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Filters

This chapter provides information on the existing filters and illustrates how to create new filters.

Filters are used to limit a set of data or request additional information returned by the API.

Filters for fields that have a database index are enabled automatically. Filters by all other fields should be enabled explicitly.

ComparisonFilter Filter

The ComparisonFilter is the default filter used to filter data by a field value using various comparison types.

All supported comparison types are listed in the following table:

Comparison Type	Operator	Description
eq	=	For fields and not collection valued associations checks whether a field value is equal to a filter value. For collection valued associations checks whether a collection contains any of filter values.
neq	!=	For fields and not collection valued associations checks whether a field value is not equal to a filter value. For collection valued associations checks whether a collection does not contain any of filter values. Records that have null as the field value or empty collection are not returned. To return such records the neq_or_null comparison type should be used.
lt	<	Checks whether a field value is less than a filter value. Supports numeric, date and time fields.
lte	<=	Checks whether a field value is less than or equal to a filter value. Supports numeric, date and time fields.
gt	>	Checks whether a field value is greater than a filter value. Supports numeric, date and time fields.
gte	>=	Checks whether a field value is greater than or equal to a filter value. Supports numeric, date and time fields.
exists	*	For fields and not collection valued associations checks whether a field value is not null (if a filter value is true) or a field value is null (if a filter value is false). For collection valued associations checks whether a collection is not empty (if a filter value is true) or a collection is empty (if a filter value is false).
neq_or_null	!*	For fields and not collection valued associations checks whether a field value is not equal to a filter value or it is null. For collection valued associations checks whether a collection does not contain any of filter values or it is empty.
contains	~	For string fields checks whether a field value contains a filter value. The LIKE ‘%value%’ comparison is used. For collection valued associations checks whether a collection contains all of filter values.
not_contains	!~	For string fields checks whether a field value does not contain a filter value. The NOT LIKE ‘%value%’ comparison is used. For collection valued associations checks whether a collection does not contain all of filter values.
starts_with	^	Checks whether a field value starts with a filter value. The LIKE ‘value%’ comparison is used. Supports only string fields.
not_starts_with	!^	Checks whether a field value does not start with a filter value. The NOT LIKE ‘value%’ comparison is used. Supports only string fields.
ends_with	$	Checks whether a field value ends with a filter value. The LIKE ‘%value’ comparison is used. Supports only string fields.
not_ends_with	!$	Checks whether a field value does not end with a filter value. The NOT LIKE ‘%value’ comparison is used. Supports only string fields.

Existing Filters

A list of filters that are configured automatically according to the data type of a field:

Data Type / Filter Type	Operators enabled by default
string	=, !=, *, !*
boolean	=, !=, *, !*
integer	=, !=, <, <=, >, >=, *, !*
smallint	=, !=, <, <=, >, >=, *, !*
bigint	=, !=, <, <=, >, >=, *, !*
unsignedInteger	=, !=, <, <=, >, >=, *, !*
decimal	=, !=, <, <=, >, >=, *, !*
float	=, !=, <, <=, >, >=, *, !*
date	=, !=, <, <=, >, >=, *, !*
time	=, !=, <, <=, >, >=, *, !*
datetime	=, !=, <, <=, >, >=, *, !*
guid	=, !=, *, !*
text	*
percent	=, !=, <, <=, >, >=, *, !*
money	=, !=, <, <=, >, >=, *, !*
money_value	=, !=, <, <=, >, >=, *, !*
currency	=, !=, *, !*
duration	=, !=, <, <=, >, >=, *, !*

All these filters are implemented by ComparisonFilter.

See Enable Advanced Operators for String Filter and Enable Case-insensitive String Filter for examples of advanced filter configuration.

The following filters are also configured automatically:

• The composite_identifier filter for the ID field, if an entity has a composite identifier. The operators enabled for this filter are =, !=, *, !*. It is implemented by CompositeIdentifierFilter.

• The association filter for multi-target associations. The operators enabled for this filter are =, !=, *, !*. It is implemented by ExtendedAssociationFilter. More details on how to configure multi-target associations are available in the following topics: Configure an Extended Many-To-One Association, Configure an Extended Many-To-Many Association and Configure an Extended Multiple Many-To-One Association.

A list of filters that should be configured explicitly using the type option:

Filter Type	Enabled Operators	Implemented by
primaryField	=, !=, *, !*	PrimaryFieldFilter
nestedTree	>, >=	NestedTreeFilter
searchQuery	=	SearchQueryFilter
searchAggregation	=	SearchQueryFilter

You can also run the php var/console debug:config oro_api command to view all the existing filters in the filters section and all the existing operators for filters in the filter_operators section.

