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Eloquent Filter

An Eloquent way to filter Eloquent Models and their relationships

Introduction

Lets say we want to return a list of users filtered by multiple parameters. When we navigate to:

/users?name=er&last_name=&company_id=2&roles[]=1&roles[]=4&roles[]=7&industry=5

$request->all() will return:

To filter by all those parameters we would need to do something like:

To filter that same input With Eloquent Filters:

Configuration

Install Through Composer

There are a few ways to define the filter a model will use:

• Use EloquentFilter's Default Settings
• Use A Custom Namespace For All Filters
• Define A Model's Default Filter
• Dynamically Select A Model's Filter

Default Settings

The default namespace for all filters is App\ModelFilters\ and each Model expects the filter classname to follow the {$ModelName}Filter naming convention regardless of the namespace the model is in. Here is an example of Models and their respective filters based on the default naming convention.

Laravel

With Configuration File (Optional)

Registering the service provider will give you access to the php artisan model:filter {model} command as well as allow you to publish the configuration file. Registering the service provider is not required and only needed if you want to change the default namespace or use the artisan command

After installing the Eloquent Filter library, register the EloquentFilter\ServiceProvider::class in your config/app.php configuration file:

Copy the package config to your local config with the publish command:

In the config/eloquentfilter.php config file. Set the namespace your model filters will reside in:

Lumen

Register The Service Provider (Optional)

This is only required if you want to use the php artisan model:filter command.

In bootstrap/app.php:

Change The Default Namespace

In bootstrap/app.php:

Define The Default Model Filter (optional)

The following is optional. If no modelFilter method is found on the model the model's filter class will be resolved by the default naming conventions

Create a public method modelFilter() that returns $this->provideFilter(Your\Model\Filter::class); in your model.

Dynamic Filters

You can define the filter dynamically by passing the filter to use as the second parameter of the filter() method. Defining a filter dynamically will take precedent over any other filters defined for the model.

Generating The Filter

Only available if you have registered EloquentFilter\ServiceProvider::class in the providers array in your `config/app.php'

You can create a model filter with the following artisan command:

Where User is the Eloquent Model you are creating the filter for. This will create app/ModelFilters/UserFilter.php

The command also supports psr-4 namespacing for creating filters. You just need to make sure you escape the backslashes in the class name. For example:

This would create app/ModelFilters/AdminFilters/UserFilter.php

Usage

Defining The Filter Logic

Define the filter logic based on the camel cased input key passed to the filter() method.

• Empty strings and null values are ignored
• If a setup() method is defined it will be called once before any filter methods regardless of input
• _id is dropped from the end of the input key to define the method so filtering user_id would use the user() method
  • (can be changed with by definining protected $drop_id = false; on a filter)
• Input without a corresponding filter method are ignored
• The value of the key is injected into the method
• All values are accessible through the $this->input() method or a single value by key $this->input($key)
• All Eloquent Builder methods are accessible in $this context in the model filter class.

To define methods for the following input:

You would use the following methods:

Note: In the above example if you do not want _id dropped from the end of the input you can set protected $drop_id = false on your filter class. Doing this would allow you to have a company() filter method as well as a companyId() filter method.

Note: In the above example if you do not want mobile_phone to be mapped to mobilePhone() you can set protected $camel_cased_methods = false on your filter class. Doing this would allow you to have a mobile_phone() filter method instead of mobilePhone(). By default, mobilePhone() filter method can be called thanks to one of the following input key: mobile_phone, mobilePhone, mobile_phone_id

Note: In the example above all methods inside setup() will be called every time filter() is called on the model

Blacklist

Any methods defined in the blackist array will not be called by the filter. Those methods are normally used for internal filter logic.

The blacklistMethod() and whitelistMethod() methods can be used to dynamically blacklist and whitelist methods.

In the example above secretMethod() will not be called, even if there is a secret_method key in the input array. In order to call this method it would need to be whitelisted dynamically:

Example:

Additional Filter Methods

The Filterable trait also comes with the below query builder helper methods:

Since these methods are part of the Filterable trait they are accessible from any model that implements the trait without the need to call in the Model's EloquentFilter.

