--- title: "Shortcodes" date: "2013-07-01" aliases: ["/doc/shortcodes/"] weight: 10 menu: main: parent: 'extras' --- Because Hugo uses markdown for its simple content format, however there's a lot of things that markdown doesn't support well. We are unwilling to accept being constrained by our simple format. Also unacceptable is writing raw html in our markdown every time we want to include unsupported content such as a video. To do so is in complete opposition to the intent of using a bare bones format for our content and utilizing templates to apply styling for display. To avoid both of these limitations Hugo created shortcodes. A shortcode is a simple snippet inside a markdown file that Hugo will render using a predefined template. ## Using a shortcode In your content files a shortcode can be called by using '{{% name parameters %}}' respectively. Shortcodes are space delimited (parameters with spaces can be quoted). The first word is always the name of the shortcode. Parameters follow the name. The format for named parameters models that of html with the format name="value". The current implementation only supports this exact format. Extra spaces or different quote marks will not parse properly. Some shortcodes use or require closing shortcodes. Like HTML, the opening and closing shortcodes match (name only), the closing being prepended with a slash. Example of a paired shortcode: {{ % highlight go %}} A bunch of code here {{ % /highlight %}} ## Hugo Shortcodes Hugo ships with a set of predefined shortcodes. ### highlight This shortcode will convert the source code provided into syntax highlighted html. Read more on [highlighting](/extras/highlighting). #### Usage Highlight takes exactly one required parameter of language and requires a closing shortcode. #### Example The example has an extra space between the “{{” and “%” characters to prevent rendering here. {{ % highlight html %}}

{{ % /highlight %}} #### Example Output <section id="main"> <div> <h1 id="title">{{ .Title }}</h1> {{ range .Data.Pages }} {{ .Render "summary"}} {{ end }} </div> </section> ### figure Figure is simply an extension of the image capabilities present with Markdown. figure provides the ability to add captions, css classes, alt text, links etc. #### Usage figure can use the following parameters * src * link * title * caption * attr (attribution) * attrlink * alt #### Example *Example has an extra space so Hugo doesn't actually render it*. {{ % figure src="/media/spf13.jpg" title="Steve Francia" %}} #### Example output

## Creating your own shortcodes To create a shortcode, place a template in the layouts/shortcodes directory. The template name will be the name of the shortcode. In creating a shortcode you can choose if the short code will use positional parameters or named parameters (but not both). A good rule of thumb is that if a short code has a single required value in the case of the youtube example below then positional works very well. For more complex layouts with optional parameters named parameters work best. **Inside the template** To access a parameter by position the .Get method can be used. {{ .Get 0 }} To access a parameter by name the .Get method should be utilized {{ .Get "class" }} With is great when the output depends on a parameter being set {{ with .Get "class"}} class="{{.}}"{{ end }} Get can also be used to check if a parameter has been provided. This is most helpful when the condition depends on either one value or another... or both. {{ or .Get "title" | .Get "alt" | if }} alt="{{ with .Get "alt"}}{{.}}{{else}}{{.Get "title"}}{{end}}"{{ end }} If a closing shortcode is used, the variable .Inner will be populated with all of the content between the opening and closing shortcodes. If a closing shortcode is required, you can check the length of .Inner and provide a warning to the user. ## Single Positional Example: youtube {{% youtube 09jf3ow9jfw %}} Would load the template /layouts/shortcodes/youtube.html

This would be rendered as

## Single Named Example: image with caption *Example has an extra space so Hugo doesn't actually render it* {{ % img src="/media/spf13.jpg" title="Steve Francia" %}} Would load the template /layouts/shortcodes/img.html

{{ if isset .Params "title" }}
{{ .Get "title" }}
{{ end }} {{ if or (.Get "caption") (.Get "attr")}}
{{ .Get "caption" }} {{ with .Get "attrlink"}} {{ end }} {{ .Get "attr" }} {{ if .Get "attrlink"}} {{ end }}
{{ end }}

Would be rendered as:

## Paired Example: Highlight *Hugo already ships with the highlight shortcode* *Example has an extra space so Hugo doesn't actually render it*. This HTML The template for this utilizes the following code (already include in hugo) {{ .Get 0 | highlight .Inner }} And will be rendered as:

<html>
        <body> This HTML </body>
    </html>

Please notice that this template makes use of a hugo specific template function called highlight which uses pygments to add the highlighting code. More shortcode examples can be found at [spf13.com](https://github.com/spf13/spf13.com/tree/master/layouts/shortcodes)

{{ .Title }}

Steve Francia

{{ .Get "title" }}

Steve Francia