Global Data Files

Contents

Example
- Folders
- Using JavaScript instead of JSON
Sources of Data

Global data is data that is exposed to every template in an Eleventy project.

One way to create global data is through global data files: JSON and JavaScript files placed inside of the global data folder. The global data folder is placed inside the project's input directory (set by the dir.input configuration option), and the name of the global data folder is set by the dir.data configuration option (_data by default). All *.json and module.exports values from *.js files in this directory will be added into a global data object available to all templates.

You may also be interested in config global dataAdded in v1.0.0, which is another way to add global data to every template in an Eleventy project.

Example Jump to heading

Consider a JSON data file located at _data/userList.json with the following content:

[
  "user1",
  "user2"
]

This data will be available to your templates under the userList key like this:

{
  userList: [
    "user1",
    "user2"
  ]
}

Folders Jump to heading

If a data file is in a folder, the folder name will inform your global data object structure. For example, in our previous example, consider if our userList.json file was moved into a users folder at _data/users/userList.json.

Our data will be now available to your templates under a users key like so:

{
  users: {
    userList: [
      "user1",
      "user2"
    ]
  }
}

Using JavaScript instead of JSON Jump to heading

Read more about using module.exports values in arbitrary JavaScript data files.

Sources of Data Jump to heading

When the data is merged in the Eleventy Data Cascade, the order of priority for sources of data is (from highest priority to lowest):

Other pages in Data Cascade:

Related Docs

Default Template Engine for Global Data Files

Global Data Files

Example Jump to heading #

Folders Jump to heading #

Using JavaScript instead of JSON Jump to heading #

Sources of Data Jump to heading #