README

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

quellabs / objectquel

Maintainers

Details