it possible to use Eloquent without Laravel or does somebody knows a equally easy to use ORM?

Answer 1

In Laravel 4.*, Eloquent is automatically independent because it's shipped with Dan Horrigan's Capsule. You don't need to download any extras. For a how to please visit: https://github.com/illuminate/database/blob/master/README.md

Answer 2

Check out https://github.com/Luracast/Laravel-Database it provides full eloquent support including artisan migrations and more for the latest Laravel 5.2.* components.

It uses capsule and lazy loads the components when they are used.

Disclosure: I'm the author of this repository

Answer 3

Yes you can. A while ago Dan Horrigan released a package called Capsule for Laravel 4 which allowed Eloquent to be used independently and with minimal setup. The package itself has been merged with the L4 core so you no longer need to use the package.

If you refer to the illuminate/database repository there is a nice little introduction on using Eloquent without the framework.

Here is a small excerpt of getting it up and running.

$capsule = new Illuminate\Database\Capsule($config);

$capsule->bootEloquent();

$capsule->connection()->table('users')->where('id', 1)->first();

Update

Dan Horrigan has since removed his Capsule implementation as it is now built directly into Eloquent. Refer to the above illuminate/database link for more details on how to use Capsule.