Laravel supports migration function which help us manage database and collaborate with team members better. We write code to define schema, execute the migration to evolve the database schema.
Synchronize our source code with all team members, each person will knows about any scheme change. When you deloy for app on a production server , it's also a robust way to upgrade our database schema, I think.

I'm using Laravel with mySQL database. For quick database design, For some project, we need some database design first (It sounds  not in Agile way ^^). I use mySQL workbench and synchronize between local database and MySQL Workbench's EER model. We have EER diagram for document, live database in right place. And, we need migrate source in right place ,too.

Let's think about the work - flow in this situation:

For the first time.

ER analysis --> create EER diagram in mySQL workbench --> synchronize with dev database --> generate migration source code.
Change database schema when developing: 

Edit migration source --> migrate into DB --> synchronize with EER diagram in mySQL workbench to update EER diagram.

Thank to JeffreyWay  and Xethron who created  2 amazing tools which  help us generate migration source code from existed database in Laravel 4.

We need some config.

 Install Laravel 4 generator &  Laravel migrations Generator.

Edit your  project's composer.json and add an "require-dev" section:

 "require-dev":{
  "xethron/migrations-generator": "dev-master" 
 },
Run 
composer update
You should see that xethron/migrations-generator has required way/generators package. way/generators
package is also installed.

Edit your config/app.php file (I recommend to create dev or local enviroment and make them separate from production ) 
  'Way\Generators\GeneratorsServiceProvider',
  'Xethron\MigrationsGenerator\MigrationsGeneratorServiceProvider',
Run php artisan command you would see generate command is added to migrate


Generate migration from existed database

Run php artisan migrate:generate command to generate migrate file of all tables in current connection.
It will creates migration files of all tables and foreign keys in your databases.

(To be continue ....)