# Flask-Filter
Filtering Extension for Flask / SQLAlchemy
Check out our
[GitHub Pages site](https://exleym.github.io/Flask-Filter/) for the full documentation.
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[![PyPi][pypi-badge]][pypi]
Flask-Filter is a simple [Flask](http://flask.pocoo.org/) extension for
standardizing behavior of REST API resource search endpoints. It is
designed to integrate with the [Flask-SQLAlchemy](http://flask-sqlalchemy.pocoo.org/2.3/)
extension and [Marshmallow](https://marshmallow.readthedocs.io/en/3.0/),
a popular serialization library.
Out-of-the-box, Flask-Filter provides search functionality on top-level
object fields via an array of filter objects provided in the JSON body
of a POST request. For configuring filtering on derived or nested fields
see the "Filtering on Nested Fields" section of the documentation.
# Installation
Flask-Filter is available on [PyPi][pypi]. To use this library, we recommend you
install it via pip:
```bash
(venv)$ pip install flask-filter
```
# Default Filters
Flask-Filter supports searching resources based on an array of filters,
JSON objects with the following structure:
```json
{"field": "<field_name>", "op": "<operator>", "value": "<some_value>"}
```
The built-in filters support the following operators:
| symbol | operator | python filter class |
|----------|------------------------------|-----------------------|
| < | less-than | `LTFilter` |
| <= | less-than or equal to | `LTEFilter` |
| = | equal to | `EqualsFilter` |
| > | greater-than | `GTFilter` |
| >= | greater-than or equal to | `GTEFilter` |
| in | in | `InFilter` |
| != | not equal to | `NotEqualsFilter` |
| like | like | `LikeFilter` |
| contains | many-to-many associated | `ContainsFilter` |
Note: Be careful with typing around comparator operators. This version
does not provide rigorous type-checking, which could cause problems for
a user who submits a search like "find Pets with name greater than
'Fido'"
Many-to-many associations can be searched using the `contains` operator.
For a Dog object with a many-to-many relationship with "favorite toys"
defined as Dog.toys = [Toy(), Toy()], you can set the field to "toys.name",
the operator to "contains" and the value to "Tennis Ball". This will perform
a SQL "any" search on that field / value and return any Dog objects who like
tennis balls.
# Examples
This section demonstrates simplified use-cases for Flask-Filter. For
a complete example app (a Pet Store API), see the `/example` folder.
Note: examples in this readme define simple `/search` endpoints that
assume a working Flask app has already been initialized, and other
required classes have been defined in a `pet_store` directory. To see
a full implementation, go to `/examples/pet_store`
### Example 1: Manually implementing filters in a flask view
Using the `FilterSchema` class directly, you can deserialize an
array of JSON filters into a list of `flask_filter.Filter` objects
and directly apply the filters using `Filter.apply` to craft a
SQLAlchemy query with a complex set of filters.
```python
filter_schema = FilterSchema()
pet_schema = PetSchema()
@app.route('/api/v1/pets/search', methods=['POST'])
def pet_search():
filters = filter_schema.load(request.json.get("filters"), many=True)
query = Pet.query
for f in filters:
query = f.apply(query, Pet, PetSchema)
return jsonify(pet_schema.dump(query.all())), 200
```
### Example 2: Automatically filtering using the `query_with_filters` function
```python
from flask_filter import query_with_filters
pet_schema = PetSchema()
@app.route('/api/v1/pets/search', methods=['POST']
def pet_search():
pets = query_with_filters(Pet, request.json.get("filters"), PetSchema)
return jsonify(pet_schema.dump(pets)), 200
```
### Example 3: Initializing and using the Flask extension object
```python
from flask import Flask
from pet_store import Pet, PetSchema # Model defined as subclass of `db.Model`
from pet_store.extensions import db, filtr # SQLAlchemy and FlaskFilter objects
app = Flask(__name__)
db.init_app(app)
filtr.init_app(app)
@app.route('/api/v1/pets/search', methods=['POST'])
def pet_search():
pets = filtr.search(Pet, request.json.get("filters"), PetSchema)
return jsonify(pet_schema.dump(pets)), 200
```
or alternatively, if you pre-register the Model and Schema with the
`FlaskFilter` object you do not need to pass the `Schema` directly to
the `search` method:
```python
filtr.register_model(Dog, DogSchema) # Register in the app factory
```
followed by the search execution (without an explicitly-defined schema):
```python
pets = filtr.search(Pet, request.json.get("filters"))
```
### Example 4: Ordering Search Responses
By default, searches return objects ordered on `id`, ascending. This behavior
can be customized with the optional `order_by` argument.
If you don't have an `id` parameter for your database objects or you wish to
sort by other fields, you should populate the `order_by` argument to the search
function when you call it.
This approach does not allow API consumers to set the order_by argument, but
allows the developer to override the default id ordering.
```python
@app.route('/api/v1/pets/search', methods=['POST'])
def pet_search():
pets = filtr.search(Pet, request.json.get("filters"), PetSchema,
order_by=Pet.name)
return jsonify(pet_schema.dump(pets)), 200
```
Alternatively, if you wish to allow users to customize the order of the
objects in the response, use a string for the `order_by` argument.
```python
@app.route('/api/v1/pets/search', methods=['POST'])
def pet_search():
order_by = json.get("orderBy") or "name"
pets = filtr.search(Pet, request.json.get("filters"), PetSchema,
order_by=order_by)
return jsonify(pet_schema.dump(pets)), 200
```
[pypi-badge]: https://badge.fury.io/py/Flask-Filter.svg
[pypi]: https://pypi.org/project/Flask-Filter/