May 6, 2019

Level 15

Put search filter buttons into session and return results

May very well be butchering this process ..

The app has a filter bar with a number of drop down menus which allow users to select a job of their interest. At one point, I had a FilterJobsController but later scrapped it, as you can only get to /jobs by selecting the filter buttons - there is no /jobs link. So, then it seemed having that logic in the JobsController made good sense.

Now, I've determined that in addition to showing the job results on the app's page, I'd like the data to also be available in JSON format for use with other sites.

I've discovered the menus need to be in the session, otherwise it's very annoying to have to re-select the menu of a users choice over and over. ResourceCollections are new to me, and I'm not sure how the user selections are put into the session while retrieving the data.

Do you have any experience with this? Am I on the right track?

<?php

namespace App\Http\Controllers;

use App\Job;
use App\Http\Resources\Job as JobResource;

class JobsController extends Controller
{
    protected $job;

    public function __construct()
    {
        $this->middleware('auth')->except(['index', 'show']);
    }
    

    public function index(Request $request)
    {
        $jobs = function () {
            return JobResource::collection(Job::oldest());
        };
        
    return view('jobs.index', [
            'jobs' => Job::where([
            ['bidded', request('bidded')],
            ['state', request('state')],
            ['city', request('city')],
            ['biddertype', request('biddertype')],
            ['job', request('job')],
            ['subjob', request('subjob')], 
            ])->paginate(3)
                ->onEachSide(3)
                ->appends([
                    'bidded' => request('bidded'),
                    'state' => request('state'),
                    'city' => request('city'),
                    'biddertype' => request('biddertype'),
                    'job' => request('job'),
                    'subjob' => request('subjob'),
            ])
        ]);
    }

<?php

namespace App\Http\Resources;

use App\Job;
use App\Http\Resources\Job as JobResource;
use Illuminate\Http\Resources\Json\ResourceCollection;

class JobCollection extends ResourceCollection
{
    /**
     * Transform the resource collection into an array.
     *
     * @param  \Illuminate\Http\Request  $request
     * @return array
     */
    public function toArray($request)
    {

        $request->session()->put([
            'bidded' => 'bidded', 
            'state' => 'state', 
            'city' => 'city', 
            'biddertype' => 'biddertype', 
            'job' => 'job', 
            'subjob' => 'subjob'
        ]);

        return [
            'data' => $this->collection,
            'links' => [
                'self' => route('jobs.index'),
            ],
        ];
    }
}

<?php

namespace App\Http\Resources;

use Illuminate\Http\Resources\Json\JsonResource;

class Job extends JsonResource
{
    /**
     * Transform the resource into an array.
     *
     * @param  \Illuminate\Http\Request  $request
     * @return array
     */
    public function toArray($request)
    {
        return [
            'id' => $this->id,
            'jobtitle' => $this->jobtitle,
            'body' => $this->body,
            'projectaddress' => $this->projectaddress,
            'city' => $this->city,
            'state' => $this->state,
            'zipcode' => $this->zipcode,
            'biddertype' => $this->biddertype,
            'job' => $this->job,
            'subjob' => $this->subjob,
            'deadline' => $this->deadline
        ];   
    }
}

jlrdw

7 years ago

Level 75

Look into using your scopes

https://stackoverflow.com/questions/38272593/items-filter-laravel-eloquent

https://laravel.com/docs/5.8/eloquent#query-scopes

Have a search form filled out, and post it to controller.

Maybe for some ideas look at indeed.com.

Edit: Or use repositories:

Good examples: https://github.com/bestmomo/laravel5-5-example

Snapey

7 years ago

Level 122

how will other sites maintain session?

trevorpan

7 years ago

Level 15

@JLRDW - ok, this is how job population was achieved before in the JobsController (prior to today's post):

public function index(Request $request)
    {
        $jobs = Job::oldest()
        ->filter(request(['month', 'year']))
            ->get();

    return view('jobs.index', [
            'jobs' => Job::paginate(3)->onEachSide(3)
            ], compact('jobs'));
}

After reviewing that stack article I've made some modifications. With this form request, is it wise to "re-validate" if the data was validated when a different user created a job originally? In this case, we're just trying to populate existing jobs already in the database, not create new ones.

Does this prevent malicious attacks?

<?php

namespace App\Http\Requests;

use Illuminate\Foundation\Http\FormRequest;

class FilterJobs extends FormRequest
{
    /**
     * Determine if the user is authorized to make this request.
     *
     * @return bool
     */
    public function authorize()
    {
        return true;
    }

    /**
     * Get the validation rules that apply to the request.
     *
     * @return array
     */
    public function rules()
    {
        return [
            'bidded' => 'required|integer'
            'state' => 'required',
            'city' => 'required',
            'biddertype' => 'required',
            'job' => 'required',
            'subjob' => 'required',
            //
        ];
    }
}

Added query scopes. I felt like these queries should be singular, and the controller collects an array - seem right?