FilterInterface Interface

The FilterInterface interface must be implemented by all filters.

Consider checking out the following classes before implementing your own filters, as each of them may serve as a good base class for your own filters:

• StandaloneFilter

• StandaloneFilterWithDefaultValue,

• ComparisonFilter and

• AssociationFilter

FieldFilterInterface Interface

The FieldFilterInterface is a marker interface that must be implemented by filters that are applied to a field.

Examples of such filters are ComparisonFilter, CompositeIdentifierFilter, NestedTreeFilter, ExtendedAssociationFilter and PrimaryFieldFilter.

FieldAwareFilterInterface Interface

The FieldAwareFilterInterface interface must be implemented by filters that are applied to a field and need to know the field name.

Examples of such filters are ComparisonFilter, ExtendedAssociationFilter and PrimaryFieldFilter.

CollectionAwareFilterInterface Interface

The CollectionAwareFilterInterface interface must be implemented by filters that can handle a collection valued association.

Examples of such filters are ComparisonFilter, ExtendedAssociationFilter and PrimaryFieldFilter.

ConfigAwareFilterInterface Interface

The ConfigAwareFilterInterface interface must be implemented by filters that entity configuration.

MetadataAwareFilterInterface Interface

The MetadataAwareFilterInterface interface must be implemented by filters that depend on the entity metadata.

An example of such filter is CompositeIdentifierFilter.

RequestAwareFilterInterface Interface

The RequestAwareFilterInterface interface must be implemented by filters that depend on a request type.

Examples of such filters are ExtendedAssociationFilter and CompositeIdentifierFilter.

SelfIdentifiableFilterInterface Interface

The SelfIdentifiableFilterInterface interface must be implemented by filters that should search their own value by themselves.

An example of such filter is ExtendedAssociationFilter.

NamedValueFilterInterface Interface

The NamedValueFilterInterface interface must be implemented by filters that have a named value.

An example of such filter is ExtendedAssociationFilter.

SpecialHandlingFilterInterface Interface

The SpecialHandlingFilterInterface interface must be implemented by filters that have a special handling and as result the common normalization should not be applied to theirs values.

An example of such filter is MetaPropertyFilter, FieldsFilter, IncludeFilter.

StandaloneFilter Base Class

The StandaloneFilter is the base class for filters that can be used independently of other filters.

Examples of such filters are:

• ComparisonFilter

• ExtendedAssociationFilter

• CompositeIdentifierFilter

• NestedTreeFilter

• SearchQueryFilter

• SearchQueryFilter

• PrimaryFieldFilter

StandaloneFilterWithDefaultValue Base Class

The StandaloneFilterWithDefaultValue is the base class for filters that can be used independently of other filters and have a predefined default value.

Examples of such filters are PageNumberFilter, PageSizeFilter and SortFilter.

Criteria Class

The Criteria class represents criteria for filtering data returned by ORM queries. This class extends Doctrine Criteria class and adds methods to work with joins. It is required because API filters can be applied to associations at any nesting level.

CriteriaConnector Class

The CriteriaConnector class is used to apply criteria stored in Criteria object to QueryBuilder object.

This class uses CriteriaNormalizer class to prepare Criteria object before criteria are applied to QueryBuilder object.

Also pay attention to RequireJoinsDecisionMakerInterface and OptimizeJoinsDecisionMakerInterface interfaces and oro_api.query.require_joins_decision_maker and oro_api.query.optimize_joins_decision_maker services. You can decorate these services if your expressions require this.

QueryExpressionVisitor Class

The QueryExpressionVisitor is used to walk a graph of DQL expressions from Criteria object and turns them into a query. This class is similar to Doctrine QueryExpressionVisitor, but allows to add new types of expressions easily and helps to build subquery based expressions.

