I would like some pointers to information which would help me understand how to go about providing the ability to filter a list of entities by their attributes as well as by attributes of related entities.

As an example, imagine a web app which provides order management of some kind. Orders and related entities are stored in a relational database. And imagine that the app has an interface which lists the orders.

The problem is: how does one allow the list to be filtered by, for example:-

• order number (an attribute)
• line item name (an attribute of a n-n related entity)
• some text in an administrative note related to the order (text found in an attribute of a 1-1 related entity)

I'm trying to discover whether there is something like a standard, efficient way to construct the queries and the filtering form; or some possible strategies; or any theory on the topic; or some example code. My google foo fails me.