Trying to get property 'slug' of non-object 5.7 - php

Question

Looking to solve this error that I'm getting when trying to display some data to the view. I'm working with v5.7 and I have a feeling it might be something with the index method in my controller, I could be very wrong. If there is any more info that is needed please let me know.
Trying to get property 'slug' of non-object (0)
Route:
Route::get('/category/{category}','BlogController#category')->name('category');
BlogCategory Model
namespace App;
use Illuminate\Database\Eloquent\Model;
class BlogCategory extends Model
{
protected $fillable = ['title', 'slug'];
public function posts()
{
return $this->hasMany(Post::class);
}
public function getRouteKeyName()
{
return 'slug';
}
}
Post Model
public function category()
{
return $this->belongsTo(BlogCategory::class);
}
Controller:
protected $limit = 3;
public function index()
{
$categories = BlogCategory::with(['posts' => function ($query) {
$query->published();
}])->orderBy('title', 'asc')->get();
$posts = Post::with('author')
->latestFirst()
->published()
// ->filter(request()->only(['term','year','month']))
->simplePaginate($this->limit);
return view('pages.frontend.blog.index', compact('posts', 'categories'));
}
public function category(BlogCategory $category)
{
$categoryName = $category->title;
$categories = BlogCategory::with(['posts' => function ($query) {
$query->published();
}])->orderBy('title', 'asc')->get();
$posts = $category->posts()
->with('author')
->latestFirst()
->published()
->simplePaginate($this->limit);
return view("pages.frontend.blog.index", compact('posts', 'categories', 'categoryName'));
}
View:
#foreach ($posts as $post)
<article class="post-item">
#if ($post->image_url)
<div class="post-item-image">
<a href="{{ route('blog.show', $post->slug) }}">
<img src="{{ $post->image_url }}" alt="">
</a>
</div>
#endif
<div class="post-item-body">
<div class="padding-10">
<h2>
{{ $post->title }}
</h2>
{!! $post->excerpt_html !!}
</div>
<div class="post-meta padding-10 clearfix">
<div class="pull-left">
<ul class="post-meta-group">
<li>
<i class="fa fa-user"></i>
{{ $post->author->name }}
</li>
<li>
<i class="fa fa-clock-o"></i>
<time> {{ $post->date }}</time>
</li>
<li>
<i class="fa fa-folder"></i>
{{ $post->category->title }}
</li>
<li>
<i class="fa fa-comments"></i>
4 Comments
</li>
</ul>
</div>
<div class="pull-right">
Continue Reading »
</div>
</div>
</div>
</article>
#endforeach
Post table
Blog Cats table

Answer 1

The belongsTo function accepts a second argument for the name of the foreign key in your posts table, if you do not provide it the framework will try to guess what is the foreign key column name giving the name of the function as pattern, in your case category(), so the framework is searching for category_id, however, your foreign key column name is blog_category_id.
public function category()
{
return $this->belongsTo(BlogCategory::class, 'blog_category_id');
}

Answer 2

You should call the category relationship in the index of your controller, if this view is related to the index method!
public function index()
{
$categories = BlogCategory::with(['posts' => function ($query) {
$query->published();
}])->orderBy('title', 'asc')->get();
$posts = Post::with('author')
->category()
->latestFirst()
->published()
// ->filter(request()->only(['term','year','month']))
->simplePaginate($this->limit);
return view('pages.frontend.blog.index', compact('posts', 'categories'));
}