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I am attempting to create a "dynamic" button. By that I mean I want the user to be able to update the text and the target (href) of where the button links to when clicked.

So I created fields: buttonText and buttonTarget.

buttonText is just a plain text field - no problem.

For the buttonTarget field type I chose "Entry" and selected the source(s) in the checklist that follows with a limit of one. So far so good.

In my actual entry, I enter the buttonText of "Hello World". Preview the page and "Hello World" shows up as the button text. So far so good.

Lets say I have a page called "Hello". For my buttonTarget field I click on "Add an Entry" and choose "Hello" from the entry list.

When I preview my site now, I get this error:

Object of class Craft\ElementCriteriaModel could not be converted to string

That makes perfect sense since I need everything to evaluate to a string. I'm not sure how I can output (for lack of better words) the object so that I can see/find what properties are.

Here is what I am using to display the button:

html

<p><a href="{{entry.buttonTarget}}" class="btn btn-default">{{entry.buttonText}}</a></p>

I assume I need something like {{entry.buttonTarget.uri}} but I haven't been able to find out what the actual parameter is I need. {{entry.uri}} outputs nothing.

EDIT

Doing this gets the result I am after: {{entry.slug}} This uses the current entry's slug instead of the custom field value. Which is ok - I can use the slug as the href target. Ideally I'd like to use the custom field though.

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Even if you set the limit to 1, Craft always returns an array of entries. So you need to add first() to access the first (and only) entry.

{{ entry.buttonTargets.first() }}

It you don't add a property, this returns the entry's title by default. So you additionally need to add url to output the URL of that entry.

{{ entry.buttonTargets.first().url }}
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  • Thank you so much! This is exactly the hint I needed. I'm "new" to Craft, (love it) and didn't realize that regardless Craft will always return an array. Adding the additional property (url, id etc) makes perfect sense to get the value(s) I am after. Thank you!
    – Damon
    Commented Feb 6, 2015 at 17:24
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    @dragonslovetacos a good thing to do is to always name the field handle in plurals for such fields: buttonTargets instead of buttonTarget for your Entries Field or assets for an Asset Field even if restricted to only take one asset.
    – carlcs
    Commented Feb 6, 2015 at 17:28
  • Great advice - will do!
    – Damon
    Commented Feb 6, 2015 at 17:34
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    You should also check that that first entry exists: {% if entry.buttonTargets.first() %}{{ entry.buttonTargets.first().url }}{% endif %}
    – Marion Newlevant
    Commented Feb 6, 2015 at 20:12
  • This worked, thank you! - SIDE NOTE - Just looked at the Docs and couldn't find a reference to the field type entry/entries returning an array - do you have a doc that clearly presents this to the user from the Craft documentation?
    – Wally
    Commented Jan 3, 2021 at 12:16

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