Settings View Source Aggregates

Aggregates in Ash allow for retrieving summary information over groups of related data. A simple example might be to show the "count of published posts for a user". Aggregates allow us quick and performant access to this data, in a way that supports being filtered/sorted on automatically. More aggregate types can be added, but you will be restricted to only the supported types. In cases where aggregates don't suffice, use Calculations, which are intended to be much more flexible.

declaring-aggregates-on-a-resource

Declaring aggregates on a resource

Example:

aggregates do
  count :count_of_posts, :posts do
    filter expr(published == true)
  end
end

The available aggregate types are:

• count - counts related items meeting the criteria
• first - gets the first related value matching the criteria. Must specify the field to get.
• sum - sums the related items meeting the criteria. Must specify the field to sum.
• list - lists the related values. Must specify the field to list.

See the docs on Ash.Resource.Dsl.aggregates for more information.

The aggregates declared on a resource allow for declaring a set of named aggregates that can be used by extensions.

As an escape hatch, they can also be loaded in the query using Ash.Query.load/2, or after the fact using Ash.Api.load/3. Aggregates declared on the resource will be keys in the resource's struct.

custom-aggregates-in-the-query

Custom aggregates in the query

Custom aggregates can be added to the query and will be placed in the aggregates key of the results. This is an escape hatch, and is not the primary way that you should be using aggregates. It does, however, allow for dynamism, i.e if you are accepting user input that determines what the filter and/or field should be, that kind of thing.

Example:

User
|> Ash.Query.new()
|> Ash.Query.aggregate(
  :count_of_posts, 
  :count, 
  :posts, 
  query: [
    filter: [published: published?]
  ]
)

See the documentation for Ash.Query.aggregate/4 for more information.