Efficiently Handling Multiple Filter-Based API Calls in FastAPI

Question

I am building a web application using HTML, CSS, Javascript and FastAPI (Python). The application has a dashboard page where users can see data and apply multiple filters to refine the displayed information.

Problem Statement:

I have around 100 different filters, and I initially considered creating a separate API endpoint for each filter. However, this approach is inefficient because:

Too many API endpoints need to be maintained.

Frontend complexity increases as each filter requires a separate API call.

Performance issues may arise due to multiple simultaneous API calls.

My Current Attempt:

I am looking for a way to handle all filters efficiently using a single API endpoint while dynamically applying filters based on user input. And I want all this without need to code for frontend for each view.

Any python library or any tool which will help me ?

Answer 1

1. Use a Single Endpoint with Query Parameters
You can design a single API endpoint that accepts all filters as query parameters.For instance

from typing import Optional, List
from fastapi import FastAPI, Query

app = FastAPI()

@app.get("/filter-data")
async def filter_data(
filter1: Optional[str] = None,
filter2: Optional[int] = None,
filter3: Optional[List[str]] = Query(None), # Supports multiple values
# Add more filters as needed
):
filters = {
"filter1": filter1,
"filter2": filter2,
"filter3": filter3,
# Add all filters here
}

# Process the filters dynamically
applied_filters = {k: v for k, v in filters.items() if v is not None}
# Example: Fetch data from a database or process it based on applied filters
filtered_data = {"message": "Filtered data based on provided filters", "filters": applied_filters}
return filtered_data