Jekyll Optional Front Matter - Collections

A Jekyll plugin to make front matter optional for collection documents

What it does

Out of the box, Jekyll requires that any markdown file have YAML front matter (key/value pairs separated by two sets of three dashes) in order to be processed and converted to HTML.

While that behavior may be helpful for large, complex sites, sometimes it's easier to simply add a plain markdown file and have it render without fanfare.

This plugin does just that. Any Markdown file in your site's source will be treated as a Page and rendered as HTML, even if it doesn't have YAML front matter.

Usage

1. Add the following to your site's Gemfile:

   group :jekyll_plugins do
     gem 'jekyll-optional-front-matter-collections'
   end
   

2. Install the plugin

   • Using Bundler:

     ```bash
     bundle install
     ```
     

   • Using Gem:

       ```bash
       # Install in your user's home directory.
       gem install --user-install jekyll-optional-front-matter-collections
     
       # Install for root user.
       sudo gem install jekyll-optional-front-matter-collections
       ```
     

   Note: If you are using a Jekyll version less than 3.5.0, use the gems key instead of plugins.

Configuration

You can configure this plugin in _config.yml by adding to the optional_front_matter_collection key.

Enable for specific collections

The plugin is only enabled for collections that are listed in the collections key. By default, it is enabled for all collections. To enable it for specific collections, add the following to your site's config:

optional_front_matter_collection:
  collections:
    - my_collection
    - my_other_collection

Removing originals

By default the original markdown files will be included as static pages in the output. To remove them from the output, set the remove_originals key to true:

optional_front_matter_collection:
  remove_originals: true

Disabling

Even if the plugin is enabled (e.g., via the :jekyll_plugins group in your Gemfile) you can disable it by adding the following to your site's config:

optional_front_matter_collection:
  enabled: false

Special thanks to

This plugin is based on benbalter/jekyll-optional-front-matter. Most of the sources are copied from the original repository.