Laravel Query Strategies

a package to help build queries with Eloquent Builder from URL parameters in a request

Why this package is helpful?

If you want to apply query clauses to Eloquent Models using parameters passed by the user, then this package will allow you to create strategies that will enable them to be applied automatically.

Using query strategies you can define what properties a user can have access to offering a safer way for them interact with your data schemas.

Strategies can obfuscate the real column names, add aliases to them and enable/disable the query clauses that can be applied to the model.

You can work the builder before and after applying a strategy, so it can be easily integrated with existing code and queries.

Installation

You can install the package via composer:

composer require myerscode/laravel-query-strategies

Applying strategies

Getting a filter instance by using one of the following methods:

Using the global helper

filter(Item::class)->with(MyStrategy::class);

Use the facade

Query::filter(Item::class)->with(MyStrategy::class);

Building it yourself

new Filter(Item::query(), new MyStrategy, $request->query->all());

Using the IsFilterable trait

class Foo extends Model
{
    use IsFilterableTrait;

    public $strategy = BarStrategy::class;
}

You can then use the model itself to apply the filter

$filter = (new Foo)->filter();

You can apply query filters, ordering, limits, includes, pagination.

$filter->apply(); // Applies filter, order, limit, with methods and returns the paginated query
$filter->filter(); // Only applies filters and returns the Filter class
$filter->order(); // Only applies ordering and returns the Filter class
$filter->limit(); // Only applies limiting and returns the Filter class
$filter->with(); // Only applies includes and returns the Filter class
$filter->paginate(); // Applies pagination and returns a LengthAwarePaginator class
$filter->builder(); // Return the builder

Strategies

With strategies you can:

• Have a set disable "default" clauses parameters can use
• Set what query clauses a parameter can do
  • You can create custom clauses
  • Disable clauses from a parameter
  • Set default clauses the parameter uses
• Add aliases to your columns
• Alias clauses to allow better for API experiences
• Automatically apply with the builder can eager load
• Set query limiting which can be capped to prevent service degradation
• Set columns the query can be ordered by
• Paginate the results

Strategy structure

$config

Fill in the $config property with the query parameters that you want use on the model.

$config should contain the allowed queries keys and the values aliases column default disabled methods

// basic implamentation, that will just enable all default clauses for the strategy and will not mask the column name
$config = [
  'foo',
  'bar'  
];

// advance with custom methods, disabling clauses and changing the default clause
$config = [
    'name' => [
        'column' => 'first_name',
        'methods' => [
            'hello' => HelloClause::class,
            'world' => WorldClause::class,
        ]
    ],
    'surname' => [
        'column' => 'last_name',
        'disabled' => [
            'equals' => EqualsClause::class,
        ],
    ],
    'dob' => [
        'aliases' => [
            'date_of_birth',
            'birthday',
        ]
        'default' => FooBarClause::class,
    ],
    'address' => [
        'methods' => [
            'distance' => DistanceClause::class,
        ],
    ],
];

$defaultMethods

The $defaultMethods property contains all the clauses against an collection of aliases that properties can use.

Overriding this property will enable you to control what default methods a query can apply to a property of Model.

protected $defaultMethods = [
    ...
    LessThanClause::class => ['lessThan', '<', 'lt'],
    GreaterThanOrEqualsClause::class => ['greaterThanOrEquals', '>=', 'gte'],
    ...
];

$limitTo

The $limitTo property sets what the default select limit is by default.

// default value
protected $limitTo = 50;

$maxLimit

The $maxLimit property sets what the max limit is, to help prevent people selecting all records form you database and degrading performance.

// default value
protected $maxLimit = 150;

$orderBy

The $orderBy property is an array which sets what columns the Model can be ordered by.

// default value
protected $canOrderBy = [
    'id',
];

Filters

By default parameters will have access to all the query filters in the $defaultMethods. You can create custom a Clause to do more complex or domain specific actions and add them to $defaultMethods or a single parameter.

