Managing Collections

Collections are groups of related posts (e.g., articles, stories, events). They help organize content and provide automatically generated index pages. Each collection lives in its own folder, typically prefixed with an underscore (e.g., _articles).

This page explains how to add, modify, and delete collections, as well as how to add them to the site navigation.

What Is a Collection?

  • A collection is a folder of related posts, each stored in its own subfolder containing an index.md file.
    Example:
    ```bash _articles
    • monument-valley
      • index.md
    • yosemite
      • index.md ```
  • Collections are defined in the Jekyll configuration file (_config.yml).
  • Each collection can generate its own listing page (e.g., /articles).

Adding a New Collection

  1. Edit the Jekyll configuration
    • Open _config.yml in the repository root.
    • Add a new section under collections:. Example: 
      collections:
  articles:
 output: true
  stories:
 output: true
  mynewcollection:
 output: true
    • output: true makes the collection visible as web pages.
  2. Create the collection folder and index page
    • In GitHub, click Add file → Create new file.
    • For the filename, type:
      mynewcollection/index.md
      (This automatically creates the mynewcollection folder and the index.md file.)
    • Paste in the following front matter: 
      ---
layout: collection
title: "My New Collection"
collection: mynewcollection
---
    • Commit the file.
      This sets up the collection’s listing page.
  3. Add posts to the collection
    • Inside GitHub, navigate to _mynewcollection.
    • Follow the steps in Managing Posts and Pages to create a post folder (e.g., _mynewcollection/post-name/index.md).

Modifying a Collection

  • Change the title or description
  • Edit the collection’s index.md file (e.g., mynewcollection/index.md).
  • Adjust collection behavior
  • Update _config.yml (e.g., add sorting rules, defaults, or permalinks).
  • Update posts within the collection
  • Navigate to _mynewcollection and edit posts as needed.

Deleting a Collection

  1. Delete the collection folder (e.g., _myoldcollection).
  2. Delete the collection’s index.md file (e.g., myoldcollection/index.md).
  3. Remove the collection entry from _config.yml.
  4. Remove the collection reference from nav_pages (see below).
  5. Commit your changes.

⚠️ This will remove all posts in the collection and break any links pointing to them.

Adding a Collection to Site Navigation

Navigation is controlled by the nav_pages list in _config.yml. Example:

nav_pages:
- index.md
- _articles/index.md
- _admin/index.md
- _examples/index.md
- about/index.md
- contact.md

To add your new collection:

  1. Open _config.yml.

  2. Add the collection’s index page to nav_pages. Example:

     nav_pages:
 - index.md
 - _articles/index.md
 - _stories/index.md
 - about/index.md
 - contact.md

    Here, _stories/index.md points to the listing page of the new stories collection.

  3. Commit the change.
  4. The collection now appears in the site’s navigation bar.

Summary

  • Add a collection by updating _config.yml, creating a folder with its index page, and then adding posts.
  • Modify collections by editing their index page or settings.
  • Delete a collection by removing its folder, index page, and config entry.
  • Add to navigation by including the collection’s index.md in the nav_pages list of _config.yml.