AG Grid server-side adapter for Laravel

This package implements a server-side adapter for AG Grid with support for filtering, sorting, exporting and server-side selection.

Installation

You can install the package via composer:

composer require clickbar/ag-grid-laravel

You can publish the config file with:

php artisan vendor:publish --tag="ag-grid-laravel-config"

This is the contents of the published config file:

return [
    /*
     * The class that contains the provider for determining the timezone 
     * to use for DateTime formatting in exports.
     */
    'export_timezone_provider' => \Clickbar\AgGrid\AgGridDefaultExportTimezoneProvider::class
];

Usage

Querying a resource

Simply accept an AgGridGetRowsRequest in your controller and return an instance of AgGridQueryBuilder for the model that you want to query. Filtering, sorting and exporting is handled automatically for you. You may also pass a JSON resource to the query builder to wrap your models with.

class FlamingoGridController extends Controller
{
    public function __invoke(AgGridGetRowsRequest $request): AgGridQueryBuilder
    {
        $query = Flamingo::query()
            ->with(['keeper'])
            ->orderByDesc('id');

        return AgGridQueryBuilder::forRequest($request, $query)
            ->resource(FlamingoResource::class);
    }
}

Set Filter Values

When using AG Grid with the serverSide row model, you are responsible for providing the values for the set value filter (the frontend only knows a subset of the whole data and therefore cannot know all possible set values).

class FlamingoGridSetValuesController extends Controller
{
    public function __invoke(AgGridSetValuesRequest $request)
    {
        $query = Flamingo::query()
            ->with(['keeper']);
    
        return AgGridQueryBuilder::forSetValuesRequest($request, $query)
            ->toSetValues(['*']);
    }
}

See the AgGridSetValuesRequest class for the structure of the request.

IMPORTANT
You need to whitelist the columns the set filter values can be retrieved for. This can be done be providing an array with the columns/dotted relation:

->toSetValues(['name', 'kepper.name']);

If your model does not expose any relations or sensitive columns, you can also use ['*'] as wildcard.

Here's an example for the frontend implementation:

const colDef = {
    filterParams: {
        excelMode: 'windows',
        values: (parameters: SetFilterValuesFuncParams) => {
            axios
                .post('url',
                    {
                        column,
                        filterModel: parameters.api.getFilterModel(),
                    },
                )
                .then((response) => {
                    parameters.success(response.data)
                }).catch(() => {
                parameters.success([])
            })
        },
    },
}

Server-side select

When using AG Grid with the serverSide row model, you can't just pass the selected IDs to the server when performing a batch operation. In this case, you may pass the current selection state of the grid to the server and resolve the selection there.

To do so, add the following to your request:

class FeedFlamingosRequest extends FormRequest
{
    public function rules(): array
    {
        return [
            'selection' => ['required', new AgGridSelection()],
            'food_type' => ['required', 'string'],
        ];
    }
}

In your controller, use the AgGridQueryBuilder to resolve the selection:

class FeedFlamingosController extends Controller
{
    public function __invoke(FeedFlamingsRequest $request): AgGridQueryBuilder
    {
        $flamingos = AgGridQueryBuilder::forSelection($request->validated('selection'))->get();

        foreach($flamingos as $flamingo){
            $flamingo->feed($request->validated('food_type'));
        }
        
        return $flamingos;
    }
}

Exports

To enable server-side exports for your models, you must implement the AgGridExportable interface. After that, you can just pass exportFormat as part of your request to the grid controller and the library handles transforming your models into Excel, CSV, or TSV files.

class Flamingo extends Model implements AgGridExportable {

    // ... your model definitions
    
    public static function getAgGridColumnDefinitions(): array
    {
        return [
            new AgGridColumnDefinition(
                'id',
                __('ID'),
            ),
            new AgGridColumnDefinition(
                'name',
                __('Name'),
            ),
            new AgGridColumnDefinition(
                'keeper_id',
                __('Keeper'),
                null,
                fn ($data) => $data->keeper->name,
            ),
            new AgGridColumnDefinition(
                'created_at',
                __('Created At'),
                new AgGridDateFormatter(),
            ),
        ];
    }

