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# Page configuration

Individual .md pages can be configured using the metadata section added to the top of the page.

sample.md
---
label: Sample
layout: page
order: 100
---
# Sample

This is a sample page demonstrating page metadata.

# Default pages

Folder default pages are .md files that will be treated as the index (default) page of the folder.

Retype will search using the following case insensitive priority:

  1. index.md
  2. readme.md
  3. default.md
  4. welcome.md *only in the project root

Within a sub-folder, if you add a Markdown .md file with the exact same name as the folder name, Retype will also treat that .md as a default page. For instance, given the following basic project structure, the /sample/sample.md file will function as a default page for the folder. The result will be the same as though you named it /sample/index.md:

sample
  |-- sample.md
readme.md
retype.yml

# Separate .yml file

If you would prefer to keep the page metadata separated and placed outside of the .md content page, the config can be moved into a paired .yml file.

For instance, sample.md would need a matching sample.yml file. The separate .yml file must have the exact same filename as its paired .md page.

Both .yml and .yaml extensions are supported.

Adding your configs into the top metadata section of a .md page, or into a separate .yml file is just a matter of preference. Both techniques produce the same result.

sample.md
# Sample

This is a sample page demonstrating page metadata.
sample.yml
label: Sample
layout: page
order: 100

See folder configuration for details on how to configure a folder.

# author

The author or multiple authors of this page.

---
author: Frank
---
---
author: frank@example.com
---

An author object can also be configured with specific values for the name, email, link, and avatar.

The author config is very flexible and can accept one or more author configurations and even a list of mixed types. The following sample demonstrates adding a list of authors. Two authors are added by name and a third is added only by their email address.

---
authors: [Frank, Annette Jones, steffen@example.com]
---

Mixed author types are also permitted, including adding a list of authors by name, email, or author configuration objects.

---
# Mix of author types
authors:
  - name: Frank Esposito
    email: frank@example.com
    link: https://twitter.com/frank
    avatar: https://example.com/frank.jpg
  - Annette Jones
  - steffen@example.com
---

# avatar

Possible options for the avatar include:

  1. Path to local image
  2. URL to an external image
  3. Inline SVG
  4. Icon shortcode
  5. Emoji shortcode
---
author:
  name: Frank Esposito
  avatar: https://example.com/frank.jpg # custom avatar takes precedence
---

# email 

---
author:
  email: frank@example.com
---

# link 

---
author:
  link: https://twitter.com/frank # custom link take precedence
---

# name 

---
author:
  name: Frank Esposito
---

# breadcrumb

This config is Retype PRO only.

The breadcrumb config controls whether to include the breadcrumb navigation on this page. Default is true.

Set to false to disable the breadcrumb navigation on this page.

breadcrumb: false

It is also possible to disable the breadcrumb navigation on all pages within a folder by setting breadcrumb: false in the folderhindex.yml configuration file or the folder default page, such as default.md, readme.md, or index.md.

# category

A category for this page.

A single category or a list of categories can be configured in each .md page you would like to categorize.

The category is meant to be a broad grouping of content, where tags are meant to describe specific details of the content in that particular page. A page can belong to multiple (zero to many) categories and have multiple (zero to many) tags.

All of the following are acceptable techniques for configuring a single category or multiple categories.

---
category: news
categories: news
category: [news, general]
categories: [news, general]
category:
  - news
  - general
categories:
  - news
  - general
---

If a category is configured in the page metadata, the category is added to the top of the page under the main title.

Individual category summary pages will be automatically generated by Retype at <url>/categories/<category>, plus an additional <url>/categories index page which lists all categories in the project.

# date

A custom publish date for this page.

If a date is configured, Retype will add the Published date to the top of the page, just under the main title.

The date must be provided in the yyyy-mm-dd ISO format or yyyy-mm-ddThh:mm if you want to include a date and a time.

date: 2020-11-25 # November 25, 2020
date: 2020-11-25T15:30 # November 25, 2020 at 15:30 (3:30 PM)

The date is used by Retype to order blog pages. Newer blog pages are ordered first.

# description

A custom description of the current page.

description: This is a custom description for this page

# expanded

Determines whether this folder should be expanded in the tree navigation on initial page load. Default is false.

Set to true to expand the folder node in the navigation.

expanded: true

The expanded option only applies to folders when configured within an index.yml folder configuration file.

Setting expanded: true within the metadata of an .md page or the paired .yml file will be ignored.

# icon

Custom icon for the navigation node of the current page. Default is null.

Options include using an Octicon name, Emoji shortcode, <svg> element, or a path to an image file.

Octicon
icon: rocket
Emoji shortcode
icon: ":rocket:"
SVG element
icon: "<svg>...</svg>"
Path
icon: "../static/rocket.png"

# image

By default, Retype will try to find the first image on the page and use that image as the feature image to highlight when creating a summary of the page.

