Categories Fields

Categories fields allow you to relate categories to other elements.

# Settings

Categories fields have the following settings:

  • Source – Which category group (or other category index source) the field should be able to relate categories from.

  • Branch Limit – The maximum number of category tree branches that can be related with the field at once. (Default is no limit.)

    For example, if you have the following category group:

    Food
├── Fruit
│   ├── Apples
│   ├── Bananas
│   └── Oranges
└── Vegetables
    ├── Brussels sprouts
    ├── Carrots
    └── Celery

    …and Branch Limit was set to 1, you would be able to relate Fruit, Vegetables, or one of their descendants, but no more than that.

  • Selection Label – The label that should be used on the field’s selection button.

# Multi-Site Settings

On multi-site installs, the following settings will also be available (under “Advanced”):

  • Relate categories from a specific site? – Whether to only allow relations to categories from a specific site.

    If enabled, a new setting will appear where you can choose which site.

    If disabled, related categories will always be pulled from the current site.

  • Manage relations on a per-site basis – Whether each site should get its own set of related categories.

# The Field

Categories fields list all the currently-related categories with a button to select new ones.

Choosing Add a category will bring up a modal window where you can find and select additional categories. You can create new categories from this modal as well, by choosing New category.

When you select a nested category, all the ancestors leading up to that category will also automatically be related. Likewise, when you remove a category from within the main field input, any of its descendants will also be removed.

# Inline Category Editing

When you double-click on a related category, a HUD will appear where you can edit the category’s title and custom fields.

# Development

# Querying Elements with Categories Fields

When querying for elements that have a Categories field, you can filter the results based on the Categories field data using a query param named after your field’s handle.

Possible values include:

Value Fetches elements…
':empty:' that don’t have any related categories.
':notempty:' that have at least one related category.
100 that are related to the category with an ID of 100.
[100, 200] that are related to a category with an ID of 100 or 200.
[':empty:', 100, 200] with no related categories, or are related to a category with an ID of 100 or 200.
['and', 100, 200] that are related to the categories with IDs of 100 and 200.
a Category (opens new window) object that are related to the category.
a CategoryQuery (opens new window) object that are related to any of the resulting categories.
{# Fetch entries with a related category #}
{% set entries = craft.entries()
  .myFieldHandle(':notempty:')
  .all() %}

# Working with Categories Field Data

If you have an element with a Categories field in your template, you can access its related categories using your Categories field’s handle:

{% set query = entry.myFieldHandle %}

That will give you a category query, prepped to output all the related categories for the given field.

To loop through all the related categories as a flat list, call all() (opens new window) and then loop over the results:

{% set relatedCategories = entry.myFieldHandle.all() %}
{% if relatedCategories|length %}
  <ul>
    {% for rel in relatedCategories %}
      <li><a href="{{ rel.url }}">{{ rel.title }}</a></li>
    {% endfor %}
  </ul>
{% endif %}

Or you can show them as a hierarchical list with the nav tag:

{% set relatedCategories = entry.myFieldHandle.all() %}
{% if relatedCategories|length %}
  <ul>
    {% nav rel in relatedCategories %}
      <li>
        <a href="{{ rel.url }}">{{ rel.title }}</a>
        {% ifchildren %}
          <ul>
            {% children %}
          </ul>
        {% endifchildren %}
      </li>
    {% endnav %}
  </ul>
{% endif %}

If you only want the first related category, call one() (opens new window) instead and make sure it returned something:

{% set rel = entry.myFieldHandle.one() %}
{% if rel %}
  <p><a href="{{ rel.url }}">{{ rel.title }}</a></p>
{% endif %}

If you need to check for related categories without fetching them, you can call exists() (opens new window):

{% if entry.myFieldHandle.exists() %}
  <p>There are related categories!</p>
{% endif %}

You can set parameters on the category query as well. For example, to only fetch the “leaves” (categories without any children), set the leaves param:

{% set relatedCategories = clone(entry.myFieldHandle)
  .leaves()
  .all() %}

It’s always a good idea to clone the category query using the clone() function before adjusting its parameters, so the parameters don’t have unexpected consequences later on in your template.

# Saving Categories Fields

If you have an element form, such as an entry form (opens new window), that needs to contain a Categories field, you will need to submit your field value as a list of category IDs.

For example, you could create a list of checkboxes for each of the possible relations:

{# Include a hidden input first so Craft knows to update the existing value
   if no checkboxes are checked. #}
{{ hiddenInput('fields[myFieldHandle]', '') }}

{# Get all of the possible category options #}
{% set possibleCategories = craft.categories()
  .group('food')
  .all() %}

{# Get the currently related category IDs #}
{% set relatedCategoryIds = entry is defined
  ? entry.myFieldHandle.ids()
  : [] %}

<ul>
  {% nav possibleCategory in possibleCategories %}
    <li>
      <label>
        {{ input(
          'checkbox',
          'fields[myFieldHandle][]',
          possibleCategory.id,
          { checked: possibleCategory.id in relatedCategoryIds }
        ) }}
        {{ possibleCategory.title }}
      </label>
      {% ifchildren %}
        <ul>
          {% children %}
        </ul>
      {% endifchildren %}
    </li>
  {% endnav %}
</ul>

Note that it’s not possible to customize the order that categories will be related in, and if a nested category is related, so will each of its ancestors.

# See Also