Im new to laravel and have completed a project on the latest version laravel 5.6
However, the only thing that is pending to learn and implement is the search functionality which is the core of every application. The application i have coded is a huge project and i do not want to mess it up so would like to learn how search functionality works in order to implement in multiple sections of the project.
Let's say i have a the following models 1.Country 2.State 3.City 4.Professional_Categories 5.Professionals and i have added the relations in the models accordingly
I fetch the records normally using the following code
public function index()
{
$categories = ProfessionalCategory::all();
$topprofessionals = Professional::where('status', 1)->limit(12)->get()->sortByDesc('page_views');
$professionals = Professional::where('status', 1)->latest()->paginate(9);
return view('professionals.index',compact('professionals', 'categories', 'topprofessionals'));
}
I can pull up Countries, States and Cities as i pulled in categories and with foreach i can display them in the select box. Or i could use pluck('name', 'id') that works good too. But i have never tried search queries.
I want a search form on the professionals page where a user can select country, state, city, category and type keywords in locality and professional name to find the professionals. My next step would be to learn dependent dropdown for country, state and city.
And how the results can be displayed on the view file where im currently fetching records with foreach($professionals as $professional)
I do not need code, but just a basic example on how these kind of things work in laravel. Once i learn the basics i want to implement auto suggest from database and things like that. And a single form to search all the models.
It sounds like you'll need full text searching across a number of tables and associated columns. I'd recommend using Laravel Scout or a similar service (such as elastisearch) for this.
These will index your records in a way to allow for fast and efficient fuzzy searching. Using Scout as an example, you can directly query on your models like:
$orders = App\Order::search('Star Trek')->get();
Searching with Scout
This will save you from writing numerous queries using LIKE which becomes very slow and inefficient quite quickly.
Using Eloquent you might do something like this in your Controller:
public function search(Request $request)
{
$countries = Country::where('name', 'like', '%' . $request->search_value . '%')->get();
}
This will return the countries whose name contains the search_value provided by the user.
Related
Im trying to learn GraphQL with Laravel & Lighthouse and have a question Im hoping someone can help me with. I have the following five database tables which are also defined in my Laravel models:
users
books
user_books
book_series
book_copies
I'd like to create a GraphQL endpoint that allows me to get back an array of users and the books they own, where I can pull data from multiple tables into one subfield called "books" like so:
query {
users {
name
books {
title
issue_number
condition
user_notes
}
}
}
To accomplish this in SQL is easy using joins like this:
$users = User::all();
foreach ($users as $user) {
$user['books'] = DB::select('SELECT
book_series.title,
book.issue_number
book_copies.condition,
user_books.notes as user_notes
FROM user_books
JOIN book_copies ON user_books.book_copy_id = book_copies.id
JOIN books ON book_copies.book_id = books.id
JOIN book_series ON books.series_id = book_series.id
WHERE user_books.user_id = ?',[$user['id']])->get();
}
How would I model this in my GraphQL schema file when the object type for "books" is a mashup of properties from four other object types (Book, UserBook, BookCopy, and BookSeries)?
Edit: I was able to get all the data I need by doing a query that looks like this:
users {
name
userBooks {
user_notes
bookCopy {
condition
book {
issue_number
series {
title
}
}
}
}
}
However, as you can see, the data is separated into multiple child objects and is not as ideal as getting it all in one flat "books" object. If anyone knows how I might accomplish getting all the data back in one flat object, Id love to know.
I also noticed that the field names for the relationships need to match up exactly with my controller method names within each model, which are camelCase as per Laravel naming conventions. Except for my other fields are matching the database column names which are lower_underscore. This is a slight nitpick.
Ok, after you edited your question, I will write the answer here, to answer your new questions.
However, as you can see, the data is separated into multiple child objects and is not as ideal as getting it all in one flat "books" object. If anyone knows how I might accomplish getting all the data back in one flat object, Id love to know.
The thing is, that this kind of fetching data is a central idea of GraphQL. You have some types, and these types may have some relations to each other. So you are able to fetch any relations of object, in any depth, even circular.
Lighthouse gives you out of the box support to eloquent relations with batch loading, avoiding the N+1 performance problem.
You also have to keep in mind - every field (literally, EVERY field) in your GraphQL definition is resolved on server. So there is a resolve function for each of the fields. So you are free to write your own resolver for particular fields.
You actually can define a type in your GraphQL, that fits your initial expectation. Then you can define a root Query field e.g. fetchUsers, and create you custom field resolver. You can read in the docs, how it works and how to implement this: https://lighthouse-php.com/5.2/the-basics/fields.html#hello-world
In this field resolver you are able to make your own data fetching, even without using any Laravel/Eloquent API. One thing you have to take care of - return a correct data type with the same structure as your return type in GraphQL for this field.
