---

Pelican plugin that allows to load data from files like JSON or TOML.

This plugin loads all the data files found in the project's data/ directory, and makes them accessible in jinja templates by injecting them into the context (with the prefix DATA_ followed by the name of the file).

This is roughly the default behavior of the well known Jekyll static site generator.

For example, the data of a profile.json file will be accessible from any template via DATA_PROFILE.

Getting started

You can use it directly in a personnal project, or to build a Pelican theme.

This plugin is avaiable as a python package hosted on PyPI.

Setup

All you have to do is install the latest version of the package with pip:

pip install pelican-data-files

By default, Pelican will automatically discover and register the plugin. (see more here)

To be sure, run this command which displays all the registered plugins, pelican-data-files should be printed:

pelican-plugins

Usage

Place some JSON valid files into data/ folder. Then you can acces your data by querying DATA_<FILE_NAME>["<VAR_NAME>"]

For example, consider a simple file named profile.json with the followed content:

{
  "firstname": "John",
  "lastname": "Doe",
  "age": 25,
  "contact": {
    "phone": "+1 302-516-3307",
    "mail": "[email protected]"
  }
}

Then, see what following queries return:

DATA_PROFILE["firstname"] => "John"
DATA_PROFILE["age"] => 25
DATA_PROFILE["contact"]["mail"] => "[email protected]"

So, you can access all the data in data/ folder in jinja templates from pelican context.

Build a theme

It is of course possible to create a theme that uses this plugin, it will not necessarily be dependent on it but must in all cases be designed for. (Usage of DATA_ prefix in theme templates and provide sample data files)

First set the plugin as an install requirement, for example with a package managed with setuptools (setup.py):

...
install_requires=[
  "pelican",
  "pelican-data-files"
],
...

Next, you have to provide sample data files for your theme.

Users can easily fetch the files in their pelican project by running the following command:

pelican-data-files --fetch <THEME_NAME>

This will copy the data/ folder of the theme, into the data/ folder of their Pelican project.

They will only have to modify the files and generate their site.

Example

orbelican is a theme which use pelican-data-files plugin to build an online resume from orbit-theme.