Use URL Parameters to Filter or Sort Data

Question

How can you pass parameters in the URL to filter data when requesting a collection?

Answer

Collection Query String whitelist under Content Negotiation in the Admin UI, or its analogue collection_query_whitelist key within zf-rest in module.config.php, whitelists query string arguments, allowing their value to be received by your REST resource's fetchAll($params = []) method.

This can be useful if you need to allow visitors to filter or search the collection, such as:

• http://localhost:8000/autocomplete?state=mis
• http://localhost:8000/books?title=php&sort=year

Whitelisting arguments also allows zf-rest to automatically include those parameters in the self, first, last, prev and next hypermedia links when returning a collection.

See the "Sub-key: collection_query_whitelist (optional)" section of the zf-rest documentation for more information on how to use collection_query_whitelist.