Elegant way to filter and sort queries in Laravel

Note if you are front-end developer and what to make queries in an API that uses this package head to queries section

Laravel Purity is an elegant and efficient filtering and sorting package for Laravel, designed to simplify complex data filtering and sorting logic for eloquent queries. By simply adding filter() to your Eloquent query, you can add the ability for frontend users to apply filters based on url query string parameters like a breeze.

Features :

• Various filter methods
• Simple installation and usage
• Filter by relation columns
• Custom filters
• Multi-column sort

Laravel Purity is not only developer-friendly but also front-end developer-friendly. Frontend developers can effortlessly use filtering and sorting of the APIs by using the popular JavaScript qs package.

The way this package handles filters is inspired by strapi’s filter and sort functionality.

Tutorials

Video

Articles

Installation

Install the package via composer by this command:

composer require abbasudo/laravel-purity 

Get configs (configs/purity.php) file to customize package’s behavior by this command:

php artisan vendor:publish --tag=purity 

Basic Usage

Filters

Add Filterable trait to your model to get filters functionalities.

use Abbasudo\Purity\Traits\Filterable;

class Post extends Model
{
    use Filterable;
    
    //
}

Now add filter() to your model eloquent query in the controller.

use App\Models\Post;

class PostController extends Controller
{
    public function index()
    {
        return Post::filter()->get();
    }
}

By default, it gives access to all filters available. here is the list of available filters. if you want to explicitly specify which filters to use in this call head to restrict filters section.

Sort

Add Sortable trait to your model to get sorts functionalities.

use Abbasudo\Purity\Traits\Sortable;

class Post extends Model
{
    use Sortable;
    
    //
}

Now add sort() to your eloquent query in the controller.

use App\Models\Post;

class PostController extends Controller
{
    public function index()
    {
        return Post::sort()->get();
    }
}

Now sort can be applied as instructed in sort usage.

Advanced Usage

Restrict Filters

The system validates allowed filters in the following order of priority:

• Filters passed as an array to the filter() function.

Post::filter('$eq', '$in')->get();
// or
Post::filter(EqualFilter::class, InFilter::class)->get();

• Filters declared in the $filters variable in the model.

Note applied only if no parameters passed to filter() function.

// App\Models\Post

private array $filters = [
  '$eq',
  '$in',
];
    
// or
    
private array $filters = [
  EqualFilter::class,
  InFilter::class,
];

• Filters specified in the filters configuration in the configs/purity.php file.

Note applied only if above parameters are not set.

// configs/purity.php
'filters' => [
  EqualFilter::class,
  InFilter::class,
],

Custom Filters

Create custom filter class by this command:

php artisan make:filter EqualFilter

this will generate a filter class in Filters directory. by default all classes defined in Filters directory are loaded into the package. you can change scan folder location in purity config file.

// configs/purity.php

'custom_filters_location' => app_path('Filters'),

Silent Exceptions

By default, purity silences it own exceptions (not sql exceptions). to change that behavior change silent index to false in config file.

// configs/purity.php

'silent' => false,

Queries and javascript examples

This section is a guide for front-end developers who want to use an API that uses Laravel Purity.

Available Filters

Queries can accept a filters’ parameter with the following syntax:

GET /api/posts?filters[field][operator]=value

By Default the following operators are available:

Simple Filtering

Tip in javascript use qs directly to generate complex queries instead of creating them manually. Examples in this documentation showcase how you can use qs.

Find users having ‘John’ as first name

GET /api/users?filters[name][$eq]=John

  const qs = require('qs');
const query = qs.stringify({
  filters: {
    username: {
      $eq: 'John',
    },
  },
}, {
  encodeValuesOnly: true, // prettify URL
});

await request(`/api/users?${query}`);

Find multiple restaurants with ids 3, 6, 8

GET /api/restaurants?filters[id][$in][0]=3&filters[id][$in][1]=6&filters[id][$in][2]=8

  const qs = require('qs');
const query = qs.stringify({
  filters: {
    id: {
      $in: [3, 6, 8],
    },
  },
}, {
  encodeValuesOnly: true, // prettify URL
});

await request(`/api/restaurants?${query}`);

Complex Filtering

Complex filtering is combining multiple filters using advanced methods such as combining $and & $or. This allows for more flexibility to request exactly the data needed.

Find books with 2 possible dates and a specific author.

GET /api/books?filters[$or][0][date][$eq]=2020-01-01&filters[$or][1][date][$eq]=2020-01-02&filters[author][name][$eq]=Kai%20doe

const qs = require('qs');
const query = qs.stringify({
  filters: {
    $or: [
      {
        date: {
          $eq: '2020-01-01',
        },
      },
      {
        date: {
          $eq: '2020-01-02',
        },
      },
    ],
    author: {
      name: {
        $eq: 'Kai doe',
      },
    },
  },
}, {
  encodeValuesOnly: true, // prettify URL
});

await request(`/api/books?${query}`);

Deep Filtering

Deep filtering is filtering on a relation’s fields.

Find restaurants owned by a chef who belongs to a 5-star restaurant

GET /api/restaurants?filters[chef][restaurants][stars][$eq]=5

const qs = require('qs');
const query = qs.stringify({
  filters: {
    chef: {
      restaurants: {
        stars: {
          $eq: 5,
        },
      },
    },
  },
}, {
  encodeValuesOnly: true, // prettify URL
});

await request(`/api/restaurants?${query}`);

Apply Sort

Queries can accept a sort parameter that allows sorting on one or multiple fields with the following syntax’s:

GET /api/:pluralApiId?sort=value to sort on 1 field

GET /api/:pluralApiId?sort[0]=value1&sort[1]=value2 to sort on multiple fields (e.g. on 2 fields)

The sorting order can be defined with:

• :asc for ascending order (default order, can be omitted)
• :desc for descending order.

Usage Examples

Sort using 2 fields

GET /api/articles?sort[0]=title&sort[1]=slug

const qs = require('qs');
const query = qs.stringify({
  sort: ['title', 'slug'],
}, {
  encodeValuesOnly: true, // prettify URL
});

await request(`/api/articles?${query}`);

Sort using 2 fields and set the order

GET /api/articles?sort[0]=title%3Aasc&sort[1]=slug%3Adesc

const qs = require('qs');
const query = qs.stringify({
  sort: ['title:asc', 'slug:desc'],
}, {
  encodeValuesOnly: true, // prettify URL
});

await request(`/api/articles?${query}`);

License

Laravel Purity is Licensed under The MIT License (MIT). Please see License File for more information.