Collections and Custom Content Types

Posts solve date-oriented content.

Projects are usually not date-oriented in the same way.

That is where collections become useful.

Collection mental model

A collection is a named group of related Jekyll documents.

The official tutorial describes collections as similar to posts except their content does not need to be grouped by date.

For a portfolio:

_projects/
  line-follower.md
  network-dashboard.md

can represent a projects collection.

Configure it

In _config.yml:

collections:
  projects:
    output: true

Configuration changes commonly require restarting the Jekyll server so the new settings are loaded.

Why this may beat _data

Each project document can have:

• front matter;
• Markdown body;
• its own generated page when output is enabled;
• a shared layout;
• collection metadata.

That fits a case study better than a giant YAML string.

Why it may beat posts

A project may have a creation date, but its identity is "project," not "entry published on Tuesday."

Checkpoint

Compare one project in _data/projects.yml with the collection model you are about to build.

List what becomes easier and what becomes more complex.