// Job.php (model)

    public function scopeBidded($query, $bidded)
    {
        if (!is_null($bidded)) {
            return $query->where('bidded', 'bidded');
        }

        return $query;
    }

    public function scopeState($query, $state)
    {
        if (!is_null($state)) {
            return $query->where('state', 'state');
        }

        return $query;
    }

    public function scopeCity($query, $city)
    {
        if (!is_null($city)) {
           return $query->where('city', 'city');

        return $query;
    }

    public function scopeBidderType($query, $biddertype)
    {
        if (!is_null($biddertype)) {
            return $query->where('biddertype', 'biddertype');
        }

        return $query;
    }

    public function scopeJob($query, $job)
    {
        if (!is_null($job)) {
            return $query->where('job', 'job');
        }

        return $query;
    }

    public function scopeSubJob($query, $subjob)
    {
        if (!is_null($subjob)) {
            return $query->where('subjob', 'subjob');
        }

        return $query;
    }

//JobsController

    public function index(Request $request)
    {

    $jobs = Job::bidded($request->bidded)
                ->state($request->state)
                ->city($request->city)
                ->biddertype($request->biddertype)
                ->job($request->job)
                ->subjob($request->subjob);
    
    return view('jobs.index', [
            'jobs' => Job::where([
            ['bidded', request('bidded')],
            ['state', request('state')],
            ['city', request('city')],
            ['biddertype', request('biddertype')],
            ['job', request('job')],
            ['subjob', request('subjob')], 
            ])->paginate(3)
                ->onEachSide(3)
                ->appends([
                    'bidded' => request('bidded'),
                    'state' => request('state'),
                    'city' => request('city'),
                    'biddertype' => request('biddertype'),
                    'job' => request('job'),
                    'subjob' => request('subjob'),
            ])
        ]);

The above does not retrieve a job that exists in the database, but it also does not cause a whoops page either. I feel like this is a double query, not sure how to put the results into an array. Any ideas where it's going wrong?

jlrdw

7 years ago

Level 75

I am not sure what:

    public function authorize()
    {
        return true;
    }

is doing. Do you have Auth middleware setup in your routes. I usually see code more like:

if (Auth::check()) {
    // do something
}

It is hard to visualize another's code and know exactly what they are doing and why.

I am guessing you not only have a job site, but are also sending this data to other job sites using their API.

I see you have taken quite a few lessons. That's why I also referred you to https://github.com/bestmomo/laravel5-5-example

In fact I myself just recently started using scopes, because of a suggestion snapey made. I am just starting to explore repositories.

You could probably set up queues to automate sending jobs.

Lookup events, queues, etc in the docs. Plus I am sure there are many tutorials around.

Step one is, do one thing at a time. Get your site working with the filters correctly.

Decide if you want to use the LIKE clause, or something like Elasticsearch. And on top of this, you have to implement RBAC.

So it's a learning curve.

Most of my searches are very simple, nothing like yours. As example, this was done a while back:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B1_PFw--3o74YjVreHNBOWU2aEE/view

I usually just do something like:

$query = Dog::where('dogname', 'like', $dogsch);
        if ($aval == "n") {
            $query->where('adopted', '=', 1);
        } else if ($aval == "y") {
            $query->where('adopted', '=', 0);
        }
        $dogs = $query->orderBy('lastedit', 'DESC')->paginate(5);

But scopes is a good start. A tip, Jeffrey's search is not as powerful as google, so if searching laravel, go to google and do this:

site:laracasts.com your search term

like

site:laracasts.com filtering eloquent results

trevorpan

7 years ago

Level 15

@SNAPEY - Hi, I don't think that's possible - is it?

I read a post you replied about an actor or speaker website you were working on some time back. It maintained state between pages. That had the basic functionality I'm looking for this app.

I may be confusing what can be done with the JSON API, but I thought maybe the ResourceCollection could accomplish the filter bar/buttons and give the data in form of JSON like the class Job extends JsonResource (hopes) to do.

I read if you request JSON that another request is not needed as the payload has been delivered. But it also seems like perhaps only requesting the bare minimum would be better. e.g. jobtitle, deadline and then if someone likes that, they could request that job. (at the same time, this app is far from needing to worry about performance, at least at this stage.)

trevorpan

7 years ago

Level 15

@JLRDW - cute pups. It's neat how the 'like' allowed you to type just the first letter for cat.

Ok, I saw that use of 'like' in the stackoverflow post you provided but this: 'return $query->where('bidded', 'like', '%'.$bidded.'%');`` yielded an error Array to string conversion. So I tried the above, but I feel it's not pulling the selected, the scope is looking for job the column name.

I may have made a mistake in the explanation. The filter bar is a drop down set of buttons with selects e.g. Job could have steel, lumber, plumbing, etc. So the user is unable to type a choice. (at least at this stage-maybe in the future).

On the authorize() it comes false from the artisan command, but if you have other middleware it said to turn it to true. https://laravel.com/docs/5.7/validation#form-request-validation (a little down the page).

jlrdw

7 years ago

Level 75

Here's a couple of more related to searching:

https://laracasts.com/discuss/channels/eloquent/building-queries-with-multiple-search-filters

https://laracasts.com/discuss/channels/laravel/making-a-search-page-with-multiple-filters

There are more.

I used "LIKE" as example, just use "=" in your case. All you are doing is "using" the chosen search terms, and weeding out the ones users did not pick. The code could get fairly large.

Last one I tried is

site:laracasts.com filtering multiple search terms

Let google be your friend, all of us reach out for ideas.

It's neat how the 'like' allowed you to type just the first letter for cat.

That search was getting dogs where their name started with a "c".

If a "ch" entered, then only dogs who's name started with "ch".

But I'd consider a high power search engine, because it will find related things. I forget what it's called.

For Steel worker, you also want related items like, metal workers, metal fabrication, etc.

@snapey what is that search term called where similar things are found.