Query Expressions

The following query expressions are implemented out-of-the-box:

Operator	Class	Description
AND	AndCompositeExpression	Logical AND
OR	OrCompositeExpression	Logical OR
NOT	NotCompositeExpression	Logical NOT
=	EqComparisonExpression	EQUAL TO comparison
<>	NeqComparisonExpression	NOT EQUAL TO comparison
<	LtComparisonExpression	LESS THAN comparison
<=	LteComparisonExpression	LESS THAN OR EQUAL TO comparison
>	GtComparisonExpression	GREATER THAN comparison
>=	GteComparisonExpression	GREATER THAN OR EQUAL TO comparison
IN	InComparisonExpression	IN comparison
NIN	NinComparisonExpression	NOT IN comparison
EXISTS	ExistsComparisonExpression	EXISTS (IS NOT NULL) and DOES NOT EXIST (IS NULL) comparisons
EMPTY	EmptyComparisonExpression	EMPTY and NOT EMPTY comparisons for collections
NEQ_OR_NULL	NeqOrNullComparisonExpression	NOT EQUAL TO OR IS NULL comparison
NEQ_OR_EMPTY	NeqOrEmptyComparisonExpression	NOT EQUAL TO OR EMPTY comparison for collections
MEMBER_OF	MemberOfComparisonExpression	checks whether a collection contains any of specific values
ALL_MEMBER_OF	AllMemberOfComparisonExpression	checks whether a collection contains all of specific values
ALL_NOT_MEMBER_OF	AllMemberOfComparisonExpression	checks whether a collection does not contain all of specific values
CONTAINS	ContainsComparisonExpression	LIKE %value% comparison
NOT_CONTAINS	NotContainsComparisonExpression	NOT LIKE %value% comparison
STARTS_WITH	StartsWithComparisonExpression	LIKE value% comparison
NOT_STARTS_WITH	NotStartsWithComparisonExpression	NOT LIKE value% comparison
ENDS_WITH	EndsWithComparisonExpression	LIKE %value comparison
NOT_ENDS_WITH	NotEndsWithComparisonExpression	NOT LIKE %value comparison
NESTED_TREE	NestedTreeComparisonExpression	returns all child nodes for a given node depending on the nesting level
NESTED_TREE_WITH_ROOT	NestedTreeComparisonExpression	returns a given node and all child nodes for this node depending on the nesting level

If necessary, you can add new comparison expressions and use them in your filters. For this, create a class that implements the expression logic, register it as a service tagged with the oro.api.query.comparison_expression in the dependency injection container and (if required) decorate the oro_api.query.require_joins_decision_maker and oro_api.query.optimize_joins_decision_maker services.

Creating a New Filter

To create a new filter:

• Create a class that implements the filtering logic. This class must implement FilterInterface Interface or extend one of the classes that implement this interface.

• If your filter is complex and depends on other services, create a factory to create the filter. Register the factory as a service in the dependency injection container.

• Register this class in oro_api / filters section using Resources/config/oro/app.yml. Examples of filters registration can be found in ApiBundle/Resources/config/oro/app.yml.

To configure your filter to be used for an API resource, use the type option of the filter.

Other Classes

Consider checking out the list of other classes below as they can provide insight on how data filtering works:

• FilterNames - contains names of predefined filters for a specific request type.

• FilterNamesRegistry - a container for names of predefined filters for all registered request types.

• FilterValue - represents a filter value.

• FilterValueAccessorInterface - represents a collection of the FilterValue objects.

• RestFilterValueAccessor - extracts values of filters from REST API HTTP request.

• FilterHelper - reusable utility methods that can be used to get filter values.

• FilterCollection - a collection of filters.

• SimpleFilterFactory - the default implementation of a factory to create filters.

• FilterOperatorRegistry - the container for all registered operators for filters.

• MetaPropertyFilter - a filter that is used to request to add entity meta properties to the result or to request to perform some additional operations.

• AddMetaPropertyFilter - a processor that adds the “meta” filter that is used to specify which entity meta properties should be returned or which additional operations should be performed.

• HandleMetaPropertyFilter - a processor that handles the “meta” filter.

• AddMetaProperties - a processor that adds configuration of meta properties requested via the “meta” filter.

• FieldsFilter - a filter that is used to filter entity fields.

• AddFieldsFilter - a processor that adds “fields” filters that are used to filter entity fields.

• HandleFieldsFilter - a processor that handles “fields” filters.

• FilterFieldsByExtra - a processor that modifies configuration of entities according to “fields” filters.

• IncludeFilter - a filter that is used to request information about related entities.

• AddIncludeFilter - a processor that adds “include” filters that are used to request information about related entities.

• HandleIncludeFilter - a processor that handles “include” filters.

• ExpandRelatedEntities - a processor that adds configuration of related entities requested via “include” filters.

• BuildCriteria - a processor that applies all requested filters to the Criteria object.

• NormalizeFilterValues - a processor that converts values of all requested filters according to the type of the filters and validates that all requested filters are supported.

• RegisterConfiguredFilters - a processor that registers filters according to the filters configuration section.

• RegisterDynamicFilters - a processor that registers nested filters.