Laravel Query Strategies

Build safe, flexible API endpoints by turning URL query parameters into Eloquent queries. Define a strategy that controls exactly which filters, sorts, fields, and relationships your API consumers can use.

Requirements

• PHP ^8.5
• Laravel ^13.0

Quick Example

Given a ProductStrategy that defines which parameters are allowed:

class ProductStrategy extends Strategy
{
    protected array $canOrderBy = ['name', 'price', 'created_at'];
    protected array $canWith = ['category', 'reviews'];
    protected array $allowedFields = ['id', 'name', 'price', 'category_id'];
    protected array $allowedAppends = ['discount_price'];

    protected array $config = [
        'name'     => ['filter' => ContainsClause::class],
        'price'    => ['column' => 'unit_price'],
        'category' => ['column' => 'category_id', 'explode' => true],
    ];
}

Your API consumers can now query like this:

GET /products?name=laptop&price=500&category=1,2,3&order=price&sort=desc&limit=10&with=reviews&fields=id,name,price&append=discount_price

And in your controller:

use function Myerscode\Laravel\QueryStrategies\filter;

public function index()
{
    return filter(Product::class)->with(ProductStrategy::class)->apply();
}

That single line handles filtering, sorting, field selection, eager loading, accessor appending, limiting, and pagination — all controlled by the strategy.

Why Use This?

• Safe by default — only parameters defined in your strategy are applied. Unknown parameters are ignored (or rejected in strict mode).
• Column obfuscation — map public parameter names to real database columns so your schema stays private.
• Flexible clauses — 17 built-in filter clauses (equals, contains, between, greater than, etc.) with operator overrides via URL.
• Relationship support — filter through relationships with dot notation, sort by relationship columns, and control eager loading.
• Composable — chain individual methods (filter(), order(), fields(), etc.) or call apply() to run everything at once.

Installation

composer require myerscode/laravel-query-strategies

The package auto-discovers its service provider. No manual registration needed.

Documentation

• Usage — Getting started, creating filters, query parameter syntax, and pagination
• Strategies — Defining strategies, parameter options, ordering, limiting, eager loads, and default filters
• Clauses — Built-in clauses, scope and trashed filtering, callbacks, and custom clauses
• Transmutes — Transforming values before filtering
• Configuration — Customising parameter names and strict mode

License

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