An Eloquent way to filter Eloquent Models and their relationships.

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:

[
    'name'       => 'er',
    'last_name'  => '',
    'company_id' => '2',
    'roles'      => ['1','4','7'],
    'industry'   => '5'
]

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

<?php

namespace App\Http\Controllers;

use Illuminate\Http\Request;
use App\Http\Requests;
use App\User;

class UserController extends Controller
{

    public function index(Request $request)
    {
        $query = User::where('company_id', $request->input('company_id'));

        if ($request->has('last_name'))
        {
            $query->where('last_name', 'LIKE', '%' . $request->input('last_name') . '%');
        }

        if ($request->has('name'))
        {
            $query->where(function ($q) use ($request)
            {
                return $q->where('first_name', 'LIKE', $request->input('name') . '%')
                    ->orWhere('last_name', 'LIKE', '%' . $request->input('name') . '%');
            });
        }

        $query->whereHas('roles', function ($q) use ($request)
        {
            return $q->whereIn('id', $request->input('roles'));
        })
            ->whereHas('clients', function ($q) use ($request)
            {
                return $q->whereHas('industry_id', $request->input('industry'));
            });

        return $query->get();
    }

}

To filter that same input With Eloquent Filters:

<?php

namespace App\Http\Controllers;

use Illuminate\Http\Request;
use App\Http\Requests;
use App\User;

class UserController extends Controller
{

    public function index(Request $request)
    {
        return User::filter($request->all())->get();
    }

}

composer require tucker-eric/eloquentfilter

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

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.

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:

'providers' => [
    // Other service providers...

    EloquentFilter\ServiceProvider::class,
],

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

php artisan vendor:publish --provider="EloquentFilter\ServiceProvider"

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

'namespace' => "App\\ModelFilters\\",

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

In bootstrap/app.php:

$app->register(EloquentFilter\LumenServiceProvider::class);

In bootstrap/app.php:

config(['eloquentfilter.namespace' => "App\\Models\\ModelFilters\\"]);

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.

<?php

namespace App;

use EloquentFilter\Filterable;
use Illuminate\Database\Eloquent\Model;

class User extends Model
{
    use Filterable;

    public function modelFilter()
    {
        return $this->provideFilter(\App\ModelFilters\CustomFilters\CustomUserFilter::class);
    }

    //User Class
}

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.

<?php

namespace App\Http\Controllers;

use Illuminate\Http\Request;
use App\Http\Requests;
use App\User;
use App\ModelFilters\Admin\UserFilter as AdminFilter;
use App\ModelFilters\User\UserFilter as BasicUserFilter;
use Auth;

class UserController extends Controller
{
    public function index(Request $request)
    {
        $userFilter = Auth::user()->isAdmin() ? AdminFilter::class : BasicUserFilter::class;

        return User::filter($request->all(), $userFilter)->get();
    }
}

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:

php artisan model:filter User

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:

php artisan model:filter AdminFilters\\User

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

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

• Empty strings and null values are ignored by default.
  • Empty strings and values can be configured not to be ignored by setting protected $allowedEmptyFilters = false; on a filter.
• 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:

[
    'company_id'   => 5,
    'name'         => 'Tuck',
    'mobile_phone' => '888555'
]

You would use the following methods:

use EloquentFilter\ModelFilter;

class UserFilter extends ModelFilter
{
    protected $blacklist = ['secretMethod'];
    
    // This will filter 'company_id' OR 'company'
    public function company($id)
    {
        return $this->where('company_id', $id);
    }

    public function name($name)
    {
        return $this->where(function($q) use ($name)
        {
            return $q->where('first_name', 'LIKE', "%$name%")
                ->orWhere('last_name', 'LIKE', "%$name%");
        });
    }

    public function mobilePhone($phone)
    {
        return $this->where('mobile_phone', 'LIKE', "$phone%");
    }

    public function setup()
    {
        $this->onlyShowDeletedForAdmins();
    }

    public function onlyShowDeletedForAdmins()
    {
        if(Auth::user()->isAdmin())
        {
            $this->withTrashed();
        }
    }
    
    public function secretMethod($secretParameter)
    {
        return $this->where('some_column', true);
    }
}

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

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:

public function setup()
{
    if(Auth::user()->isAdmin()) {
        $this->whitelistMethod('secretMethod');
    }
}

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.

