Laravel Funnel

Filtering results based on the http query string parameter (?key=value) is one of the common tasks of everyday web development.

Laravel Funnel is an attempt to reduce the cognitive burden of applying and maintaining the filters.

Features

• Param-Attr binding: Binds query string parameters to eloquent model attributes.
• Code generation: Generates filter classes with a simple command.
• Multi-value params: Makes multi-value parameters painless by allowing comma-delimited list in URL. Example: http://example.com/posts?title=foo,bar.
• Sorting: Creates "sort-aware" filters with a simple --clause=orderBy argument.
• Searching: Creates "search-aware" with a simple --operator=like argument.
• Related model's attr binding: Binds attribute from a related model easily with relation.attribute format: --attribute=comments.body
• Eager-loading: Funnel comes with eager-loading support out of the box. Pass your relation to the default ?with query param. Example: http://example.com/posts?with=comments,categories.
• Customization: Query logic in generated filter classes can be overridden according to your need.

Installation

Use the package manager composer to install laravel-funnel.

composer require tanmaymishu/laravel-funnel

Usage

Quick Start:

Let's say you have a Post model and an attribute published and you want to filter all the posts that are published. The URL representation might look like this:

http://example.com/posts?published=1

Step 1: Run php artisan funnel:filter Published. A new Published class inside app/Filters directory will be created and the following configurations will be assumed:

• You have an attribute named published
• Your have a query string identifier named published
• Your desired query clause is WHERE
• The operator for the WHERE clause is =

Don't worry, all these "assumed defaults" can be overridden (See CLI options below).

Step 2: Open the model (e.g. Post.php) where you want to use this filter in. Add these two lines in your class:

use HasFilters;
protected $filters = [];

Then add the filter class in the $filters array. Example:

<?php
   
   namespace App;
   
   use Illuminate\Database\Eloquent\Model;
   use TanmayMishu\LaravelFunnel\HasFilters;
   
   class Post extends Model
   {
       use HasFilters;
   
       protected $filters = [
           \App\Filters\Published::class,
       ];
   }

Step 3: Now you can call Post::filtered() to get the filtered posts. It returns an instance of Builder, allowing you to further chain the query, for example: Post::filtered()->with('comments')->get(). You have to append ->get() as you normally would, to return the result as a collection.

You can add as many filters as you want in the $filters array. Append the parameter in your query string: ?title=foo&published=1 and Funnel will pick up the appropriate filter for you.

CLI Options

• This package ships with a funnel:filter command. The following command will display all the details including the argument and option it accepts:

  php artisan -h funnel:filter

  Create a new filter
  
  Usage:
  funnel:filter [options] [--] <name>
  
  Arguments:
  name                         The name of the filter class.
  
  Options:
  -a, --attribute[=ATTRIBUTE]  The attribute name of the model (e.g. is_active). Default: Snake cased filter_class
  -p, --parameter[=PARAMETER]  The name of the request query parameter (e.g. active). Default: Snake cased filter_class
  -o, --operator[=OPERATOR]    The operator for the WHERE clause (e.g. >, like, =, <). Default: =
  -c, --clause[=CLAUSE]        The clause for the query (e.g. where, orderBy, groupBy). Default: where
  

• The funnel:filter command takes 1 argument (the name of the filter class) and 4 options (sometimes known as flags):
  1. --attribute= (short form: -a): The attribute of the model. If this option is not provided, the default attribute will be the snake_cased form of the filter class' name that was provided as the argument.
  2. --parameter= (short form: -p): The query string parameter that will be received from the URL. If this option is not provided, the default parameter will be the snake_cased form of the filter class' name that was provided as the argument.
  3. --operator= (short form: -o): The operator to be used in the WHERE clause. If this option is not provided, = will be used as the default operator.
  4. --clause= (short form: -c): The clause to be used in the query. If WHERE clause doesn't suit your need, you can specify a different clause (currently supported: orderBy, groupBy)

Notes:

• If the operator is like, the parameter's value will be surrounded by the % wildcard on both sides of the value. This behaviour may be customized in future.
• If the clause is orderBy, only one of the following two parameter values are expected: a) asc b) desc

Examples

Let's take a look at some funnel commands and what result they produce based on the URL:

Model and Relation Considerations:

// A Post hasMany Comments and a Comment hasMany Replies
// Post is the model that we want to query.