Where Clauses

Type	Aliases	Query	Eloquent
begins with	beginsWith *%	?name[beginsWith]=Fr ?name[*%]=Fr	Record::where('name', '=', 'Fr%')
contains	contains %%	?name[contains]=Fr ?name[%%]=Fr	Record::where('name', '=', '%Fr%')
ends with	endsWith %*	?name[endsWith]=ed ?name[%*]=ed	Record::where('name', '=', '%ed')
equals	is =	?name=Fred ?name[is]=Fred ?name[is]=Fred	Record::where('name', '=', 'Fred')
less than	lessThan < lt	?hello[lessThan]=world ?hello[<]=world ?hello[lt]=world	Record::where('hello', '<', 'world')
less than or equals	lessThanOrEquals <= lte	?hello[lessThanOrEquals]=world ?hello[<=]=world ?hello[lte]=world	Record::where('hello', '<=', 'world')
greater than	greaterThan > gt	?hello[greaterThan]=world ?hello[>]=world ?hello[gt]=world	Record::where('hello', '>', 'world')
greater than or equals	greaterThanOrEquals >= gte	?hello[greaterThanOrEquals]=world ?hello[>=]=world ?hello[gte]=world	Record::where('hello', '>=', 'world')
not equals	not !	?name[not]=Fred ?name[!]=Fred	Record::where('hello', '!=', 'world')
is in	isIn in	?name[isIn]=Fred,Tor ?name[in]=Fred,Tor ?name[]=Fred&name[]=Tor	Record::whereIn('name', ['Fred', 'Tor'])
is not in	notIn !in	?name[notIn]=Fred,Tor ?name[!in]=Fred,Tor	Record::whereNotIn('name', ['Fred', 'Tor'])
or	or ||	?name[is]=Fred&name[or]=Tor	Record::where('name', '=', 'Fred')->orWhere('name', '=', 'Tor')

Overriding the clause

You can use a special parameter to set a clause to all properties with that name in a query.

The following example would apply the not clause to the name properties.

?name[]=Fred&name[]=Tor&name[]=Chris&name--operator=not

By default the special parameter is $paramName with a default suffix of --operator. e.g. name--operator

The parameter can be either fully renamed or the suffix changed in the strategy config.

// a strategy config with operator override properties
$config = [
    'name' => [
        'override' => 'name_override',
    ],
    'date' => [
        'overrideSuffix' => '--filter',
    ],
];
// name=Fred&name_override=like
// date=31/12/1987&date--filter=before

Properties with multiple values

If a property passed is found to be an array e.g. name[]=Fred&name[]=Tor&name[]=Chris then by default the IsInClause is used.

A property can be set to explode its values on a delimiter, so multiple values can be passed at once to a single parameter e.g. name=Fred,Tor,Chris. By default this is disabled and will need to be set on a property-by-property basis and is enabled by setting explode to true in the property config. The delimiter can be changed from the default , character using the delimiter config option.

// a strategy config with operator override properties
$config = [
    'name' => [
        'explode' => true,
    ],
    'date' => [
        'explode' => true,
        'delimiter' => '||',
    ],
];
// name=Fred,Tor
// date=31/12/1987||12/07/1989

Properties with clause in name

A property can be passed with its clause appended in the field name with -- as a separator.

?name--contains=ed

Ordering and Sorting

Sorting is ascending by default. The only available options for sorting is asc and desc - if a value other than those is past, it will resort to the default. ?order=name&sort=desc

?order[asc]=name&order[desc]=id

Limiting

?limit=10

?order[asc]=name&order[desc]=id

Using the config

Run the publish command, to create the config file in /config

> php artisan vendor:publish --provider="Myerscode\Laravel\QueryStrategies\ServiceProvider" --tag=config

This will create config/query-strategies.php which contains the default settings for things such as reserved parameter keys (limit, page, with etc.)

Creating a new strategy

To quickly create a new Strategy class in Queries/Strategies run:

> php artisan make:strategy $name

Creating a new query clause

To quickly create a new Clause class in Queries/Clause run:

> php artisan make:clause $name

License

The MIT License (MIT). Please see License File for more information.