Implement the EloquentFilter\Filterable trait on any Eloquent model:

<?php

namespace App;

use EloquentFilter\Filterable;
use Illuminate\Database\Eloquent\Model;

class User extends Model
{
    use Filterable;

    //User Class
}

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

class UserController extends Controller
{
    public function index(Request $request)
    {
        return User::filter($request->all())->get();
    }
}

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:

class User extends Model
{
    use Filterable;

    public function clients()
    {
        return $this->hasMany(Client::class);
    }
}

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

class Client extends Model
{
    use Filterable;

    public function industry()
    {
        return $this->belongsTo(Industry::class);
    }
    
    public function scopeHasRevenue($query)
    {
        return $query->where('total_revenue', '>', 0);
    }
}

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:

$input = [
    'industry'         => '5',
    'potential_volume' => '10000'
];

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:

class UserFilter extends ModelFilter
{
    public function clientsSetup($query)
    {
        return $query->hasRevenue();
    }
}

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

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

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.

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

class UserFilter extends ModelFilter
{
    public function industry($id)
    {
        return $this->related('clients', 'industry_id', '=', $id);
        
        // This would also be shorthand for the same query
        // return $this->related('clients', 'industry_id', $id);
    }
    
    public function potentialVolume($volume)
    {
        return $this->related('clients', 'potential_volume', '>=', $volume);
    }
}

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

    $this->related('clients', function($query) use ($id) {
        return $query->where('industry_id', $id);
    });

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.

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

class UserFilter extends ModelFilter
{
    public $relations = [
        'clients' => ['industry', 'potential_volume'],
    ];
}

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().

class ClientFilter extends ModelFilter
{
    public $relations = [];

    public function industry($id)
    {
        return $this->where('industry_id', $id);
    }
    
    public function potentialVolume($volume)
    {
        return $this->where('potential_volume', '>=', $volume);
    }
}

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.

class UserFilter extends ModelFilter
{
    public $relations = [
        'clients' => [
            'client_industry'  => 'industry',
            'client_potential' => 'potential_volume'
        ]
    ];
}

The above will receive an array like:

[
    'client_industry'  => 1,
    'client_potential' => 100000
]

And the ClientFilter will receive it as:

[
    'industry'         => 1,
    'potential_volume' => 100000
]

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

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:

[
    'name'             => 'er',
    'last_name'        => '',
    'company_id'       => 2,
    'roles'            => [1,4,7],
    'industry'         => 5,
    'potential_volume' => '10000'
]

In app/ModelFilters/UserFilter.php:

<?php namespace App\ModelFilters;

use EloquentFilter\ModelFilter;

class UserFilter extends ModelFilter
{
    public $relations = [
        'clients' => ['industry'],
    ];
    
    public function clientsSetup($query)
    {
        return $query->hasRevenue();
    }

    public function name($name)
    {
        return $this->where(function($q)
        {
            return $q->where('first_name', 'LIKE', $name . '%')->orWhere('last_name', 'LIKE', '%' . $name.'%');
        });
    }
    
    public function potentialVolume($volume)
    {
        return $this->related('clients', 'potential_volume', '>=', $volume);
    }

    public function lastName($lastName)
    {
        return $this->where('last_name', 'LIKE', '%' . $lastName);
    }

    public function company($id)
    {
        return $this->where('company_id',$id);
    }

    public function roles($ids)
    {
        return $this->whereHas('roles', function($query) use ($ids)
        {
            return $query->whereIn('id', $ids);
        });
    }
}

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 two 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:

public $relations = [
    'clients' => ['industry', 'status'],
];

public function statusType($type)
{
    if($type === 'all') {
        $this->push('status', 'all');
    }
}

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

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

{!! $pages->appends(Input::except('page'))->render() !!}

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

class UserController extends Controller
{
    public function index(Request $request)
    {
        $users = User::filter($request->all())->paginateFilter();

        return view('users.index', compact('users'));
    }

OR:

    public function simpleIndex(Request $request)
    {
        $users = User::filter($request->all())->simplePaginateFilter();

        return view('users.index', compact('users'));
    }
}

In your view $users->render() will return pagination links as it normally would but with the original query string with empty input ignored if protected $allowedEmptyFilters is not set to false on the filter.

Any contributions are welcome!