A Metalsmith plugin that lets you group files together into ordered collections, like blog posts. That way you can loop over them to generate index pages, add 'next' and 'previous' links between them, and more
- can match files by
collectionfile metadata - can match files by pattern
- can limit the number of files in a collection
- can filter files in a collection based on file metadata
- adds collections to global metadata
- adds
nextandpreviousreferences to each file in the collection
NPM:
npm install @metalsmith/collectionsYarn:
yarn add @metalsmith/collectionsPass options to @metalsmith/collections in the plugin chain:
import Metalsmith from 'metalsmith'
import markdown from '@metalsmith/markdown'
import collections from '@metalsmith/collections'
import { dirname } from 'path'
const __dirname = dirname(new URL(import.meta.url).pathname)
// defaults, only create collections based on file metadata
Metalsmith(__dirname)
.use(markdown())
.use(collections())
// defaults for a "news" collection, except pattern option
Metalsmith(__dirname)
.use(markdown())
.use(collections({
news: { pattern: 'news/**/*.html' }
}))
// explicit defaults for a "news" collection, except pattern option
Metalsmith(__dirname)
.use(markdown())
.use(collections({
pattern: { pattern: 'news/**/*.html' },
metadata: null,
filterBy: () => true,
sortBy: defaultSort,
reverse: false,
limit: Infinity,
refer: true
})Note: all examples in the readme use the same collections definitions under Defining collections
All options are optional
- pattern
string|string[]- one or more glob patterns to group files into a collection - filterBy
Function- a function that returnsfalsefor files that should be filtered out of the collection - limit
number- restrict the number of files in a collection to at mostlimit - sortBy
string|Function- a file metadata key to sort by (for exampledateorpubdateortitle), or a custom sort function - reverse
boolean- whether the sort should be reversed (e.g., for a news/blog collection, you typically wantreverse: true) - metadata
Object|string- metadata to attach to the collection. Will be available asmetalsmith.metadata().collections.<name>.metadata. This can be used for example to attach metadata for index pages. If a string is passed, it will be interpreted as a file path to an externalJSONorYAMLmetadata file - refer
boolean- will addpreviousandnextkeys to each file in a collection.trueby default
There are 2 ways to create collections & they can be used together:
-
by pattern - for example, this is how you would create multiple pattern-based collections, based on the folders
photos,news, andservices:metalsmith.use( collections({ gallery: 'photos/**/*.{jpg,png}', news: { metadata: { title: 'Latest news', description: 'All the latest in politics & world news', slug: 'news' }, pattern: 'news/**/*.html', sortBy: 'pubdate', reverse: true }, services: 'services/**/*.html' }) )
-
by file metadata - add a
collectionproperty to the front-matter of each file that you want to add to a collection. The markdown file below will be included in thenewscollection even if it's not in thenewsfolder (see previous example)something-happened.md--- title: Something happened collection: news pubdate: 2021-12-01 layout: news.hbs --- ...contents
Note that you can also add the same file to multiple collections, which is useful for example if you want to use
@metalsmith/collectionsas a category system:something-happened.mdtitle: Something happened collection: - news - category_politics - category_world pubdate: 2021-12-01 layout: news.hbs --- ...contents
Here is an example of using @metalsmith/layouts with jstransformer-handlebars to render the something-happened.md news item, with links to the next and previous news items (using refer: true options):
layouts/news.njk
Note: If you don't need the next and previous references, you can pass the option refer: false
All matched files are added to an array that is exposed as a key of metalsmith global metadata, for example the news collection would be accessible at Metalsmith.metadata().collections.news . Below is an example of how you could render an index page for the news collection:
layouts/news-index.hbs
You could define an order property on a set of files and pass sortBy: "order" to @metalsmith/collections for example, or you could override the sort with a custom function (for example to do multi-level sorting). For instance, this function sorts the "subpages" collection by a numerical "index" property but places unindexed items last.
metalsmith.use(
collections({
subpages: {
sortBy: function (a, b) {
let aNum, bNum
aNum = +a.index
bNum = +b.index
// Test for NaN
if (aNum != aNum && bNum != bNum) return 0
if (aNum != aNum) return 1
if (bNum != bNum) return -1
// Normal comparison, want lower numbers first
if (aNum > bNum) return 1
if (bNum > aNum) return -1
return 0
}
}
})
)Note: the sortBy option also understands nested keypaths, e.g. display.order
The filterBy function is passed a single argument which corresponds to each file's metadata. You can use the metadata to perform comparisons or carry out other decision-making logic. If the function you supply evaluates to true, the file will be added to the collection. If it evaluates to false, the file will not be added. The filterBy function below could work for a collection named thisYearsNews as it would filter out all the items that are older than this year:
function filterBy(file) {
const today = new Date()
const pubdate = new Date(file.pubdate)
return pubdate.getFullYear() === today.getFullYear()
}Add a limit option to a collection config, for example to separate recent articles from archives:
metalsmith.use(
collections({
recentArticles: {
pattern: 'articles/**/*.html',
sortBy: 'date',
limit: 10
},
archives: {
pattern: 'archives/**/*.html',
sortBy: 'date'
}
})
)Note: the collection is first sorted, reversed, filtered, and then limited, if applicable.
Additional metadata can be added to the collection object:
metalsmith.use(
collections({
news: {
metadata: {
title: 'Latest news',
description: 'All the latest in politics & world news',
slug: 'news'
}
}
})
)Collection metadata can be loaded from a json or yaml file (path relative to Metalsmith.directory()):
metalsmith.use(
collections({
articles: {
sortBy: 'date',
reverse: true,
metadata: 'path/to/file.json'
}
})
)To log debug output, set the DEBUG environment variable to @metalsmith/collections:
Linux/Mac:
DEBUG=@metalsmith/collectionsWindows:
set "DEBUG=@metalsmith/collections"Add the @metalsmith/collections key to your metalsmith.json plugins key:
{
"plugins": [
{
"@metalsmith/collections": {
"articles": {
"sortBy": "date",
"reverse": true
}
}
}
]
}
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