Data Hierarchy

Data for use in templates can come from the following places:

Data files in the top-level data folder
Data files nested in sub-directories
Data in frontmatter

Data from lower down in the list overrides data from higher up. Any nested data file overrides those from parent directories.

Example

your project structure looks like this:

data/
    global-data.json
posts/
    posts-data.py
    nested-dir/
        nested-data.json
        dogs.md

And contains the following files:

# data/global-data.json

{ "country": "United States", "color": "blue"}

# posts/posts-data.py

def get_data():
    return {"color": "red", "language": "English"}

# posts/nested-dir/nested-data.json

{ "language": "Spanish", "shape": "circle" }

<!-- jinja2.j2 -->
---
shape: rectangle
---

<ul>
    <li> {{ data.country }} </li>
    <li> {{ data.color }} </li>
    <li> {{ data.language }} </li>
    <li> {{ data.shape }} </li>
</ul>

The resulting file would look like:

<ul>
    <li> United States </li>
    <li> red </li>
    <li> Spanish </li>
    <li> rectangle </li>
</ul>

Data files that don't return dicts

If you have a data file that doesn't return a dict:

# data/dwarfs.py

def get_data():
    return ['Doc', 'Grumpy', 'Happy', 'Sleepy', 'Bashful', 'Sneezy', 'Dopy']

You access it in a template at data.<filename>:

<ul>
    {% for dwarf in data.dwarfs %}
    <li> {{ dwarf }} </li>
    {% endfor %}
</ul>