Applying The Filter To A Model

Implement the EloquentFilter\Filterable trait on any Eloquent model:

This gives you access to the filter() method that accepts an array of input:

Filtering By Relationships

There are two ways to filter by related models. Using the $relations array to define the input to be injected into the related Model's filter. If the related model doesn't have a model filter of it's own or you just want to define how to filter that relationship locally instead of adding the logic to that Model's filter then use the related() method to filter by a related model that doesn't have a ModelFilter. You can even combine the 2 and define which input fields in the $relations array you want to use that Model's filter for as well as use the related() method to define local methods on that same relation. Both methods nest the filter constraints into the same whereHas() query on that relation.

For both examples we will use the following models:

A App\User that hasMany App\Client::class:

And each App\Client belongs to App\Industry::class:

We want to query our users and filter them by the industry and volume potential of their clients that have done revenue in the past.

Input used to filter:

Setup

Both methods will invoke a setup query on the relationship that will be called EVERY time this relationship is queried. The setup methods signature is {$related}Setup() and is injected with an instance of that relations query builder. For this example let's say when querying users by their clients I only ever want to show agents that have clients with revenue. Without choosing wich method to put it in (because sometimes we may not have all the input and miss the scope all together if we choose the wrong one) and to avoid query duplication by placing that constraint on ALL methods for that relation we call the related setup method in the UserFilter like:

This will prepend the query to the clients() relation with hasRevenue() whenever the UserFilter runs any constriants on the clients() relationship. If there are no queries to the clients() relationship then this method will not be invoked.

You can learn more about scopes here

Ways To Filter Related Models

• With The related() Method
• Using The $relations Array
• With Both Methods

Filter Related Models With The related() Method:

The related() method is a little easier to setup and is great if you aren't going to be using the related Model's filter to ever filter that Model explicitly. The related() method takes the same parameters as the Eloquent\Builder's where() method except for the first parameter being the relationship name.

Example:

UserFilter with an industry() method that uses the ModelFilter's related() method

Or you can even pass a closure as the second argument which will inject an instance of the related model's query builder like:

Filter Related Models Using The $relations Array:

Add the relation in the $relations array with the name of the relation as referred to on the model as the key and an array of input keys that was passed to the filter() method.

The related model MUST have a ModelFilter associated with it. We instantiate the related model's filter and use the input values from the $relations array to call the associated methods.

This is helpful when querying multiple columns on a relation's table while avoiding multiple whereHas() calls for the same relationship. For a single column using a $this->whereHas() method in the model filter works just fine. In fact, under ther hood the model filter applies all constraints in the whereHas() method.

Example:

UserFilter with the relation defined so it's able to be queried.

ClientFilter with the industry method that's used to filter:

Note: The $relations array should identify the relation and the input key to filter by that relation. Just as the ModelFilter works, this will access the camelCased method on that relation's filter. If the above example was using the key industry_type for the input the relations array would be $relations = ['clients' => ['industry_type']] and the ClientFilter would have the method industryType().

$relations array alias support

The $relations array supports aliases. This is used when the input doesn't match the related model's filter method. This will transform the input keys being passed to the related model filter's input.

Example:

The above will receive an array like:

And the ClientFilter will receive it as:

Allowing for more descriptive input names without filters needing to match. Allowing for more reuse of the same filters.

Filter Related Models With Both Methods

You can even use both together and it will produce the same result and only query the related model once. An example would be:

If the following array is passed to the filter() method:

In app/ModelFilters/UserFilter.php:

Adding Relation Values To Filter

Sometimes, based on the value of a parameter you may need to push data to a relation filter. The push() method does just this. It accepts one argument as an array of key value pairs or to arguments as a key value pair push($key, $value). Related models are filtered AFTER all local values have been executed you can use this method in any filter method. This avoids having to query a related table more than once. For Example:

The above example will pass 'all' to the status() method on the clients relation of the model.

Calling the push() method in the setup() method will allow you to push values to the input for filter it's called on

Pagination

If you want to paginate your query and keep the url query string without having to use:

The paginateFilter() and simplePaginateFilter() methods accept the same input as Laravel's paginator and returns the respective paginator.

OR:

In your view $users->render() will return pagination links as it normally would but with the original query string with empty input ignored.

Contributing

Any contributions welcome!