Filters are class based. This means each filter is located in its own class file and will be located in \App\Models\Filters. Filters can be applied to multiple models. Filters can use one of the existing base filters or can be set up individually.

For filter creation we added an artisan comman

php artisan make:filter

You can call this command without any parameters to get prompted for your settings. You get asked which kind of filter you want to create and finally will get asked for needed parameters and options. In our examples we will use parameters and options to create the filter in one shot.

#Create your first filter

php artisan make:filter CreatedAfterFilter -t date -f created_at

This filter will be created as the class CreatedAfterFilter.php in the folder app/Models/Filters. It is a filter of type 'date' and will be bound to database field 'created_at'. It can be used in all Models, that have a created_at datetime field.

All filters have a mode for filtering, that can change the behaviour of the filter. The default mode of almost all filters is filtering for "equal" values. The default mode for a string filter is "like". Since CreatedAfterFilter shall find all models that are created AFTER a given date, the mode must be changed.

Open up the CreatedAfterFilter file and add the correct mode

<?php

namespace App\Models\Filters;

use Lacodix\LaravelModelFilter\Filters\DateFilter;

class CreatedAfterFilter extends DateFilter
{
    public FilterMode $mode = FilterMode::GREATER_OR_EQUAL;

    protected string $field = 'created_at';
}

#Add filter to model

To make this filter usable in a model just add a $filters property to the model and use the HasFilters Trait

<?php

namespace App\Models;

use App\Models\Filters\CreatedAfterFilter;
use Illuminate\Database\Eloquent\Model;
use Lacodix\LaravelModelFilter\Traits\HasFilters;

class Post extends Model
{
    use HasFilters;

    protected array $filters = [
        CreatedAfterFilter::class,
    ];
    
    // Alternative solution with method:
    public function filters(): array
    {
        return [
            CreatedAfterFilter::class,
        ];
    }
}

#Use the filter

Now you can apply values to the filter and filter models from the database using this filter. The key for applying the filter defaults to the filters class basename in snake case.
CreatedAfterFilter => created_after_filter

To filter programmatically use the filter-scope

Post::filter(['created_after_filter' => '2023-01-01'])->get();

#Filter by query string

To filter by query string use the filterByQueryString scope.

Post::filterByQueryString()->get();

and call the corresponding url like this

https://.../posts?created_after_filter=2023-01-01

#Multiple Filters

Filtering for multiple values is always an and-condition. If a filter value doesn't matter it must be omitted.

Post::filter([
    'created_after_filter' => '2023-01-01',
    'published_filter' => true,
])->get();

Or via query string

https://.../posts?created_after_filter=2023-01-01&published_filter=1

With the same code as for one filter

Post::filterByQueryString()->get();