So to sum up - you have the option to do this. But in my opinion, you have to write more own code, cover it with tests on you own, which turns out in more work for you. I think it is simpler to use build-in directives, like #find, #paginate, #all in combination with relations-directives, which all covered with tests, and don't care about implementation.
I also noticed that the field names for the relationships need to match up exactly with my controller method names within each model, which are camelCase as per Laravel naming conventions.
You probably means methods within Model class, not controller.
Lighthouse provides a #rename directive, which you can use to define different name in GraphQL for your attributes. For the relation directives you can pass an relation parameter, which will be used to fetch the data. so for your example you can use something like this:
type User {
#...
user_books: [Book!]! #hasMany(relation: "userBooks")
}
But in our project we decided to use snak_case also for relations, to keep GraphQL clean with consistent naming convention and less effort
I am building an App with OctoberCMS and wanted to list related blog posts at the bottom of each post page basing on categories. I figured out rainlab_blog_posts table does not have a foreign key pointing to blog categories table. To achieve what wanted I thought of extending the blog_posts table and added category_id as foreign key using a plugin. I defined foreign key constraints in table migration. Everthing seem to be fine. My challenge is, How can I insert category id in posts table each time a new post is created. OctoberCMS create post backend has an option where the author assigns a category to a new blog post by selecting from list. Just don't understand how to pass this category id and insert into rainlab_blog_posts table in category_id field.
This is what I want to achieve in my API:
routes.php
use Rainlab\Blog\Models\Post;
Route::get('apiv1/related-posts/{postid}',function($id)
{
$post = Post::where('id',$id)->first();
$posts = Post::where('category_id',$post->category_id)
->where('id','!=',$id)
->orderBy('views','desc')
->get()->take(5);
return $posts;
});
Or if there is a better way of achieving this will appreciate. Cheers!
Hmm seems something wrong here,
As first I can see from Blog Plugin that Blog <=> Category it is MM relation so you will not find category_id in rainlab_blog_posts table as all relation is maintained by this mm-relation table rainlab_blog_posts_categories.
So I think you will select only one category for blog so you can get related blogs for only that category. [ assuming from your code and description ]
we can utilize relationships for that.
So your code can look like this
use Rainlab\Blog\Models\Post;
Route::get('apiv1/related-posts/{postid}', function($id)
{
$post = Post::where('id',$id)->first();
// we need this because there will be mm relation so
// we fetch first category and this will be based on
// [ name sorting - does not matter as there will be only one cat. ]
$firstCategory = $post->categories()->first();
// now we fetch only that post which are related to that category
// but we skip current post and sort them and pick 5 posts
$posts = $firstCategory->posts()
->where('id', '!=', $id)
->orderBy('views','desc')
->limit(5) // use limit instead of take()
->get();
// use limit instead of take() as we don't need extra data so
// just put limit in sql rather fetching it from db then
// putting limit by code - limit() is more optimised way
return $posts;
});
Good thing now you don't need to add that category_id field on rainlab_blog_posts. So, I guess now you Also don't need to worry about adding it during post insertion.
if any doubts please comment.
Incase you simply want to display related blog posts without having to customize the blog database, there is an OctoberCMS plugin called Related Articles
that requires rainlab blog plugin. It will display all the other articles belonging to the post's category.
On your Backend menu, go to settings,on System, go to Updates and Plugins.
Go to Install plugins. Search for plugin Related articles. The creator is Tallpro. Install it.
Go to CMS. On the page you want related articles, go to components and drag Related articles. Save and preview it. You can also fork the component to edit how you want your related articles to be displayed. You will find more information on the documentation.
If you encounter any problems feel free to inquire or you can check out the plugin reviews for problems faced and their solution.
Back when I was using CodeIgniter I had functions in my models like
public function GetArticlesFormatted($inactive = FALSE)
and then in my controller I could have had
$articles->GetArticlesFormatted(true);
And so on.
How should I achieve the same with Laravel 5.4? The database of the app I'm building is already built and full and is a mess so most of the "automated" super-restrictive things that Laravel has don't work out of the box.
For example there is a Country Code that I'm retrieving and I need it as is, but in some instances I need it converted in a Country Name which I had in another table.
Right now I just have in my controller wherever I am retrieving data from the model:
$countryResult = Country::where('country_code', $item['country_code'])->first();
$countryArray = $countryResult->toArray();
$item['country'] = $countryArray['country_name'];
Can I somehow achieve that in a more elegant way?
I tried accessors but for some reason couldn't get anything to work for my purposes.