Post::createMany([
   ['title' => 'Foo', 'body' => 'Lorem ipsum'], // We'll call it Post 1
   ['title' => 'Bar', 'body' => 'Dolor sit amet'], // We'll call it Post 2
]);
Comment::createMany([
   ['body' => 'Comment A', 'post_id' => 1],
   ['body' => 'Comment B', 'post_id' => 2],
]);
Reply::createMany([
   ['content' => 'Reply A', 'comment_id' => 1],
   ['content' => 'Reply B', 'comment_id' => 2],
]);

[Note: The examples below use a mixture of long form options and short form options. Feel free to use any form you like.]

Command	URL	Result
funnel:filter Title	example.com?title=Foo	Fetches Post 1
funnel:filter Title	example.com?title=Foo,Bar	Fetches Post 1 and 2
funnel:filter Title	example.com?title[]=Foo&title[]=Bar	Fetches Post 1 and 2
funnel:filter Title --clause=orderBy	example.com?title=asc	Fetches all the posts sorted by title in ascending order
funnel:filter Title -c orderBy (Shorthand)	example.com?title=desc	Fetches all the posts sorted by title in descending order
funnel:filter Body --operator=like	example.com?body=Lorem	Fetches Post 1
funnel:filter Search -a body -o like	example.com?search=Dolor	Fetches Post 2. Specified attr (body) and operator (like) is used instead of defaults.
funnel:filter Comment -a comments.body -o like	example.com?comment=Comment B	Fetches Post 2. Will return all the posts that contain "Comment B" in their comment's body. body attr of Comment model is used instead of the body attr of the Post model.
funnel:filter Reply -a comments.replies.content -o like	example.com?reply=Reply A	Fetches Post 1. Will return all the posts that contain "Reply A" in their replies to a comment. content attr of Reply model is used.

Multi-value parameters ([] notation)

• Funnel can understand multi-value query string parameters: http://example.com/posts?title[]=foo&title[]=bar. You don't have to take any extra steps for that.
• As you can see, you will need to append the array notation [] to each of your query parameters.
• Funnel will pass the parameter values (foo & bar) through the OR sub-queries.
• A get request like http://example.com/posts?title[]=foo&title[]=bar will indicate that we want to fetch all the posts that has a title foo or bar.

Multi-value parameters (, notation)

• In addition to the [] notation, Funnel provides an easier, alternative comma (,) syntax for multi-value parameters: http://example.com/posts?title=foo,bar
• The advantage of , over [] notation is that you don't have to keep repeating param[] for each parameter.

Binding related model's attribute

• The attribute doesn't necessarily have to reside in the model being queried. If you're in a situation where you want to filter all the posts with the comment body "Foo", assuming your Post model has a comments() relation, you should pass the --attribute=comments.body option:
  • Example Command: php artisan funnel:filter Comment --attribute=comments.body. Funnel will filter all the posts with the specified comment body even though the body attribute lives in the Comment model and not in the Post model.
  • Example URL: http://example.com/posts?comment=Foo
• Even nested related model's attribute can be bound to a parameter. If we want to fetch all the posts that have the reply body Bar in the comments, we can achieve that too as long as the relationships exist:
  • Example Command: php artisan funnel:filter Reply --attribute=comments.replies.body
  • Example URL: http://example.com/posts?reply=Bar

Eager-loading

• Funnel comes with eager-loading support out of the box. Pass your relation to the default ?with query param. Example: http://example.com/posts?with=comments,categories.
• If you need to customize the eager key name, which is by default with, you can do so from config/funnel.php. Before you do so, you need to publish your config files by running the following command: php artisan vendor:publish --provider="TanmayMishu\LaravelFunnel\FunnelServiceProvider"

Customization

• If the generated apply() method of the filter class doesn't fit your need, you can always implement your own apply() method but it should match the signature of the parent class.

Contributing

Pull requests are welcome. For major changes, please open an issue first to discuss what you would like to change.

Please make sure to update tests as appropriate.

License

MIT