zola/docs/content/documentation/content/section.md

+++ title = “Section” weight = 20 +++

A section is automatically created when a folder is found in the content section, unless it only contains a index.md file and is actually a page with assets.

You can add _index.md file to a folder to augment a section and give it some metadata and/or content.

The index page is actually a section created automatically like any other: you can add metadata and content by adding _index.md at the root of the content folder.

Front-matter

The front-matter is a set of metadata embedded in a file. In Gutenberg, it is at the beginning of the file, surrounded by +++ and uses TOML.

While none of the front-matter variables are mandatory, the the opening and closing +++ are required.

Here is an example _index.md with all the variables available:

+++
title = ""

description = ""

# Whether to sort by "date", "order", "weight" or "none". More on that below
sort_by = "none"

# Used by the parent section to order its subsections.
# Higher values means it will be at the end.
weight = 0

# Template to use to render this section page
template = "section.html"

# How many pages to be displayed per paginated page. 
# No pagination will happen if this isn't set or if the value is 0
paginate_by = 0

# If set, will be the path used by paginated page and the page number will be appended after it. 
# For example the default would be page/1
paginate_path = "page"

# Whether to insert a link for each header like the ones you can see in this site if you hover one
# The default template can be overridden by creating a `anchor-link.html` in the `templates` directory
# Options are "left", "right" and "none"
insert_anchor_links = "none"

# Whether the section pages should be in the search index. This is only used if
# `build_search_index` is set to true in the config
in_search_index = true

# Whether to render that section homepage or not. 
# Useful when the section is only there to organize things but is not meant
# to be used directly
render = true

# Whether to redirect when landing on that section. Defaults to `None`.
# Useful for the same reason as `render` but when you don't want a 404 when
# landing on the root section page
redirect_to = ""

# Your own data
[extra]
+++

Some content

Keep in mind that any configuration apply only to the direct pages, not to the subsections’ pages.

Sorting

Sections’ pages can be sorted three different ways, not counting the unsorted default and is enabled by setting the sort_by front-matter variable.

Any page that cannot be sorted, for example if missing the date variable while sorting by date, will be ignored and won't be rendered. The terminal will warn you if this is happening.

If several pages have the same date/weight/order, their permalink will be used to break the tie following an alphabetical order.

date

This will sort all pages by their date field, from the most recent to the oldest.

weight

This will be sort all pages by their weight field. Heavier weights fall at the bottom: 5 would be before 10.

order

This will be sort all pages by their order field. Order is the opposite of weight, think of it as enumerating the content: this is my first post, my second, etc. A page with order: 5 will appear after a page with order: 10 in the sorted list.