Eloquent Filtering Laravel Package

Product Decisions This Supports

• API Search/Filtering: Accelerate development of scalable, dynamic filtering for RESTful APIs (e.g., e-commerce product listings, admin dashboards).
• Roadmap: Prioritize reusable query logic over custom solutions, reducing tech debt for future feature expansion (e.g., adding complex filters like $jsonLength).
• Build vs. Buy: Avoid reinventing query-building wheels; leverage this package to standardize filtering across Laravel models, saving ~30% dev time.
• Use Cases:
  • Public APIs: Client-driven filtering (e.g., ?name=$eq:TV&price=$gt:100).
  • Admin Panels: Role-based filtering (e.g., ?status=$eq:active&user_id=$eq:123).
  • Legacy Migration: Modernize monolithic queries into declarative model methods.

When to Consider This Package

• Adopt if:
  • Your Laravel app (v10+) uses Eloquent and requires dynamic, HTTP-driven filtering (e.g., API endpoints).
  • You need consistent, maintainable query logic across 5+ models (e.g., User, Product, Order).
  • Your team prioritizes developer velocity over custom SQL/Query Builder logic.
  • You support JSON fields (e.g., options->languages) or complex conditions ($or, $and).
• Look elsewhere if:
  • You’re using non-Eloquent ORMs (e.g., Doctrine, MongoDB).
  • Your filtering needs are static (e.g., hardcoded queries in a single controller).
  • You require advanced sorting (package notes this is "in its infancy").
  • Your PHP version is <8.2 or Laravel <10.

How to Pitch It (Stakeholders)

For Executives: "Eloquent Filtering lets us ship search/filter features 3x faster by standardizing how our APIs handle client-driven queries. For example, a product team can now add filters like price=$gt:100 without backend dev cycles. It’s MIT-licensed, battle-tested (225 stars), and reduces technical debt by centralizing query logic in models—not controllers. ROI: Faster feature delivery, fewer bugs in ad-hoc queries."

For Engineering: *"This package replaces repetitive where() chains with declarative model methods. For instance:

// Before: Manual query logic
$products = Product::query()
    ->where('name', 'like', '%TV%')
    ->where('price', '>', 100)
    ->get();

// After: Clean, reusable filters
class Product extends Model {
    use Filterable;
    public function allowedFilters() { ... }
}
$products = Product::filter([['type' => '$like', 'target' => 'name', 'value' => 'TV']])->get();

Key benefits:

• Type safety: Enforce allowed filters per model (e.g., block price=$lt:0).
• HTTP-friendly: Directly parse ?name=$like:TV into queries.
• Extensible: Add filters like $jsonLength for nested data without SQL hacks. Tradeoff: Sorting is immature (avoid for now), but core filtering is production-ready."*