}

Custom Filters

Sometimes you may need to add custom filter scopes or other constraints to the query, which are not covered by the standard AG Grid filters. In this case, you may populate the customFilters object of the request with your own data. On the backend side, your model must implement the AgGridCustomFilterable interface as shown below:

class Flamingo extends Model implements AgGridCustomFilterable {

    use SoftDeletes;

    // ... your model definitions
    
    public function applyAgGridCustomFilters(Builder $query, array $filters): void
    {
        $query->when($filters['showTrashed'] ?? false, function ($query) {
            return $query->withTrashed();
        });
    }
}

Type definitions

You may use the following Typescript type definitions as a reference for implementing the requests on the frontend:

interface AgGridSelection {
    rowModel: 'serverSide' | 'clientSide'
    selectAll: boolean
    toggledNodes: (string | number)[]
    filterModel?: any
    customFilters?: any
}

interface AgGridGetRowsRequest extends IServerSideGetRowsRequest {
    exportFormat?: 'excel' | 'csv' | 'tsv'
    exportColumns?: string[]
    customFilters?: any
}

interface AgGridGetRowsResponse<T> {
    total: number
    data: T[]
}

Frontend implementation

You are free to use any frontend technology or framework of your choice. However, here are some examples that you may use as a starting point four your own implementation

Creating a DataSource

In order to use the server-side row model, you must create a data source. Here is an exemplary implementation of such one:

 function makeDataSource<T>(
    url: string,
    customFilters?: Record<string, any>
): IServerSideDatasource {
    return {
        // called by the grid when more rows are required
        async getRows(parameters) {
            const request = {
                ...parameters.request,
                customFilters,
            }
            // get data for request from server
            try {
                const response = await axios.post<AgGridGetRowsResponse<T>>(url, request)
                parameters.success({
                    rowData: response.data.data,
                    rowCount: response.data.total,
                })
            } catch {
                parameters.fail()
            }
        },
    }
}

Triggering a server-side export

Server-side exports are not implemented in AG Grid by default. However you can create a custom context menu or add a button somewhere that triggers the server-side export. The handler function may look something like this:

async function exportServerSide(grid: GridApi, format: 'excel' | 'csv' | 'tsv', onlySelected: boolean) {
    // using a private api here to oget the ssrm parameters
    const parameters = api.getModel().getRootStore().getSsrmParams()
    // only request the visible columns
    const cols = columnApi?.getAllDisplayedColumns().map((column) => column.getColId())
    // download the file
    const response = await axios.post(
        props.dataSourceUrl!,
        {
            ...parameters,
            ...(onlySelected ? api.getServerSideSelectionState() : {}),
            exportFormat: format,
            exportColumns: cols,
        },
        {
            responseType: 'blob',
        }
    )
    // create an object url from the response
    const url = URL.createObjectURL(response.data)
    // create a link to trigger the download
    const a = document.createElement('a')
    a.href = url
    a.download = true
    a.click()
}

Tracking selection state

If you want to use server-side selects, you must track the current selection and filter state of the grid:

// use the selection in any batch requests to the server
let selection: AgGridSelection 

function onSelectionChanged(event: SelectionChangedEvent) {
    if (event.api.getModel().getType() !== 'serverSide') {
        throw new Error('Only the serverSide row model is supported.')
    }
    
    const selectionState = event.api.getServerSideSelectionState() as IServerSideSelectionState
    selection = {
        rowModel: 'serverSide',
        selectAll: selectionState.selectAll,
        toggledNodes: selectionState.toggledNodes,
        filterModel: event.api.getFilterModel()
    }
}

function onFilterChanged(event: FilterChangedEvent) {
    if (!selection) {
        return
    }
    
    selection.filterModel = event.api.getFilterModel()
}

Limitations

• Only works with PostgreSQL as a storage backend due to some special SQL operators being used in set and json queries.
• Does not support multiple conditions per filter (AND, OR)
• Does not support server-side grouping for AG Grid's pivot mode
• Filtering for values in relations is only supported one level deep. E.g you can filter for relation.value but not relation.otherRelation.value

TODOs

• Implement set filter for nested json fields
• Implement multiple conditions per filter (AND, OR)
• Add type-safe data structures for selection and request data
• Test with mysql

Changelog

Please see CHANGELOG for more information on what has changed recently.

Contributing

Please see CONTRIBUTING for details.

Credits

• clickbar. GmbH
• All Contributors

License

The MIT License (MIT). Please see License File for more information.