You can customize the feature image by setting the image config to any local path or external image hosted elsewhere.

# Local path

Configure a path to a local file stored within the project.

image: ../static/feature-image1.jpg

# External image

Configure a URL to any image hosted elsewhere.

image: https://example.com/static/feature-image1.jpg

# label

Custom label for the navigation node for the current page. Default is null.

label: Custom label

# layout

The layout for the page. Default is default.

Supported values: default, central, page, and blog.

Layout Description
default The default layout for all .md pages. The page is added to the main navigation.
page Similar to default layout, but is not added to the main navigation.
central A page with no left or right sidebar columns.
blog A blog page layout. Blog pages are not added to the main navigation and include blog specific < Newer and Older > navigation buttons at the bottom of each blog page. 
layout: page

# meta

# title

A custom value for the <title> meta tag.

If set, the value will completely override any <title> meta tag value generated by Retype.

Default is null.

---
meta:
  title: "A 100% custom title meta tag value"
---
# Sample

With the above sample, the <title> will be:

<title>A 100% custom title meta tag value</title>

Without the meta.title set, by default, the <title> would be:

<title>Sample</title>

# order

A custom stack order for this page within the left side-bar tree navigation.

Options can include:

  • A number such as 100 or -100
  • Any string value that will be slotted into the A -> Z alpha ordering of all navigation nodes
  • A SemVer value such as v2.0

If the order is set with a number, a larger positive number will give more weight or priority to that page and Retype will bubble up that page in the navigation. For instance, a page configured with order: 100 will be higher in the navigation than a page configured with order: 10.

Similarily, a page configured with order: -100 will be lower in the navigation than a page configured with order: -10 or any page where no order is set.

In order of precedence, the order of a page in the navigation would be determined with the following priority:

Value type Description
number (positive) A larger positive number gets more weight or priority and is pushed higher in the navigation. Largest number at the top. Example: order: 100 will be ordered above order: 10.
alpha (high) Setting order with an alpha-numeric value is possible and those pages will be ordered against the label value of all other pages that do not have an order configured. Example: order: alpha will be ordered above order: beta or a page configured with label: bravo.
no order set If no order is configured, all pages will be ordered alphabetically based on its label, title, the first h1 title, or the file name values. The label config has the highest priority.
alpha (low) Example: order: zulu will be ordered below order: zebra or a page configured with label: yakee.
vSemver (newer) Page order configured with a semver value are ordered with the newest version above an older version. These pages are also moved towards the bottom of the navigation. Example: order: v1.1 will be ordered above order: v1.0.
number (negative) A negative number gets less weight or priority and is pushed to the bottom of the navigation. Setting the order with a negative number is a simple way to push a page to the bottom of the navigation. Example: order: -100 will be ordered below order: -10.

By default, the home page of the website has an order of 10000. To add a page in the navigation just above the home page, set a value of order: 10001 or greater. To add a page in the navigation just below the home page, set a value of order: 9999 or lower. To move the home page to the bottom of the navigation, set a negative value, such as order: -10000.

# Order by number

Larger number = order higher in the stack.

No order number or 0 = order by alpha

Smaller number = order lower in the stack.

If multiple pages have the same order number, secondary ordering in that cluster is by alpha.

+
0
-

# Order by alpha

Order values by alpha.

a = higher z = lower

Alpha
Bravo
Charlie
Zulu

# Order by v{semver}

Order by semver with latest release at the top

v5.0.1
v5
v4.0
v3.1
v3.0
v2.0
v1.0

Items prefixed with v would be grouped below the alpha ordered items.

alpha
bravo
yankee
zulu
v3.0
v2.1-beta
v2.0
v1.0
v1.0-beta
v1.0-alpha

# redirect

Redirect requests for this page to another location.

The redirect can be set to another page within this project, or an external link.

For example, you have an existing setup.md page and you want to move the content to getting-started.md, but other websites might still be linking to your old example.com/setup/ page and you want to ensure those links still work. You would then set the following redirect page config in setup.md to redirect to getting-started.md.

---
redirect: getting-started.md
---

# Setup

Retype will automatically handle any incoming example.com/setup requests and redirect to the new example.com/getting-started location.

Retype is also smart enough to scan your project for any setup.md links and replace those with a link directly to getting-started.md.

# route

A custom URL path for this page or folder which overrides the default path generated by Retype.

sample.md
---
route: /custom/path
---
# My page title

Some content here.

A custom route allows the folder and file structure to remain unchanged, but allowing the final URL's to be customized.

Configuring the route is an excellent solution when moving to Retype from another solution and you would like to maintain existing public URL's, but would prefer to re-organize your .md content files into a new structure. A custom route allows for a clean disconnect of the page path from the final published URL path.

