This plugin allows you to apply layouts to your source files. It passes your source files to the selected layout as `contents` and renders the result with the templating engine of your choice. You can use any templating engine supported by [consolidate.js](https://github.com/tj/consolidate.js#supported-template-engines).
You can pass options to `metalsmith-layouts` with the [Javascript API](https://github.com/segmentio/metalsmith#api) or [CLI](https://github.com/segmentio/metalsmith#cli). The options are:
* [directory](#directory): directory for the layouts, layouts by default (optional)
* [partials](#partials): directory for the partials (optional)
* [pattern](#pattern): only files that match this pattern will be processed (optional)
### engine
The engine that will render your layouts. Metalsmith-layouts uses [consolidate.js](https://github.com/tj/consolidate.js) to render templating syntax, so any engine [supported by consolidate.js](https://github.com/tj/consolidate.js#supported-template-engines) can be used. Don't forget to install the templating engine separately. So this `metalsmith.json`:
```json
{
"plugins": {
"metalsmith-layouts": {
"engine": "swig"
}
}
}
```
Will render your layouts with swig.
### default
The default layout to use. Can be overridden with the `layout` key in each file's YAML frontmatter. If you don't set a default a layout must be specified in the frontmatter of each file. Don't forget to specify the file extension. So this `metalsmith.json`:
The directory where `metalsmith-layouts` looks for the layouts. By default this is `layouts`. So this `metalsmith.json`:
```json
{
"plugins": {
"metalsmith-layouts": {
"engine": "swig",
"directory": "templates"
}
}
}
```
Will look for layouts in the `templates` directory, instead of in `layouts`.
### partials
The directory where `metalsmith-layouts` looks for partials. Each partial is named by removing the file extension from its path (relative to the partials directory), so make sure to avoid duplicates. So this `metalsmith.json`:
```json
{
"plugins": {
"metalsmith-layouts": {
"engine": "handlebars",
"partials": "partials"
}
}
}
```
Would mean that a partial at `partials/nav.html` can be used in layouts as `{{> nav }}`, and `partials/nested/footer.html` can be used as `{{> nested/footer }}`. Note that passing anything but a string to the `partials` option will pass the option on to consolidate.
### pattern
Only files that match this pattern will be processed. So this `metalsmith.json`:
```json
{
"plugins": {
"metalsmith-layouts": {
"engine": "swig",
"pattern": "*.md"
}
}
}
```
Would only process files that have the `.md` extension.
### Consolidate
Any unrecognised options will be passed on to consolidate.js. You can use this, for example, to disable caching by passing `cache: false`. See the [consolidate.js documentation](https://github.com/tj/consolidate.js) for all options supported by consolidate.
This plugin is a fork of the now deprecated [metalsmith-templates](https://github.com/segmentio/metalsmith-templates). Splitting up `metalsmith-templates` into two plugins was suggested by Ian Storm Taylor. The results are:
