Collections (Using Tags)

While pagination allows you to iterate over a data set to create multiple templates, a collection allows you to group content in interesting ways. A piece of content can be a part of multiple collections, if you assign the same string value to the tags key in the front matter.

Take care to note that tags have a singular purpose in Eleventy: to construct collections of content. Some blogging platforms use Tags to refer to a hierarchy of labels for the content (e.g. a tag cloud).

A Blog Example Jump to heading #

For a blog site, your individual post files may use a tag called post, but it can be whatever you want. In this example, mypost.md has a single tag post:

---
tags: post
title: Hot Take—Social Media is Considered Harmful
---

This will place this mypost.md into the post collection with all other pieces of content sharing the post tag. To reference this collection and make a list of all posts, use the collections object in any template:

<ul>
{%- for post in collections.post -%}
  <li>{{ post.data.title }}</li>
{%- endfor -%}
</ul>

<ul>
{%- for post in collections.post -%}
  <li>{{ post.data.title }}</li>
{%- endfor -%}
</ul>

exports.render = function(data) {
  return `<ul>
    ${data.collections.post.map(post => `<li>${post.data.title}</li>`).join("\n")}
  </ul>`;
};

Declare your collections for incremental builds Jump to heading #

Added in v2.0.0Use the eleventyImport object to declare any collections you use (data cascade friendly) to inform the relationships for smarter incremental builds. This is an Array of collection names. Read more about importing collections.

---
eleventyImport:
  collections: ["post"]
---
<ul>
{%- for post in collections.post -%}
  <li>{{ post.data.title }}</li>
{%- endfor -%}
</ul>

---
eleventyImport:
  collections: ["post"]
---
<ul>
{%- for post in collections.post -%}
  <li>{{ post.data.title }}</li>
{%- endfor -%}
</ul>

exports.data = function() {
  return {
    eleventyImport: {
      collections: ["post"]
    }
  }
};
exports.render = function(data) {
  return `<ul>
    ${data.collections.post.map(post => `<li>${post.data.title}</li>`).join("\n")}
  </ul>`;
};

Using an [aria-current] attribute for on the current page Jump to heading #

Compare the post.url and special Eleventy-provided page.url variable to find the current page. Building on the previous example:

<ul>
{%- for post in collections.post -%}
  <li{% if page.url == post.url %} aria-current="page"{% endif %}>{{ post.data.title }}</li>
{%- endfor -%}
</ul>

<ul>
{%- for post in collections.post -%}
  <li{% if page.url == post.url %} aria-current="page"{% endif %}>{{ post.data.title }}</li>
{%- endfor -%}
</ul>

exports.render = function(data) {
  return `<ul>
    ${data.collections.post.map(post =>
      `<li${data.page.url === post.url ? ` aria-current="page"` : ""}>${post.data.title}</li>`
    ).join("\n")}
  </ul>`;
};

Background: aria-current="page" tells assistive technology, such as screen readers, which page of a set of pages is the current active one. It also provides a hook for your CSS styling, using its attribute selector: [aria-current="page"] {}.

The Special all Collection Jump to heading #

By default Eleventy puts all of your content (independent of whether or not it has any assigned tags) into the collections.all Collection. This allows you to iterate over all of your content inside of a template.

Link to all Eleventy generated content Jump to heading #

<ul>
{%- for post in collections.all -%}
  <li><a href="{{ post.url }}">{{ post.url }}</a></li>
{%- endfor -%}
</ul>

<ul>
{%- for post in collections.all -%}
  <li><a href="{{ post.url }}">{{ post.url }}</a></li>
{%- endfor -%}
</ul>

exports.render = function(data) {
  return `<ul>
    ${data.collections.all.map(post =>
      `<li><a href="${post.url}">${post.url}</a></li>`
    ).join("\n")}
  </ul>`;
};

How to Exclude content from Collections Jump to heading #

In front matter (or further upstream in the data cascade), set the eleventyExcludeFromCollections option to true to opt out of specific pieces of content added to all collections (including collections.all, collections set using tags, or collections added from the Configuration API in your config file). Useful for your RSS feed, sitemap.xml, custom templated .htaccess files, et cetera.

---
eleventyExcludeFromCollections: true
tags: post
---
This will not be available in `collections.all` or `collections.post`.

Add to a Collection using Tags Jump to heading #

You can use a single tag, as in the above example OR you can use any number of tags for the content, using YAML syntax for a list.

A single tag: cat Jump to heading #

---
tags: cat
---

This content would show up in the template data inside of collections.cat.

Using multiple words in a single tag Jump to heading #

---
tags: cat and dog
---

If you use multiple words for one tag you can access the content by the following syntax collections['cat and dog'].

Multiple tags, single line Jump to heading #

---
tags: ['cat', 'dog']
---

This content would show up in the template data inside of collections.cat and collections.dog.