In the following sample, the generated URL by Retype would be /guide/2021-06-25-publishing-to-github-pages/, but we override with a custom route which will publish the page to /tutorial/publish-to-github-pages/.

/guide/2021-06-25-publishing-to-github-pages.md
---
route: /tutorial/publish-to-github-pages/
---
# Publishing to GitHub Pages

If a custom route is configured on a folder, or on a readme.md or index.md page within the folder, or on an index.yml file within the folder, that custom route is assumed to be the base route for all pages within that folder.

The following scenario demonstrates a basic scenario where we want to configure the pages within the /guides/ folder to be served from the custom URL location of /tutorials/.

To accomplish this goal, configure the route on the readme.md, then all other pages within the same folder will adjust as well. The configuration.md page will now be served from /tutorials/configuration/.

Folder structure
|-- /guides
    |-- readme.md
    |-- configuration.md
/guides/readme.md
---
route: /tutorials
---
# Tutorials
File path Old URL New URL
/guides/readme.md /guides /tutorials
/guides/configuration.md /guides/configuration /tutorials/configuration

# tags

A list of tags can be added to the metadata at the top of each .md page you would like to tag.

The tags are meant to describe specific details of the content in that page. Tags are similar to category, although category is meant to describe be a broad grouping of content. A page can belong to multiple (zero to many) categories and have multiple (zero to many) tags.

If tags are configured in the page metadata, a list of tag links are added to the bottom of the page. See the bottom of this page for a working sample.

Individual tag summary pages will be automatically generated by Retype at <url>/tags/<tag>, plus an additional <url>/tags index page which lists all tags and their count used within the project.

Sample tags configuration
---
tags: [guide]
---
# Page title

Some content here.

Multiple tags can be added to the list by separating each with a comma ,.

Sample list of tags
---
tags: [guide, config options, installation]
---
# Page title

Some content here.

A list style syntax is also supported for tags:

Sample tags list
---
tags:
  - guide
  - config options
  - installation
---

# templating

Templating can be disabled on a per-page basis by setting templating: false in the page metadata.

---
templating: false
---

# title

The title config instructs Retype to add a primary # Page Title to your page, but it is recommended to manually add a # Page Title to each of your pages, instead of setting a title.

As a general rule, the actual content of your page should not be configured in the page metadata.

The following sample demonstrates setting the title config instead of explicitly using a # Page Title to your page.

---
title: Getting Started
---
Some content here.

Try to avoid using the title config. Please add a real page # Page Title to your document. The # Page Title will be rendered in HTML as <h1>Page Title</h1>.

For example, the sample above should ideally be written as the following instead of using a title config.

# Getting Started

Some content here.

# visibility

Configure the visibility of the page to be public, hidden, protected, or private. Default is public.

Mode In search results? Description
public ✅ The page is public and visible in the main navigation.
hidden 🚫 The page is created but will not be included in the navigation or search results. Useful for sharing a draft page before making public.
protected 🚫 The page is added to the navigation but requires a password to access.
private 🚫 The page is hidden and is not added to the navigation.

# hidden

With hidden, the page will still be created and added to the final website, but it is hidden. You can still link to the page or share a link to the page.

Retype would ensure no automatically generated links or references to the hidden page are created. If on a public page, a link to a hidden page is made by an author, the link will work and the hidden page will be visible.

The following sample demonstrates hiding a page:

---
visibility: hidden
---
# A hidden page

This page will be hidden from the menu and search results.

The History component will continue to function as normal. Any hidden page visited would still be logged in the history, although that history is only available to the visitor.

Setting visibility: hidden on a page is a good way to create a draft or secret page that you do not want included in the navigation, but you still want to share a link to the page for others to view if they have the link.

# protected

To create a protected page, add visibility: protected and then set the password for the project using the --password flag.

---
visibility: protected
---
# A protected page

This page will be visible in the main navigation, but will require a password to view the page.

Then call either of the following commands to set the password for the project:

retype start --password <your-password>
retype build --password <your-password>

The project password can also be set as an Environment variable by using RETYPE_PASSWORD.

An entire folder can be set to protected by adding an index.yml file with the following configuration to the root of the folder. See the folder docs for additional examples.

visibility: protected

# private

To create a private page, add visibility: private and then set the password for the project using the --password flag.

---
visibility: private
---
# A private page

This page will not be visible in the main navigation and will require a password to view the page.

Then call either of the following commands to set the password for the project:

retype start --password <your-password>
retype build --password <your-password>

The project password can also be set as an Environment variable by using RETYPE_PASSWORD.

An entire folder can be set to private by adding an index.yml file with the following configuration to the root of the folder. See the folder docs for additional examples.

visibility: private
config