Laravel Model Filter

A flexible Eloquent model filter for Laravel with operator support, OR grouping, and relationship filtering.

v2 breaking change: Filter params are now namespaced under filters[]. See the breaking changes section below.

Requirements

• PHP 8.1+
• Laravel 9 - 13

Installation

composer require laraditz/model-filter

Setup

Add the Filterable trait to your model and declare a $filterable allowlist:

use Laraditz\ModelFilter\Filterable;

class User extends Model
{
    use Filterable;

    protected array $filterable = [
        'name',
        'email',
        'age',
        'role.name',  // dot-notation opts in to relationship filtering
    ];

    public function role(): BelongsTo
    {
        return $this->belongsTo(Role::class);
    }
}

Optionally scaffold a filter class with the Artisan command:

php artisan make:filter UserFilter

This creates app/Filters/UserFilter.php. Use --force to overwrite an existing file.

Then add your custom methods:

namespace App\Filters;

use Laraditz\ModelFilter\Filter;

class UserFilter extends Filter
{
    public function name(mixed $value): void
    {
        $this->query->where('name', 'LIKE', $value . '%');
    }
}

Fields without a custom method are handled automatically.

Custom method precedence: When a custom method exists for a field, it always takes precedence over auto-handling — and it receives only the value, not the operator. This means ?filters[age][gte]=18 will call age('18') and silently drop the gte operator. If you need operator-based filtering for a field, do not define a custom method for it and let auto-handling do the work.

Usage

Pass $request->all() to filter():

$users = User::filter($request->all())->get();

Query param format

# Shorthand (defaults to eq)
?filters[name]=farhan

# Explicit operator
?filters[age][gte]=18

# Multiple filters - all AND'd together
?filters[status]=active&filters[age][gte]=18

# Multiple operators on same field
?filters[age][gte]=18&filters[age][lte]=65

# OR group - produces: AND (name LIKE '%far%' OR email LIKE '%far%')
?filters[or][name][like]=far&filters[or][email][like]=far

# Relationship filtering
?filters[role.name][eq]=admin

# Sort - top-level, not inside filters[]
?sort=name,-created_at

Supported operators

| Operator | SQL equivalent | Notes | | --------- | ----------------- | ------------------------------------- | | eq | = ? | Default when no operator bracket used | | neq | != ? | | | like | LIKE ? | Value wrapped in %…% automatically | | gt | > ? | | | gte | >= ? | | | lt | < ? | | | lte | <= ? | | | in | IN (?) | Comma-separated string → array | | between | BETWEEN ? AND ? | Comma-separated, exactly 2 values |

Relationship filtering

Add the relationship column in dot-notation to $filterable:

protected array $filterable = [
    'name',
    'role.name',   // enables ?filters[role.name][...]=...
];

The package translates role.name into a whereHas('role', ...) clause automatically. All operators work:

# Users whose role name equals "admin"
?filters[role.name][eq]=admin

# Users whose role name contains "mod"
?filters[role.name][like]=mod

# Combined with a direct field filter
?filters[name][like]=john&filters[role.name][eq]=admin

Only one level of nesting is supported (relation.column). Deeper nesting (e.g. post.comments.body) is not supported.

Custom relationship query

If you need more control — for example filtering on a condition that spans multiple columns of the related model — define a custom method in your filter class:

class UserFilter extends Filter
{
    /**
     * ?filters[active_admin]=1
     * Finds users with an active role named "admin".
     */
    public function activeAdmin(mixed $value): void
    {
        if (! $value) {
            return;
        }

        $this->query->whereHas('role', function ($q): void {
            $q->where('name', 'admin')
              ->where('active', true);
        });
    }
}

Remember to add the key to $filterable:

protected array $filterable = ['active_admin'];

Security

Only fields listed in $filterable can be filtered. Unlisted fields are silently ignored. Values are bound via PDO prepared statements - no SQL injection risk.

Breaking Changes from v1

| Area | v1 | v2 | | ------------------- | ------------------------- | ------------------------------------- | | Query params | ?name=farhan | ?filters[name]=farhan | | Laravel support | 7–12 | 9–13 | | PHP minimum | 7.4 | 8.1 | | Lumen | Supported | Dropped | | $filterable empty | All params passed through | All filtering disabled | | Filter::__call__ | Auto-proxied to Builder | Removed — use $this->query directly | | Filter::sort() | On Filter base class | Moved to Filterable trait |

Credits

• Raditz Farhan

License

MIT. Please see the license file for more information.