Global Data Files #

Your global data folder is controlled by the dir.data configuration option. All *.json and module.exports values from *.js files in this directory will be added into a global data object available to all templates.

Example #

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 #

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 #

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

Sources of Data #

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

1. Computed Data
2. Front Matter Data in a Template
3. Front Matter Data in Layouts (only in 0.x)
4. Template Data Files
5. Directory Data Files (and ascending Parent Directories)
6. Front Matter Data in Layouts (moved in 1.0)
7. Configuration API Global Data
8. Global Data Files ⬅

Other pages in Data Cascade:

• Front Matter Data
  • Customize Front Matter Parsing
• Template & Directory Data Files
• Global Data Files
  • Data Preprocessing
• Data Deep Merge
• Config Global Data
• Computed Data

Related Docs

• Default Template Engine for Global Data Files