Query Filters

Installation

Step 1: Composer

From the command line, run:

composer require ahoysolutions/query-filters

Step 2: Service Provider

From within your Laravel application, open config/app.php and within the providers array, add:

AhoySolutions\QueryFilters\QueryFilterServiceProvider::class

This will bootstrap the package into Laravel for you.

Usage

Adding a filters class to a model

You can add a filter class through artisan command, just like with controllers, models, or other similar resources. For example, assuming you wanted to leverage filters on your Post model, you might use:

php artisan make:queryfilters PostFilters

Afterwards, a new query filter class will be added to your app/Filters/ directory.

Adding filter methods

To add a filter method to an filter class, simply add a function to the class. For example, assume you have an incoming request with a query string that looks like www.example.com/posts?user=johnsmith&popular.

Your filters class might then look like this:

<?php

namespace App\Filters;

use AhoySolutions\QueryFilters\QueryFilters;
use App\User;

class PostFilters extends QueryFilters
{
    /**
    * Filter the posts by the given user.
    *
    * @param string $username
    * @return \Illuminate\Database\Eloquent\Builder
    */
    protected function filterUser(string $username)
    {
        $user = User::where('username', $username)->firstOrFail();

        return $this->builder->where('artist_id', $user->id);
    }

    /**
     * Filter the posts by their popularity.
     *
     * @return \Illuminate\Database\Eloquent\Builder
     */
    protected function filterPopular()
    {
        $this->resetOrderBy();

        return $this->builder->withCount('favorites')->orderBy('favorites_count', 'desc');
    }
}

Filtering for an query string array

Imagine your user wants to search based on an array of different tags, for example:

// given url: /posts?tag[]=science&tag[]=music

/**
 * Filter the posts by a given tag.
 *
 * @param string $tag
 * @return \Illuminate\Database\Eloquent\Builder
 */
protected function filterTag(string $tag)
{
    return $this->builder->whereHas('tags', function ($query) use ($tag) {
       return $query->where('name', $tag);
   });;
}

As you can see, you don't have to do anything within the filter to allow the user to leverage this functionality.

The relevant query filter will then be called multiple times and apply the filter for each tag. This is good for checking against many-to-many relationships.

Adding sortable methods

You can specify that a field should be sortable by calling $this->resetOrderBy() before leveraging the builder, for example:

// given url: /resource?popular

/**
 * Sorts the posts by their popularity.
 *
 * @return \Illuminate\Database\Eloquent\Builder
 */
protected function filterPopular()
{
    $this->resetOrderBy();

    return $this->builder->withCount('favorites')->orderBy('favorites_count', 'desc');
}

If you have multiple sortables, the latest one leveraged by the user will take precedence.

Credits

• Inspired by Laracasts (https://laracasts.com/series/lets-build-a-forum-with-laravel)
• Originally developed by Chris Sorrells on behalf of Ahoy Solutions, LLC.