hugo/docs/content/extras/datafiles.md

aliases	date	menu	next	prev	title	weight
/doc/datafiles/	2015-01-22	main parent extras	/extras/highlighting	/extras/scratch	Data Files	90

In addition to the built-in variables available from Hugo, you can specify your own custom data that can be accessed via templates or shortcodes.

Hugo supports loading data from YAML, JSON, and TOML files located in the data directory.

It even works with LiveReload.

The Data Folder

As explained in Source Organization, the data folder is where you can store additional data for Hugo to use when generating your site. These files must be YAML, JSON or TOML files (using either the .yml, .yaml, .json or toml extension) and the data will be accessible as a map in .Site.Data.

The keys in this map will be a dot chained set of path, filename and key in file (if applicable).

This is best explained with an example:

Example: Jaco Pastorius' Solo Discography

Jaco Pastorius was a great bass player, but his solo discography is short enough to use as an example.

The example below uses TOML as file format.

Given the file data/jazz/bass/jacopastorius.toml with the content below:

discography = [
"1974 – Modern American Music … Period! The Criteria Sessions",
"1974 – Jaco",
"1976 - Jaco Pastorius",
"1981 - Word of Mouth",
"1981 - The Birthday Concert (released in 1995)",
"1982 - Twins I & II (released in 1999)",
"1983 - Invitation",
"1986 - Broadway Blues (released in 1998)",
"1986 - Honestly Solo Live (released in 1990)",
"1986 - Live In Italy (released in 1991)",
"1986 - Heavy'n Jazz (released in 1992)",
"1991 - Live In New York City, Volumes 1-7.",
"1999 - Rare Collection (compilation)",
"2003 - Punk Jazz: The Jaco Pastorius Anthology (compilation)",
"2007 - The Essential Jaco Pastorius (compilation)" 
]

This list can be accessed via .Site.Data.jazz.bass.jacopastorius.discography.

You can now render the list of recordings in a template:

<ul>
{{ range $.Site.Data.jazz.bass.jacopastorius.discography }}
  <li>{{ . }}</li>
{{ end }}
</ul>