REST API filter operator best practice

Question

I am building a REST API that uses a filter parameter to control search results. E.g., one could search for a user by calling:

GET /users/?filter=na         


        

Answer 1

There seems to be a lot of standards (like OData), but many are quite complicated in that they introduce new syntax.

For simple multi filtering the following format avoid polluting the parameter namespace while still standing on top of existing web-technology

GET /users?filter[name]=John&filter[title]=Manager

It's easily readable and on the backend languages like PHP will receive it as an array of filters to apply.