Query parameters in Laravel - Mini Project: Build & Apply

Query Parameters in Laravel

📖 Scenario: You are building a simple Laravel web application that shows a list of products. You want to allow users to filter products by category using query parameters in the URL.

🎯 Goal: Build a Laravel route and controller method that reads a query parameter called category from the URL and returns only products matching that category.

📋 What You'll Learn

Create an array of products with exact keys and values

Add a variable to hold the query parameter value

Filter the products array using the query parameter

Return the filtered products in a Laravel controller method

💡 Why This Matters

🌍 Real World

Filtering data based on user input in URLs is common in web apps, such as showing products by category or articles by tag.

💼 Career

Understanding query parameters and filtering data is essential for backend developers working with Laravel or any web framework.

1

Create the products array

Create a PHP array called $products with these exact entries: ['id' => 1, 'name' => 'Laptop', 'category' => 'electronics'], ['id' => 2, 'name' => 'Chair', 'category' => 'furniture'], and ['id' => 3, 'name' => 'Smartphone', 'category' => 'electronics'].

Laravel

<?php

# Create the products array with exact entries
# Your code here

Need a hint?

Use a PHP array with three associative arrays inside, each representing a product.

2

Get the category query parameter

Create a variable called $category that gets the category query parameter from the Laravel request using request()->query('category').

Laravel

 1, 'name' => 'Laptop', 'category' => 'electronics'],
    ['id' => 2, 'name' => 'Chair', 'category' => 'furniture'],
    ['id' => 3, 'name' => 'Smartphone', 'category' => 'electronics'],
];

# Get the category query parameter from the request
# Your code here

Need a hint?

Use Laravel's request()->query('category') to get the query parameter.

3

Filter products by category

Create a variable called $filteredProducts that filters $products to include only products where 'category' equals $category. Use array_filter with a callback function that checks $product['category'] === $category. If $category is empty, set $filteredProducts to $products without filtering.

Laravel

 1, 'name' => 'Laptop', 'category' => 'electronics'],
    ['id' => 2, 'name' => 'Chair', 'category' => 'furniture'],
    ['id' => 3, 'name' => 'Smartphone', 'category' => 'electronics'],
];

$category = request()->query('category');

# Filter products by category or keep all if category is empty
# Your code here

Need a hint?

Use array_filter with a callback that compares the product's category to $category. Use an if statement to check if $category is set.

4

Return filtered products in controller method

Create a Laravel controller method called showProducts that returns the $filteredProducts array as a JSON response using return response()->json($filteredProducts);. Include all previous code inside this method.

Laravel

 1, 'name' => 'Laptop', 'category' => 'electronics'],
    ['id' => 2, 'name' => 'Chair', 'category' => 'furniture'],
    ['id' => 3, 'name' => 'Smartphone', 'category' => 'electronics'],
];

# Create a controller method showProducts that returns filtered products as JSON
# Your code here

Need a hint?

Wrap all code inside a controller method named showProducts. Use the Request object to get the query parameter and return JSON response.