Query language

The query language phpDocumentor is using is inspired by jsonpath. This page will explain the syntax and give you examples on how to use it in your documentation. The query language can be used in different directives to create living lists of elements and structures, which are updated when you regenerate your documentation. By using the query you will safe yourself a lot of time keeping your documentation up to date.

Queries are always executed on the AST of the documentation. This means that you can query any element in your documentation. However this guide is mostly focused on querying php elements from the api documentation. Which is the most common use case.

Basic syntax

Symbol	Description
`$`	The root element to query. This is the starting point of the query.
`@`	The current element to query. This is the starting point of a subquery.
`.`	The dot-notation is used to select a child element.
`[]`	The square brackets are used to select a child element based on a condition.
`*`	The asterisk is used to select all child elements.
`?()`	Applies a filter (script) expression.

Basic examples

Most queries you execute will start with a selector to select the ApiSetDescriptor . For your convenience this selector is already part of many directives that focus on the api documentation. If you ever need to select the api documentation you can use the following selector:

$.documentationSets.*[?(type(@) == 'ApiSetDescriptor')]

This selector will select all ApiSetDescriptor elements from the documentation. From here you can select any element in your code base using the query language. Let's say you want to select all classes from your code base. You can use the following selector:

$.documentationSets.*[?(type(@) == 'ApiSetDescriptor')].indexes.classes.*

As you can see the . is used to select a child element by name. This works for all methods on our AST and also on indexes of collections. Alternatively you can use the [] to select a child element. So a equal selector would be:

$.documentationSets.*[?(type(@) == 'ApiSetDescriptor')].indexes.['classes']

Filtering elements

It is more likely that you want to filter elements from your documentation. For example you want to select all classes that implement a certain interface or extend a certain class. This is where the [] selector comes in handy. Filters can be complex expressions and can be combined with the && and || operators. And some basic functions are available to make it easier to select values based on their type.

A filter is always executed on an collection of elements and can only be part of a [] selector:

[?(@.inheritedElement == "\phpDocumentor\Transformer\Writer\WriterAbstract")]

This filter will select all classes that extend the WriterAbstract class. The @ symbol is used to select the current element in the collection.

Operators

The following operators are available to use in your filters:

Symbol	Description
`==`	Checks if the left and right side are equal, note that strict comparision is used. So you can not compare a string with an integer.
`!=`	Checks if the left and right side are not equal, note that strict comparision is used. So you can not compare a string with an integer.
`starts_with`	Checks if the left side starts with the right side.