Multiple tags, multiple lines Jump to heading #

---
tags:
  - cat
  - dog
---

This content would show up in the template data inside of collections.cat and collections.dog.

Override tags Jump to heading #

As of Eleventy 1.0, the Data Cascade is combined using deep data merge by default, which means tags are merged together with tags assigned higher in the data cascade (the Arrays are combined). To redefine tags in the front matter use the override: prefix:

---
override:tags: []
---

This content would not show up in any of the collections it was added to with tags higher up in the data cascade.

Collection Item Data Structure Jump to heading #

<ul>
{%- for post in collections.post -%}
  <li>{{ post.data.title }}</li>
{%- endfor -%}
</ul>

<ul>
{%- for post in collections.post -%}
  <li>{{ post.data.title }}</li>
{%- endfor -%}
</ul>

exports.render = function(data) {
  return `<ul>
    ${data.collections.post.map(post => `<li>${post.data.title}</li>`).join("\n")}
  </ul>`;
};

Note in the above example that we output the post.data.title value? Similarly, each collection item will have the following data:

• page: everything in Eleventy’s supplied page variable for this template (including inputPath, url, date, and others). Added in v2.0.0
• data: all data for this piece of content (includes any data inherited from layouts)
• rawInput: the raw input of the template (before any processing). This does not include front matter. Added in v3.0.0-alpha.1 (Related: #1206)
• content: the rendered content of this template. This does not include layout wrappers. Added in v2.0.0

{
  page: {
    inputPath: './test1.md',
    url: '/test1/',
    date: new Date(),
    // … and everything else in Eleventy’s `page`
  },
  data: { title: 'Test Title', tags: ['tag1', 'tag2'], date: 'Last Modified', /* … */ },
  content: '<h1>Test Title</h1>\n\n<p>This is text content…',
  // Added in v3.0.0-alpha.1
  rawInput: '<h1>{{ title }}</h1>\n\n<p>This is text content…',
}

Backwards compatibility notes:

• Top level properties for inputPath, fileSlug, outputPath, url, date are still available, though use of page.* Added in v2.0.0 for these is encouraged moving forward.
• content Added in v2.0.0 is aliased to the previous property templateContent.

You can view the previous Collection Item Data Structure docs for 1.0.

Sorting Jump to heading #

The default collection sorting algorithm sorts in ascending order using:

1. The input file’s Created Date (you can override using date in front matter, as shown below)
2. Files created at the exact same time are tie-broken using the input file’s full path including filename

For example, assume I only write blog posts on New Years Day:

posts/postA.md (created on 2008-01-01)
posts/postB.md (created on 2008-01-01)
posts/post3.md (created on 2007-01-01)
another-posts/post1.md (created on 2011-01-01)

This collection would be sorted like this:

1. posts/post3.md
2. posts/postA.md
3. posts/postB.md
4. another-posts/post1.md

Sort descending Jump to heading #

To sort descending in your template, you can use a filter to reverse the sort order. For example, it might look like this:

<ul>
{%- for post in collections.post reversed -%}
  <li>{{ post.data.title }}</li>
{%- endfor -%}
</ul>

<ul>
{%- for post in collections.post | reverse -%}
  <li>{{ post.data.title }}</li>
{%- endfor -%}
</ul>

exports.render = function(data) {
  let posts = data.collections.post.reverse();
  return `<ul>
    ${posts.map(post => `<li>${post.data.title}</li>`).join("\n")}
  </ul>`;
};

eleventyConfig.addShortcode("myShortcode", function (aCollection){
  // WARNING
  aCollection.reverse();
})

Overriding Content Dates Jump to heading #

You can modify how a piece of content is sorted in a collection by changing its default date. Read more at Content Dates.

---
date: 2016-01-01
---

Advanced: Custom Filtering and Sorting Jump to heading #

To get fancier with your collections (and even do a bit of your own custom filtering, if you’d like), you can use our Configuration API.

Inside of your .eleventy.js config file, use the first argument to the config function (eleventyConfig below) to call the API:

module.exports = function(eleventyConfig) {

  eleventyConfig.addCollection("myCollectionName", function(collectionApi) {
    // get unsorted items
    return collectionApi.getAll();
  });

};

addCollection can accept async functions too. Use await in your callback to do some asynchronous things!

Return values Jump to heading #

• addCollection callbacks can return any arbitrary object type and it’ll be available as data in the template. Arrays, strings, objects—have fun with it.

