Query language

Introduction

The query language adds a lot of flexibility when querying options for select, radio and checkboxes fields, for querying collections in Panel sections and to manipulate how information is displayed in the Panel.

If you are not familiar with Kirby's PHP API yet, you should learn more about it first. The query language is very close to it and will be confusing without the basics.

We recommend using double quotes around strings in the query language, otherwise it can result in the Panel throwing errors in some cases.

Syntax

PHP

$site->title()
$page->title()->lower()
$page->children()
$page->children()->filterBy('featured', true)
$site->find('notes')->children()->filterBy('tags', 'ocean', ',')
$page->images()->template('image')

Query

site.title
page.title.lower
page.children
page.children.filterBy("featured", true)
site.find("notes").children.filterBy("tags", "ocean", ",")
page.images.template("image")

These are just a few examples. As you can see, it is very close to the PHP syntax. You don't need to relearn anything this way.

The query language is not limited to built-in methods. You can also use page models and custom methods within your queries.

Blueprint example

There are two ways of using the query language in your blueprints:

1. To fetch data

In this example we use the query language to fetch options for a select field. You can fetch any collection of pages, files or users to be used as options.

# select field
mySelect:
  label: My Select Box
  type: select
  options:
    type: query
    query: site.children.listed

2. To create string templates

Another way to use the language is to create custom information for page or file lists. In this case we use the query language as part of our template syntax.

# pages section
published:
  label: Published Pages
  type: pages
  info: "Year: {{ page.year }}"

Querying options in fields

In various field types (tags, select, multiselect, checkboxes, radio, files, pages and related custom fields) you can use the query option to query possible options, for example:

tags:
    label: Tags
    type: tags
    options:
      type: query
      query: page.siblings
      text: " {{ page.title }}"
      value: "{{ page.uri }}"

mySelect:
  label: My Select Box
  type: select
  options:
    type: query
    query: site.children.listed.template('note') # get all children with the note template

Check out the docs for each of these fields in the Reference.

Querying the parent in pages and files sections

sections:
  articles:
    type: pages
    label: Blog Articles
    parent: site.find("blog")

Querying an image in the image option

image:
  query: page.images.template("cover").first
  ratio: 1/1
  cover: true

Querying information to display

info: "{{ page.from.toDate('d.m.Y') }} - {{ page.to.toDate('d.m.Y') }} / {{ page.location }}"

info: "{{ file.dimensions }}"

Escaping HTML

By default, we escape all queries to be displayed against raw HTML output that may lead to XSS attacks. If you include the HTML direcly in the blueprint option, this will still work and display the HTML as intended.

info: "<strong>{{ file.dimensions }}</strong>"

The query result itself will be escaped though, so if e.g. you would have a custom page method that returns HTML the HTML would be displayed as normal text. If such queries need to return HTML, you can use the {< >} syntax. In this case you need to ensure manually that the returned HTML code is safe.

info: "{< page.myMethodWithHTML >}"

Advanced query syntax

Queries can include arrays and nested method calls:

# arrays
query: site.index.filterBy("template", "in", ["note", "album"])

# nested queries
query: kirby.collection("some-collection").not(kirby.collection("excluded-collection"))

If you need to include quotes within strings, you can use the other quote type (" vs. ') or escape the quotes of the same quote type with backslashes:

query: site.title.or("This is a default value with \"quotes\"")

Method calls (parent.method(arguments...)) are supported if the parent is an object and the method exists (or if the object has a magic __call() method) or if the parent is an array and the method is a PHP closure (anonymous function).

Property access (parent.property) will behave like this:

If the parent is an object, Kirby will first try to call a method with that name, then a magic __call() method. If neither exist, Kirby will try to access a property with that name or call the magic __get() method.
If the parent is an array, the respective array element will be returned.
Calling a property without any arguments (parent.property()) is equivalent to accessing the property.

You can also use optional chaining, the ternary operator (a ? b : c or a ?: c) and the null coalescing operator (??):

page.cover.toFile?.url
page.title.isNotEmpty ? page.title.lower : page.slug
page.title.value ?? page.slug

Access different data types

Array items

mySelect:
  label: My Select Box
  type: select
  options:
    type: query
    query: site.taxonomy.split
    text: "{{ item.value.upper }}"
    value: "{{ item.value.slug }}"

Structure items

mySelect:
  label: My Select Box
  type: select
  options:
    type: query
    query: site.contactoptions.toStructure
    text: "{{ item.name }}"
    value: "{{ item.handle }}"

Pages

mySelect:
  label: My Select Box
  type: select
  options:
    type: query
    query: site.children.published
    text: "{{ page.year }} - {{ page.title.upper }}"
    value: "{{ page.slug }}"

Files

mySelect:
  label: My Select Box
  type: select
  options:
    type: query
    query: site.files
    text: "{{ file.name }}"
    value: "{{ file.filename }}"

Users

mySelect:
  label: My Select Box
  type: select
  options:
    type: query
    query: kirby.users.filterBy("role", "client")
    text: "{{ user.email }}"
    value: "{{ user.id }}"

Blocks

mySelect:
  label: My Select Box
  type: select
  options:
    type: query
    query: page.text.toBlocks.filterBy("type", "heading")
    text: "{{ block.text }}"
    value: "{{ block.id }}"