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
4. Template Data Files
5. Directory Data Files (and ascending Parent Directories)
6. 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
• Computed Data

Related Docs

• Default Template Engine for Global Data Files