Instacar\ExtraFiltersBundle

A Symfony Bundle for API Platform 2.6 to add a powerful filter based on Symfony Expressions, with support for virtual fields and composable filters.

Before you go

This is a WIP (Work-In-Progress), so you must expect breaking changes with the release of a new version. This software will try to stick with the semver conventions (trying to don't introduce backward-incompatible changes with the release of new patch version), but I don't provide support for old versions.

Scope

This bundle is NOT:

• A client-side expression builder. You must define the properties and the expressions beforehand. If you want it, you can use this awesome bundle by metaclass (but it can open DDoS vectors in public APIs, see this comment).

Installation

Make sure Composer is installed globally, as explained in the installation chapter of the Composer documentation.

Applications that use Symfony Flex

Open a command console, enter your project directory and execute:

composer require instacar/extra-filters-bundle

That's all! You can jump right to "Configuration".

Applications that don't use Symfony Flex

Step 1: Download the Bundle

Open a command console, enter your project directory and execute the following command to download the latest stable version of this bundle:

composer require instacar/extra-filters-bundle

Step 2: Enable the Bundle

Then, enable the bundle by adding it to the list of registered bundles in the config/bundles.php file of your project:

// config/bundles.php

return [
    // ...
    Instacar\ExtraFiltersBundle\InstacarExtraFiltersBundle::class => ['all' => true],
];

Configuration

By default, the ExpressionFilter enable the API Platform filters by default (excluding OrderFilter), but you can enable your own filters using updating the configuration. Example:

# config/packages/instacar_extra_filters.yml
instacar_extra_filters:
  doctrine:
    filters:
      App\Filter\CustomFilter: true

You can also disable the API Platforms filters for the ExpressionFilter setting the value of the filter to "false". Example with all the available filters:

# config/packages/instacar_extra_filters.yml
instacar_extra_filters:
  doctrine:
    filters:
      ApiPlatform\Core\Bridge\Doctrine\Orm\Filter\SearchFilter: false
      ApiPlatform\Core\Bridge\Doctrine\Orm\Filter\RangeFilter: false
      ApiPlatform\Core\Bridge\Doctrine\Orm\Filter\DateFilter: false
      ApiPlatform\Core\Bridge\Doctrine\Orm\Filter\BooleanFilter: false
      ApiPlatform\Core\Bridge\Doctrine\Orm\Filter\NumericFilter: false
      ApiPlatform\Core\Bridge\Doctrine\Orm\Filter\ExistsFilter: false

Usage

You can implement the ExpressionFilter as a normal filter for API Platform. You can pass in the arguments the filters that the expression language have access to. For example:

// src/Entity/Book.php

use ApiPlatform\Core\Annotation\ApiFilter;
use ApiPlatform\Core\Annotation\ApiResource;
use ApiPlatform\Core\Bridge\Doctrine\Orm\Filter\SearchFilter;
use Doctrine\ORM\Mapping as ORM;
use Instacar\ExtraFiltersBundle\Doctrine\Orm\Filter\ExpressionFilter;

#[ApiResource]
#[ApiFilter(ExpressionFilter::class, properties: [
    'search' => 'orWhere(search("name", "partial"), search("author.name", "partial"), search("year", "partial"))',
], arguments: [
    'filters' => [SearchFilter::class] // Only allow the ExpressionFilter to use the SearchFilter
])]
#[ORM\Entity]
class Book {
    // real implementation
}

The expression syntax are the following:

['filter-property' => 'operator(filter1(property, strategy, value), filter2(property, strategy, value), ..., filterN(property, strategy, value))'];

Where:

• filter-property: The property used for filter in your API. You can use a virtual property (a property that is not present in your entity).
• operator: A supported operator.
• filter: A supported filter.
• property: The name of the property from the entity. You can use "property" if you want to use the same name from the filter-property.
• strategy: The strategy from the documented values in the filter's documentation. Optional. You can use "null" for use the follow parameter.
• value: The value passed to the filter. Optional. You can manipulate the value before pass it to the filter with this property, for example with the DateFilter you can search old dates with {before: value}.

Supported operators

• andWhere: Equal to the SQL operator "AND".
• orWhere: Equal to the SQL operator "OR".
• notWhere: Equal to the SQL operator "NOT".

Supported filters

• All the filters for API Platform for the ORM (currently tested SearchFilter and DateFilter).
• Custom filters that implement the interface ContextAwareFilterInterface for the ORM. Note: The filter's name for the expression is in camelCase without the "Filter" suffix (for example, SearchFilter is converted to search).

Limitations

• It only works with the ORM filters.
• It does not generate a tailored documentation for API Platform, it only generates a generic property with the "string" value.

Future work

These are the list of the ideas that I have for this bundle. If you have another idea, let me know in the "Issues" tab.

• Working ODM filters with this filter.

Licensing

This bundle is licensed under the GNU LGPLv3. For a quick resume of the permissions with this license see the GNU LGPLv3 in choosealicense.com.

See the LICENSE file for more details.