GraphQL: Support for filtering on custom fields

[emil-nasso]

NetBox version

v3.0.3

Feature type

New functionality

Proposed functionality

There doesn't seem to be a way to filter based on custom fields in the GraphQL-api.

The documentation mentions "The GraphQL API employs the same filtering logic as the UI and REST API" so one approach would be to just follow the same pattern where cf_foo_bar etc are exposed as arguments for the list query of an entity where foo_bar is a custom field.

(Reference to discussion about this: #7569 )

Use case

We have the use for this when listing tenants via the graphql API. We put the customers name in the name field but we have a custom field where we have an internal identifier that is used as a reference when linking the data in netbox up with other systems though integrations.

Database changes

No response

External dependencies

No response

[candlerb]

Another way might be via a graphql query on custom_fields. I note that you can ask for custom_fields in a response:

# curl -sS -X GET -H "Content-Type: application/json" -H "Accept: application/json" http://localhost:8001/graphql/ \
  --data '{"query": "query {device_list(id:\"5\") {id custom_fields}}"}' | python3 -m json.tool
{
    "data": {
        "device_list": [
            {
                "id": "5",
                "custom_fields": {
                    "snmp_module": [
                        "mikrotik_secret"
                    ]
                }
            }
        ]
    }
}

(There's also custom_field_data which returns a string holding JSON). But as far as I can tell, you can't currently filter on custom_fields in a query:

# curl -sS -X GET -H "Content-Type: application/json" -H "Accept: application/json" http://localhost:8001/graphql/ \
  --data '{"query": "query {device_list(custom_fields:{snmp_module:\"mikrotik_secret\"}) {id custom_fields}}"}' | python3 -m json.tool
{
    "errors": [
        {
            "message": "Unknown argument \"custom_fields\" on field \"device_list\" of type \"Query\".",
            "locations": [
                {
                    "line": 1,
                    "column": 20
                }
            ]
        }
    ]
}

It would of course be good if such a query could be pushed down to a SQL condition in postgres, rather than making Netbox retrieve all objects from the database and discard the ones which don't match.

[github-actions]

This issue has been automatically marked as stale because it has not had recent activity. It will be closed if no further activity occurs. NetBox is governed by a small group of core maintainers which means not all opened issues may receive direct feedback. Please see our contributing guide.

[jeremystretch]

Blocked by #9856

[github-actions]

This issue has been automatically marked as stale because it has not had recent activity. It will be closed if no further activity occurs. NetBox is governed by a small group of core maintainers which means not all opened issues may receive direct feedback. Do not attempt to circumvent this process by "bumping" the issue; doing so will result in its immediate closure and you may be barred from participating in any future discussions. Please see our contributing guide.

[arthanson]

Blocked on #11949

[arthanson]

Adding blocked until #9856

[jeremypng]

I have the custom field filtering itself working pretty well. However, the rest of the graphql implementation is in such bad shape, I'm going a different route. Introspecting the django fitlers and models to try to infer a graphql schema at import time is very complex and requires gutting Strawberry of most of its power.

I've cycled through most of the options outlined by @arthanson in Issue #17688 and come to some conclusions that there is a better way to solve this. I'll start a discussion around this.

[jeremystretch]

@jeremypng thanks for starting this discussion. I haven't had any time to dedicate to the theme of GraphQL recently and @arthanson is currently loaned out for another initiative, but I hope we can prioritize this work soon as it's clearly a pain point for NetBox users.

[jeremypng]

This is fixed in my branch here:
https://github.com/jeremypng/netbox/tree/refs/heads/graphql-filter-redesign

New query syntax for custom fields:

query GetTenants {
  tenant_list (filters: {custom_field_data: {path: "cust_id", lookup: {string_lookup: {exact:"YKY01"}}}}) {
    id
    name
    custom_field_data
  }
}

results:

{
  "data": {
    "tenant_list": [
      {
        "id": "9",
        "name": "Nakatomi Corportation",
        "custom_field_data": {
          "cust_id": "YKY01"
        }
      }
    ]
  }
}

If you'll assign this to me, I'll tag this issue in the PR.

[jeremystretch]

@jeremypng I've tagged this for v4.3 and assigned it to you. Could you open a PR from your branch into feature please?

[jeremystretch]

We've finally got this merged into feature for NetBox v4.3! 🎉 A huge thanks to @jeremypng for driving this effort!