metalsmith-dynamic-collections

Note that this is the tip of an unmerged PR of metalsmith-collections from a fork which itself was based on a fork and that I republished on npm with the metalsmith-dynamic-collections name.

metalsmith-collections

A Metalsmith plugin that lets you group files together into an ordered collection, like blog posts. That way you can loop over them to generate an index, or add 'next' and 'previous' links between them.

Features

• can match files by collection metadata
• can match files by pattern
• can limit the number of files in a collection
• adds collections to global metadata
• adds next and previous references to each file in the collection

Installation

$ npm install metalsmith-collections

Usage

There are two ways to create collections:

• by pattern - this is just passing a globing pattern that will group any files that match into the same collection.
• by metadata - this is adding a specific collection metadata field to each item that you want to add to a collection.

The simplest way to create a collection is to use a pattern to match the files you want to group together:

var collections = require('metalsmith-collections');
 
metalsmith.use(collections({
  articles: '*.md'
}));

Which is just a shorthand. You could also add additional options:

metalsmith.use(collections({
  articles: {
    pattern: '*.md',
    sortBy: 'date',
    reverse: true
  }
}));

But you can also match based on a collection property in each file's metadata by omitting a pattern, and adding the property to your files:

metalsmith.use(collections({
  articles: {
    sortBy: 'date',
    reverse: true
  }
}));

---
title: My Article
collection: articles
date: 2013-02-21
---
 
My article contents...

All of the files with a matching collection will be added to an array that is exposed as a key of the same name on the global Metalsmith metadata. You can omit passing any options to the plugin when matching based on a collection property.

Dynamic collections

Dynamic collections group files by matching path segments.

metasmith.use(collections({
  departments: {
    pattern: ':department/:team/*.md'
  }
}));

Each :symbol is set to the matching path segment. Use this to iterate over nested collections:

{{#each departments}}
  Department: {{department}}
 
  {{#each this}}
    Team: {{team}}
 
    {{#each this}}
      {{{contents}}}
    {{/each}}
  {{/each}}
{{/each}}

Dynamic collections can also be referenced directly by name:

engineering/software/alice.md:

---
fullName: Alice Smith
---
 
Contents of file...

{{#each departments.engineering.software}}
  Employee: {{fullName}}
  {{{contents}}}
{{/each}}

Dynamic collections can also be used via frontmatter:

some/other/directory/bob.md:

---
collection: departments.engineering.hardware
---
 
Contents of file...

Collection Metadata

Additional metadata can be added to the collection object.

metalsmith.use(collections({
  articles: {
    sortBy: 'date',
    reverse: true,
    metadata: {
        name: 'Articles',
        description: 'The Articles listed here...'
    }
  }
}));

Collection metadata can also be assigned from a json or yaml file.

metalsmith.use(collections({
  articles: {
    sortBy: 'date',
    reverse: true,
    metadata: 'path/to/file.json'
  }
}));

On each collection definition, it's possible to add a limit option so that the collection length is not higher than the given limit:

metalsmith.use(collections({
  lastArticles: {
    sortBy: 'date',
    limit: 10
  }
}));

By adding refer: false to your options, it will skip adding the "next" and "previous" links to your articles.

metalsmith.use(collections({
  articles: {
    refer: false
  }
}));

CLI Usage

All of the same options apply, just add them to the "plugins" key in your metalsmith.json configuration:

{
  "plugins": {
    "metalsmith-collections": {
      "articles": {
        "sortBy": "date",
        "reverse": true
      }
    }
  }
}

License

MIT