Collection API Methods Jump to heading #

The data collection gets passed to the callback. You can use it in all sorts of ways:

getAll() Jump to heading #

Returns an array.

module.exports = function(eleventyConfig) {
  // Unsorted items (in whatever order they were added)
  eleventyConfig.addCollection("allMyContent", function(collectionApi) {
    return collectionApi.getAll();
  });
};

module.exports = function(eleventyConfig) {
  // Filter using `Array.filter`
  eleventyConfig.addCollection("keyMustExistInData", function(collectionApi) {
    return collectionApi.getAll().filter(function(item) {
      // Side-step tags and do your own filtering
      return "myCustomDataKey" in item.data;
    });
  });
};

module.exports = function(eleventyConfig) {
  // Sort with `Array.sort`
  eleventyConfig.addCollection("myCustomSort", function(collectionApi) {
    return collectionApi.getAll().sort(function(a, b) {
      //return a.date - b.date; // sort by date - ascending
      return b.date - a.date; // sort by date - descending
      //return a.inputPath.localeCompare(b.inputPath); // sort by path - ascending
      //return b.inputPath.localeCompare(a.inputPath); // sort by path - descending
    });
  });
};

Curious where the date is coming from? Read more about Content Dates.

Note that the last example adding the myCustomSort collection will be available in your templates as collections.myCustomSort.

getAllSorted() Jump to heading #

Returns an array.

module.exports = function(eleventyConfig) {
  // Use the default sorting algorithm (ascending by date, filename tiebreaker)
  eleventyConfig.addCollection("allMySortedContent", function(collectionApi) {
    return collectionApi.getAllSorted();
  });
};

module.exports = function(eleventyConfig) {
  // Use the default sorting algorithm in reverse (descending dir, date, filename)
  // Note that using a template engine’s `reverse` filter might be easier here
  eleventyConfig.addCollection("myPostsReverse", function(collectionApi) {
    return collectionApi.getAllSorted().reverse();
  });
};

Note that while Array .reverse() mutates the array in-place, all Eleventy Collection API methods return new copies of collection arrays and can be modified without side effects to other collections. However, you do need to be careful ⚠️ when using Array .reverse() in templates!

module.exports = function(eleventyConfig) {
  // Filter using `Array.filter`
  eleventyConfig.addCollection("onlyMarkdown", function(collectionApi) {
    return collectionApi.getAllSorted().filter(function(item) {
      // Only return content that was originally a markdown file
      let extension = item.inputPath.split('.').pop();
      return extension === "md";
    });
  });
};

getFilteredByTag( tagName ) Jump to heading #

Returns an array.

module.exports = function(eleventyConfig) {
  // Get only content that matches a tag
  eleventyConfig.addCollection("myPosts", function(collectionApi) {
    return collectionApi.getFilteredByTag("post");
  });
};

getFilteredByTags( tagName, secondTagName, […] ) Jump to heading #

Retrieve content that includes all of the tags passed in. Returns an array.

module.exports = function(eleventyConfig) {
  // Get only content that matches a tag
  eleventyConfig.addCollection("myTravelPostsWithPhotos", function(collectionApi) {
    return collectionApi.getFilteredByTags("post", "travel", "photo");
  });
};

getFilteredByGlob( glob ) Jump to heading #

Returns an array. Will match an arbitrary glob (or an array of globs) against the input file’s full inputPath (including the input directory).

module.exports = function(eleventyConfig) {
  // Filter source file names using a glob
  eleventyConfig.addCollection("onlyMarkdown", function(collectionApi) {
    return collectionApi.getFilteredByGlob("**/*.md");
  });
};

module.exports = function(eleventyConfig) {
  // Filter source file names using a glob
  eleventyConfig.addCollection("posts", function(collectionApi) {
    return collectionApi.getFilteredByGlob("_posts/*.md");
  });
};

module.exports = function(eleventyConfig) {
  // Filter source file names using a glob
  eleventyConfig.addCollection("posts", function(collectionApi) {
    // Also accepts an array of globs!
    return collectionApi.getFilteredByGlob(["posts/*.md", "notes/*.md"]);
  });
};

From the Community Jump to heading #

How I built Around the Web

Group posts by year

Custom Content Collections

Working with Collections

+ Add yours!

×43 resources courtesy of 11tybundle.dev curated by Bob Monsour

• Grouping posts by year with nunjucks in Eleventy — Christopher Kirk-Nielsen (2023)
• Generating the Firehose page on the 11tybundle site — Bob Monsour (2023)
• Building post types and category RSS feeds in Eleventy — Sophie Koonin (2023)
• Eleventy Splitting Category Data Across Two Table Columns — John M. Wargo (2023)
• Making a simple Eleventy blog template — Tomek Poniatowicz (2023)

Other pages in Working with Templates:

• Add CSS, JS, Fonts
• Layouts
  • Layout Chaining
• Collections
• Create Pages From Data
• Pagination
  • Pagination Navigation
• Content Dates
• Permalinks
• Internationalization (i18n)
• Common Pitfalls