README

A simple, expressive, and powerful Laravel package that provides dynamic Eloquent model filters with clean syntax. It helps you build reusable, maintainable, and readable query logic in Laravel applications.

🎯 Why Use This Package?

In many Laravel applications—especially admin dashboards, reporting systems, and search pipelines—developers often repeat the same verbose filtering logic in controllers:

$query = User::query();

if (request()->filled('name')) {
    $query->where('name', request('name'));
}

if (request()->filled('status')) {
    $query->where('status', request('status'));
}

return $query->get();

With Query Filter, you can simplify this down to a single, beautifully readable chain:

User::query()
    ->filterBy([
        'name' => request('name'),
        'status' => request('status'),
    ])
    ->get();

It safely ignores empty parameters automatically, so you never write an if (request()->filled(...)) block again.

🚀 Installation

Install the package via Composer:

composer require tijanidevit/query-filter

(Optional) The package supports Auto-Discovery. If you are using an older version of Laravel (pre-5.5), manually register the provider in config/app.php:

'providers' => [
    Tijanidevit\QueryFilter\Providers\FilterProvider::class,
]

Applying the Trait

Query Filter utilizes Laravel Scopes. To enable filtering on a model, add the Filterable trait:

namespace App\Models;

use Illuminate\Database\Eloquent\Model;
use Tijanidevit\QueryFilter\Traits\Filterable;

class User extends Model
{
    use Filterable;
}

⚡ Database Drivers & ILIKE Support

The package dynamically detects your database connection. If you are using PostgreSQL, all search(), searchIn(), orSearch(), and searchByRelation() methods will automatically utilize the case-insensitive ILIKE operator. For all other SQL databases (MySQL, SQLite), it will default natively to LIKE.

📚 Available Filters

filterBy()

Filter by a single column or multiple columns using exact matches.

// Single column matching
User::query()->filterBy('status', 'active')->get();

// Multiple columns exact matching
User::query()->filterBy([
    'name' => 'Jane',
    'status' => ['active', 'pending'], // Safely wraps to WhereIn natively!
])->get();

// Secure Null checks automatically
User::query()->filterBy([
    'email_verified_at' => ['null' => true],
])->get();

filterByRelation()

Filter directly using nested related models cleanly without verbose whereHas queries.

Post::query()->filterByRelation([
    'author' => [
        'status' => 'active',
        'is_banned' => false
    ]
])->get();

filterWhereIn()

Flexible WHERE IN filtering parsing arrays and strings automatically.

// Standard Array
User::query()->filterWhereIn('status', ['active', 'pending'])->get();

// Comma-delimited strings (Ideal for external API requests)
User::query()->filterWhereIn('status', 'active,pending')->get();

// Variadic arguments
User::query()->filterWhereIn('status', 'active', 'pending')->get();

search(), searchIn(), and orSearch()

Powerful dynamic LIKE search abstractions.

// AND logic across multiple fields
User::query()->search(['name' => 'John', 'city' => 'Lagos'])->get();

// searchIn(): Grouped OR searching across multiple fields using a single keyword constraint
User::query()->searchIn(['first_name', 'last_name', 'email'], 'john')->get();

// orSearch(): Chained top-level grouped OR blocks gracefully appended to pre-existing searches
Article::query()
    ->search('category', 'technology')
    ->orSearch(['title', 'summary'], 'laravel')
    ->get();

filterFromRequest()

Automatically bind constraints directly from incoming HTTP Request objects by mapping input keys to database columns.

User::query()->filterFromRequest(request(), [
    'email' => 'login_email',   // Translates to: where email = request('login_email')
    'department_id' => 'dept',
])->get();

filterByDate(), filterByMonth(), filterByYear(), filterByDateRange()

Timezone-aware date parsing spanning specific bounding frames neatly.

// Filter single explicit matching date period ranges
User::query()->filterByDate('2024-01-01')->get();

// Search date boundaries safely ignoring omitted limits
Order::query()->filterByDateRange(request('date_from'), request('date_to'))->get();

// Isolate month timelines seamlessly
Post::query()->filterByMonth([1, 2])->get();

Sorting Helpers

Chainable dynamic chronological sorting bounds.

User::query()
    ->sortResultBy(request('sort_column'), request('sort_direction'))
    ->latestBy('last_login')
    ->get();

💡 Advanced Best Practices

Query Filter macros are designed to act composably, linking infinitely together parsing structural queries perfectly.

The "God Query" Approach

For complex Admin panels parsing 15 distinct variables simultaneously, combine macros sequentially:

$users = User::query()
    ->filterBy([
        'status' => request('status'),
        'email_verified_at' => ['null' => request('missing_email_verification')],
    ])
    ->filterWhereIn([
        'department' => request('departments'), // Array or comma-delimited natively evaluated
    ])
    ->filterByRelation([
        'manager' => [
            'status' => 'active',
        ],
    ])
    ->filterByDateRange(request('from'), request('to'))
    ->searchIn(['name', 'email', 'biography'], request('search_query'))
    ->sortResultBy(request('sort_by', 'created_at'), request('sort_dir', 'desc'))
    ->latestBy('last_login')
    ->get();

Structural Security Recommendations

1. Always validate request inputs before blindly dumping request() into maps.
2. Use arrays or comma-delimited structures intelligently parsed with filterWhereIn() bridging dashboard parameters structurally.
3. Funnel heavy endpoint evaluations entirely into filterFromRequest() maps for ultra-slim API Controllers.

🛠 Requirements

• Laravel 9, 10, or 11+
• PHP 8.0+

📄 License

This package is open-sourced software licensed under the MIT license.