Variables

Bridgetown traverses your site looking for files to process. Any files with front matter are subject to processing. For each of these files, Bridgetown makes a variety of data available via the Liquid template language. The following is a reference of the available data.

Global Variables #

Variable	Description
`site`	Site wide information + configuration settings from `bridgetown.config.yml`. See below for details.
`resource`	Resource front matter and other content. Custom variables set via the front matter will be available here. See below for details.
`layout`	Layout specific information + the front matter. Custom variables set via front matter in layouts will be available here.
`content`	In layout files, the rendered content of the resource being wrapped. Not defined in resource files themselves.

Site Variables #

Variable	Description
`site.time`	The current time (when you run the `bridgetown` command).
`site.resources`	A list of all resources (from pages, posts and other collections).
`site.static_files`	A list of all static files (i.e. files not processed by Bridgetown's converters or the Liquid renderer). Each file has five properties: `path`, `modified_time`, `name`, `basename` and `extname`.
`site.collections`	A list of all the collections (including posts).
`site.data`	A list containing the data loaded from the YAML files located in the `_data` directory.
`site.categories.CATEGORY`	The list of all resources in category `CATEGORY`.
`site.tags.TAG`	The list of all resources with tag `TAG`.
`site.url`	Contains the url of your site as it is configured in the `bridgetown.config.yml`. For example, if you have `url: http://mysite.com` in your configuration file, then it will be accessible in Liquid as `site.url`. For the `development` environment there is an exception: `site.url` will be set to the value of `host`, `port`, and SSL-related options. This defaults to `url: http://localhost:4000`.
`site.metadata`	You can put metadata variables in `_data/site_metadata.yml` so they'll be easy to access and will regenerate pages when changed. This is a good place to put `<head>` content like site title, description, icon, social media handles, etc. Then you can reference {{ site.metadata.title }}, etc. in your Liquid templates.
`site.[CONFIGURATION_DATA]`	All the variables set via the command line and your `bridgetown.config.yml` are available through the `site` variable. For example, if you have `foo: bar` in your configuration file, then it will be accessible in Liquid as `site.foo`. Bridgetown does not parse changes to `bridgetown.config.yml` in `watch` mode, you must restart Bridgetown to see changes to variables.

Resource Variables #

Variable	Description
`resource.content`	The content of the resource.
`resource.summary`	An excerpt of the resource from the configured summary service.
`resource.relative_url`	The URL of the resource without the domain, but with a leading slash, e.g. `/2008/12/14/my-post/`
`resource.date`	The Date assigned to the resource. This can be overridden in front matter by specifying a new date/time in the format `YYYY-MM-DD HH:MM:SS` (assuming UTC), or `YYYY-MM-DD HH:MM:SS +/-TTTT` (to specify a time zone using an offset from UTC. e.g. `2008-12-14 10:30:00 +0900`).
`resource.id`	An identifier unique to the resource and its collection (useful in RSS feeds). e.g. `repo://posts.collection/2021-10-05-my-post.md`
`resource.categories`	The list of categories to which this post belongs, which can be specified in the front matter.
`resource.collection`	The collection to which this resource belongs. Information on collection variables here. If not part of a collection, nothing is returned.
`resource.tags`	The list of tags to which this post belongs. These can be specified in the front matter.
`resource.relative_path`	The path of the resource relative to the source folder.
`resource.next`	The next resource relative to the position of the current resource in its collection. Returns `nil` for the last entry.
`resource.previous`	The previous resource relative to the position of the current resource in its collection. Returns `nil` for the first entry.

Top Tip: Use Custom Front Matter

Any custom front matter that you specify will be available under resource. For example, if you specify custom_css: true in a resource’s front matter, that value will be available as resource.data.custom_css.

If you specify front matter in a layout, access that via layout. For example, if you specify class: full_page in a layout’s front matter, that value will be available as layout.data.class in the layout.

Dynamic Routes & SSR