ObjectQuel

A domain-level query engine with integrated ORM capabilities, built on the Data Mapper pattern. ObjectQuel provides a purpose-built query language for expressing complex data relationships naturally, powered by CakePHP's database foundation under the hood.

Why ObjectQuel?

ORMs force you to choose: readable code or powerful queries. Query builders are verbose. DQL is SQL with extra steps. ObjectQuel takes a different approach — a declarative query language inspired by QUEL that works at the entity level, not the table level.

// Relationships, filtering, regex, aliasing — in readable syntax
$results = $entityManager->executeQuery("
    range of p is App\\Entity\\Product
    range of c is App\\Entity\\Category via p.categories
    retrieve (p, c.name as categoryName)
    where p.price < :maxPrice and c.active = true
", [
    'maxPrice' => 50.00
]);

The query engine decomposes this into optimized SQL, handles joins from your entity relationships, and hydrates the results — while the syntax stays close to what you actually mean.

Installation

composer require quellabs/objectquel

Quick Start

use Quellabs\ObjectQuel\Configuration;
use Quellabs\ObjectQuel\EntityManager;

$config = new Configuration();
$config->setEntityNamespace('App\\Entity');
$config->setEntityPath(__DIR__ . '/src/Entity');

$entityManager = new EntityManager($config, $connection);

// Standard ORM operations
$product = $entityManager->find(Product::class, 101);
$active = $entityManager->findBy(Product::class, ['active' => true]);

// ObjectQuel for complex queries
$results = $entityManager->executeQuery("
    range of p is App\\Entity\\Product
    retrieve (p) where p.name = /^Tech/i
    sort by p.createdAt desc
");

What Makes the Query Language Different

ObjectQuel isn't SQL with renamed keywords. The abstraction layer enables things SQL can't do natively:

• Pattern matching — p.name = "abc*xyz" or p.name = /^a/i instead of verbose LIKE / REGEXP syntax
• Full-text search — search(p.name, "banana +pear -apple") with weight support
• Existence checks — ANY(o.orderId) in both retrieve and where clauses
• Relationship traversal — via keyword resolves entity relationships without manual joins
• Hybrid data sources — combine database queries with external JSON sources
• Query decomposition — the engine splits complex queries into optimized sub-tasks automatically

ORM Features

Beyond the query language, ObjectQuel provides a full Data Mapper ORM:

• Annotation-based entity mapping with @Orm\Table, @Orm\Column
• OneToOne, ManyToOne, OneToMany, and ManyToMany relationships via bridge entities
• Unit of Work with change tracking, persist, and flush
• Lazy loading with configurable proxy generation
• Immutable entities for views and read-only tables
• Custom repositories
• Lifecycle events via SignalHub (pre/post persist, update, delete)
• Database migrations powered by Phinx
• CLI tooling: make:entity, make:entity-from-table, make:migrations, quel:migrate

Documentation

Full docs, query language reference, and entity mapping guide: objectquel.com/docs

License

MIT