Parse custom search strings and execute them using ElasticSearch

This package allows you to convert a search string like foo bar status:active @john.doe to its corresponding ElasticSearch request. Any custom directives like status:active and @john.doe can be added using regex and the spatie/elasticsearch-query-builder. There's also basic support for grouping directives (e.g. group_by:project) and providing auto-completion suggestions for certain directives.

use Elastic\Elasticsearch\ClientBuilder;
use Spatie\ElasticsearchStringParser\SearchQuery;

$subjects = SearchQuery::forClient(ClientBuilder::create())
    ->baseDirective(new SubjectBaseDirective())
    ->patternDirectives(
        new CompanyDirective(),
        new UserDirective(),
    )  
    ->search('deadly neurotoxin company:aperture @glados');

In the example above, an ElasticSearch request is executed with the appropriate parameters set to search for results with the given company (aperture), user (glados) and subject string (deadly neurotoxin). The returned value is a \Spatie\ElasticsearchStringParser\SearchResults object that contains search results and suggestions for the applied directives.

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Installation

You can install the package via composer:

composer require spatie/elasticsearch-search-string-parser

This package requires Elasticsearch 8 and the matching elasticsearch/elasticsearch 8.x PHP client. If you're still on Elasticsearch 7, use the 1.x release of this package.

How it works: directives

When creating a search string parser, you decide how each part of the search string is parsed by defining directives. When a directive is found in the search string, it is applied to the underlying ElasticSearch. Directives can be used to add basic match queries but also to add sorts, aggregations, facets, etc...

Let's dive into the inner workings of the package by dissecting an example search string and its parser:

$searchString = 'cheap neurotoxin company:aperture deadly @glados';

SearchQuery::forClient(ClientBuilder::create())
    ->baseDirective(new SubjectBaseDirective())
    ->patternDirectives(
        new CompanyDirective(),
        new UserDirective(),
    )->search($searchString);

A search string parser can have multiple PatternDirectives and at most one BaseDirective. In the example search string there are two pattern directives: company:aperture and @glados. These will be parsed by the CompanyDirective and UserDirective. The remaining string (cheap nearotoxin deadly) will be processed by the base directive.

To do this, we'll loop over all configured pattern directives. Each patter directive has a regular expression it looks for. If one of the directives finds a match in the search string, it will be applied and the match will be removed from the search string. The process is then repeated for the next match or the next pattern directive.

Back to our example: the CompanyDirective is configured to match company:(.*). In the example string, this regex pattern will match company:aperture. This means the CompanyDirective will be applied and a query for company_name="aperture" will be added to the ElasticSearch builder. Finally, the directive is removed from the search string, leaving us with the following string:

cheap neurotoxin deadly @glados

As there are no other matches for the CompanyDirective, we'll look for the UserDirective next. The user directive will search for @(.*) and thus match @glados. The UserDirective will now apply its queries to the ElasticSearch builder and remove the matches string. We're left with:

cheap neurotoxin deadly

There are no pattern directives left to apply. The entire remaining string is then passed to the SubjectBaseDirective. This base directive then decides what to do with the remaining search string, for example, using it for a fuzzy search on the subject field.

Usage

$elasticsearch-search-string-parser = new Spatie\ElasticsearchStringParser();
echo $elasticsearch-search-string-parser->echoPhrase('Hello, Spatie!');

Testing

composer test

Changelog

Please see CHANGELOG for more information on what has changed recently.

Contributing

Please see CONTRIBUTING for details.

Security Vulnerabilities

Please review our security policy on how to report security vulnerabilities.

Credits

• Alex Vanderbist
• Ruben Van Assche
• All Contributors

License

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