# Use toPage() on a string generated by pluck()

**URL:** <https://forum.getkirby.com/t/use-topage-on-a-string-generated-by-pluck/15405>\
**Category:** Questions\
**Tags:** v3\
**Created:** [August 26, 2019, 6:15pm UTC](https://forum.getkirby.com/t/use-topage-on-a-string-generated-by-pluck/15405 "2019-08-26T18:15:25Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 7\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![bruno](https://dub1.discourse-cdn.com/flex017/user_avatar/forum.getkirby.com/bruno/32/6422_2.png) [@bruno](https://forum.getkirby.com/u/bruno)\
**Post date:** [August 26, 2019, 6:15pm UTC](https://forum.getkirby.com/t/use-topage-on-a-string-generated-by-pluck/15405/1 "2019-08-26T18:15:25Z")

</div>

Hi there,

I’m currently using url parameters to filter posts in a blog by value of a `category` select field. Today I wanted to switch from hard-coded select options in the `blog.yml` to children of a new `category` page:  
`query: site.children.template('categories').children.listed`

Before, I could easily fetch all categories from articles using `pluck('category', ',', true)`, but now this outputs i.e `"categories/article"` instead of just `"article"`, which of course breaks the URL. `mypage.com/blog/category:categories/article` redirects to the default page.

While looping over posts in the blog template, I’m able to use `$article->category()->toPage()->title()` but this doesn’t work anymore when creating the “tagcloud” of filtering options. In my `posts` controller, I have the following:

```
$categories = $articles->pluck('category', ',', true);

```

and in my `posts.php` template, I would like to do the following:

```
<?php foreach($categories as $category): ?>
    <a href="<?= url($page->url(), ['params' => ['category' => $category->toPage()->title()]]) ?>">
        <li class="link" data-category="<?= $category->toPage()->title(); ?>" style="background: <?= $category->toPage()->color(); ?>">
            <?= strtoupper(html($category->toPage()->title())); ?>
        </li>
    </a>
<?php endforeach ?> 

```

however, this breaks saying `Error: Call to a member function toPage() on string`. But Isn’t the `toPage()` method created for the purpose of converting exactly these values to a page object or am I missing something?

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![texnixe](https://dub1.discourse-cdn.com/flex017/user_avatar/forum.getkirby.com/texnixe/32/5754_2.png) [@texnixe](https://forum.getkirby.com/u/texnixe)\
**Post date:** [August 26, 2019, 6:39pm UTC](https://forum.getkirby.com/t/use-topage-on-a-string-generated-by-pluck/15405/2 "2019-08-26T18:39:50Z")

</div>

> [@bruno](#):
>
> $categories = $articles-\>pluck(‘category’, ‘,’, true);

This returns an array, and each element of the array only outputs a string.

The `toPage()` method is a field method, so you can only call it on a field object. You can, however, fetch the page using the page helper

```auto
if ($page = page($category)) {
  // do stuff
}

```

By default, a select field stores the ID of a page. You can change that so that it only stores the slug.

> **[Select](https://getkirby.com/docs/reference/panel/fields/select#dynamic-options__custom-text-and-value)**
>
> A simple selectbox field

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![bruno](https://dub1.discourse-cdn.com/flex017/user_avatar/forum.getkirby.com/bruno/32/6422_2.png) [@bruno](https://forum.getkirby.com/u/bruno)\
**Post date:** [August 26, 2019, 6:56pm UTC](https://forum.getkirby.com/t/use-topage-on-a-string-generated-by-pluck/15405/3 "2019-08-26T18:56:37Z")

</div>

This makes a lot of sense, thank you!

I’m using the page helper to get each category `title` and `color` value now:

```
<?php foreach($categories as $category): ?>
    <?php if ($cat = page($category)): ?>
        <a href="<?= url($page->url(), ['params' => ['category' => $cat->title()]]) ?>">
            <li class="link" data-category="<?= $cat->title(); ?>" style="background: <?= $cat->color(); ?>">
                <?= strtoupper(html($cat->title())); ?>
            </li>
        </a>
    <?php endif; ?>
<?php endforeach ?>

```

because like this I didn’t have to rewrite a lot.

The other option would have been to change the select field value in the blueprint to slug, in order to make less use of the `page()` helper, and using a generated stylesheet targeting the `data-` attributes instead of setting the background color inline. Do you think this would make sense in terms of performance?

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![texnixe](https://dub1.discourse-cdn.com/flex017/user_avatar/forum.getkirby.com/texnixe/32/5754_2.png) [@texnixe](https://forum.getkirby.com/u/texnixe)\
**Post date:** [August 26, 2019, 8:33pm UTC](https://forum.getkirby.com/t/use-topage-on-a-string-generated-by-pluck/15405/4 "2019-08-26T20:33:12Z")

</div>

> [@bruno](#):
>
> Do you think this would make sense in terms of performance?

You mean inline styles vs. stylesheet? Or using the page helper?

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![bruno](https://dub1.discourse-cdn.com/flex017/user_avatar/forum.getkirby.com/bruno/32/6422_2.png) [@bruno](https://forum.getkirby.com/u/bruno)\
**Post date:** [August 26, 2019, 8:45pm UTC](https://forum.getkirby.com/t/use-topage-on-a-string-generated-by-pluck/15405/5 "2019-08-26T20:45:23Z")

</div>

both, since changing the field value would mean that I’d likely make much less use of the page helper AND would lose access to the color value of the category page in the template. I know using a stylesheet is preferable vs inline, but idk if it actually changes anything because it would be like 10 lines of css. No idea at all if there would be a noticeable increase in performance if less helper methods are used.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![texnixe](https://dub1.discourse-cdn.com/flex017/user_avatar/forum.getkirby.com/texnixe/32/5754_2.png) [@texnixe](https://forum.getkirby.com/u/texnixe)\
**Post date:** [August 26, 2019, 8:47pm UTC](https://forum.getkirby.com/t/use-topage-on-a-string-generated-by-pluck/15405/6 "2019-08-26T20:47:23Z")

</div>

What is your reason for creating the categories as pages? Are they used for any other purpose apart from providing the category name and a color?

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![bruno](https://dub1.discourse-cdn.com/flex017/user_avatar/forum.getkirby.com/bruno/32/6422_2.png) [@bruno](https://forum.getkirby.com/u/bruno)\
**Post date:** [August 26, 2019, 8:51pm UTC](https://forum.getkirby.com/t/use-topage-on-a-string-generated-by-pluck/15405/7 "2019-08-26T20:51:07Z")

</div>

oh, right – i was planning on showing all articles with a certain category on their respective category page inside the panel. I couldn’t really figure out how i would filter this using the query language, so i postponed further confrontation but kept the categories as pages