A select query can be used to limit selection to a particular column.
$countryName = Country::select('country_name')
->where('country_code', $item['country_code'])
->first();
I have write down this query
Controller
$data = User::where('name',$name)->with('country');
In User model
function country () {
return $this->belongsTo('App\Country');
}
In view
echo $data->country->name;
It is working fine but it run 2 queries :(
Select * from user where name = "xyz"
Select * from country where id = "745"
I want to stop this, I want to fetch data with one query only. Join is the solution, Is any other solution for this?
Unfortunately this is the way Eloquent works. It uses two queries because it's a simpler task to initialise your models and to avoid column naming conflicts.
If you are concerned about performance but still want some sort of querying tool, use the Query Builder shipped with Laravel.
To answer your question, joins will be your best bet.
$data=user::with('country')->where('id',745)->where('name','xyz')->get();
i hope that will help you
I need some guidance. Forgive me for a lengthy post but I need to explain myself. In my world, there is no one who understands what I am talking about so I have to go online for assistance.
I am an architect doing my own website because work has dried up and I plan to use an improved website for a marketing campaign.
I have done what I'd call a "lash-up" of this site which functions OK. But it's nowhere near ready to publish. I am trying to get it reorganised to do this and am moving the whole thing over to Codeigniter. My puzzle relates to views in Codeigniter.
One of the main pages for potential clients is the projects page showing work done. It uses nested tabbing. As I have said, I've made it work OK in ordinary procedural PHP.
Note that the projects are organised by category i.e housing, commercial etc In each category there are projects.
Actually the tabs are dynamically produced with some assistance from jQuery. I mean by this that my homespun php creates markup based on what's returned from the database.
The tab markup is the usual one of an unordered list whose li elements contain anchors whose hrefs reference divs arranged below. To achieve nesting, these divs then contain another ul with a further set of divs related to it.
The top tabs correspond to a category e.g housing, commercial. The lower tabs correspond to projects within a category.
I've made this work with four queries before. I think at least one may be redundant but I said it was a "lash-up".
Query 1: "select distinct pcat, pcatid from pcategory inner join projects on pcatid = projcat order by pcat desc"
From this query I get hold of the id used in the href.
Query 2 : same as above but this time the id is used for div id.
The next query is the source of my puzzlement because I don't see how to replicate it with CI.
Query3 :
$jobcat=$row2['pcatid'];
$queryall3 = "select projid, projtit, projcost, projdate from projects where projcat= '$jobcat'";
This query uses the category id - $jobcat - returned by each iteration of the while clause used to expand the results from query 2. In other words, it runs inside the query 2 while loop so it can get the category id and then get all the projects related to it.
The results of query 3 are used to form the lower tabs, and their href value is the id of the project.
Query4: same as query 3 and used to populate the lower divs with data from the database relating to a specific project.
So, finally my question: it seems to me that query 3 is difficult to manage using the Codeigniter set up. I can imagine an array of results looped over in a view. What I can't conceive is how to make a model call within that loop.
Apologies for a long-winded question and any maladroit coding assumptions exhibited. Assistance would be a blessing.
Tom
I don't really see what you're asking, but it seems that you want to know how to perform queries in CI?
In which case I suggest you take a good read of the docs
$this->db->select('pcat, pcatid');
$this->db->distinct();
$this->db->from('pcategory');
$this->db->join('projects', 'pcategory.pcatid = projects.pid', 'inner');
$this->db->order_by('pcat', 'DESC');
$result = $this->db->get();
I very much doubt this will work as I do not know your table structure but may give you an idea of how to use the active record class in CI.
You can of course just use the query method:
$results = $this->db->query('YOUR QUERY HERE');
the active record class can do a lot of the work for you, however.
As for about being difficult to do in CI, this is simply untrue - you just need a clearer picture and understanding of what you want to achieve.
Edit
$jobcat=$row2['pcatid'];
$queryall3 = "select projid, projtit, projcost, projdate from projects where projcat= '$jobcat'";
$results=$this->db->query($queryall3);
$data = $results->result_array(); // get the results of the 3rd query as an array
// new query
$this->db->select('query_4_select'); // select whatever you need
$this->db->from('whatever_table');
// this probably isn't the most efficient way, but for examples sake:
foreach($data as $row) // using the result_array from above
{
$this->db->or_where('query_4_id', $row['id']); // the magic !!
}
$new_results = $this->db->get();
So essentially, you get the ID's from query 3, run it through a foreach and build a where x=x or x=y or x=b type query, which will then (hopefully) return the desired results.
This is one way, you will need to tweak it.
But it sounds like you can just use a join? Perhaps if you could post your entire tables structure.