Lists of Content in Hugo

What is a List Page Template?

A list page template is a template used to render multiple pieces of content in a single HTML page. The exception to this rule is the homepage, which is still a list but has its own dedicated template.

Hugo uses the term list in its truest sense; i.e. a sequential arrangement of material, especially in alphabetical or numerical order. Hugo uses list templates on any output HTML page where content is traditionally listed:

For template lookup order, see Template Lookup.

The idea of a list page comes from the hierarchical mental model of the web and is best demonstrated visually:

List Defaults

Default Templates

Since section lists and taxonomy lists (N.B., not taxonomy terms lists) are both lists with regards to their templates, both have the same terminating default of _default/list.html or themes/<THEME>/layouts/_default/list.html in their lookup order. In addition, both section lists and taxonomy lists have their own default list templates in _default.

See Template Lookup Order for the complete reference.

Add Content and Front Matter to List Pages

Since v0.18, everything in Hugo is a Page. This means list pages and the homepage can have associated content files (i.e. _index.md) that contain page metadata (i.e., front matter) and content.

This new model allows you to include list-specific front matter via .Params and also means that list templates (e.g., layouts/_default/list.html) have access to all page variables.

Example Project Directory

The following is an example of a typical Hugo project directory’s content:

.
...
├── content
|   ├── posts
|   |   ├── _index.md
|   |   ├── post-01.md
|   |   └── post-02.md
|   └── quote
|   |   ├── quote-01.md
|   |   └── quote-02.md
...

Using the above example, let’s assume you have the following in content/posts/_index.md:

content/posts/_index.md

---
title: My Go Journey
date: 2017-03-23
publishdate: 2017-03-24
---

I decided to start learning Go in March 2017.

Follow my journey through this new blog.

You can now access this _index.md’s' content in your list template:

layouts/_default/list.html

{{ define "main" }}
<main>
    <article>
        <header>
            <h1>{{.Title}}</h1>
        </header>
        <!-- "{{.Content}}" pulls from the markdown content of the corresponding _index.md -->
        {{.Content}}
    </article>
    <ul>
    <!-- Ranges through content/posts/*.md -->
    {{ range .Pages }}
        <li>
            <a href="{{.Permalink}}">{{.Date.Format "2006-01-02"}} | {{.Title}}</a>
        </li>
    {{ end }}
    </ul>
</main>
{{ end }}

This above will output the following HTML:

example.com/posts/index.html

<!--top of your baseof code-->
<main>
    <article>
        <header>
            <h1>My Go Journey</h1>
        </header>
        <p>I decided to start learning Go in March 2017.</p>
        <p>Follow my journey through this new blog.</p>
    </article>
    <ul>
        <li><a href="/posts/post-01/">Post 1</a></li>
        <li><a href="/posts/post-02/">Post 2</a></li>
    </ul>
</main>
<!--bottom of your baseof-->

List Pages Without `_index.md`

You do not have to create an _index.md file for every list page (i.e. section, taxonomy, taxonomy terms, etc) or the homepage. If Hugo does not find an _index.md within the respective content section when rendering a list template, the page will be created but with no {{.Content}} and only the default values for .Title etc.

Using this same layouts/_default/list.html template and applying it to the quotes section above will render the following output. Note that quotes does not have an _index.md file to pull from:

example.com/quote/index.html

<!--baseof-->
<main>
    <article>
        <header>
        <!-- Hugo assumes that .Title is the name of the section since there is no _index.md content file from which to pull a "title:" field -->
            <h1>Quotes</h1>
        </header>
    </article>
    <ul>
        <li><a href="https://example.com/quote/quotes-01/">Quote 1</a></li>
        <li><a href="https://example.com/quote/quotes-02/">Quote 2</a></li>
    </ul>
</main>
<!--baseof-->

Example List Templates

Section Template

This list template has been modified slightly from a template originally used in spf13.com. It makes use of partial templates for the chrome of the rendered page rather than using a base template. The examples that follow also use the content view templates li.html or summary.html.

layouts/section/posts.html

{{ partial "header.html" . }}
{{ partial "subheader.html" . }}
<main>
  <div>
   <h1>{{ .Title }}</h1>
        <ul>
        <!-- Renders the li.html content view for each content/posts/*.md -->
            {{ range .Pages }}
                {{ .Render "li"}}
            {{ end }}
        </ul>
  </div>
</main>
{{ partial "footer.html" . }}

Taxonomy Template

layouts/_default/taxonomy.html

{{ define "main" }}
<main>
  <div>
   <h1>{{ .Title }}</h1>
   <!-- ranges through each of the content files associated with a particular taxonomy term and renders the summary.html content view -->
    {{ range .Pages }}
        {{ .Render "summary"}}
    {{ end }}
  </div>
</main>
{{ end }}

Order Content

Hugo lists render the content based on metadata you provide in front matter. In addition to sane defaults, Hugo also ships with multiple methods to make quick work of ordering content inside list templates:

Default: Weight > Date > LinkTitle > FilePath

layouts/partials/default-order.html

<ul>
    {{ range .Pages }}
        <li>
            <h1><a href="{{ .Permalink }}">{{ .Title }}</a></h1>
            <time>{{ .Date.Format "Mon, Jan 2, 2006" }}</time>
        </li>
    {{ end }}
</ul>

By Weight

Lower weight gets higher precedence. So content with lower weight will come first.

layouts/partials/by-weight.html

<ul>
    {{ range .Pages.ByWeight }}
        <li>
            <h1><a href="{{ .Permalink }}">{{ .Title }}</a></h1>
            <time>{{ .Date.Format "Mon, Jan 2, 2006" }}</time>
        </li>
    {{ end }}
</ul>

By Date

layouts/partials/by-date.html

<ul>
    <!-- orders content according to the "date" field in front matter -->
    {{ range .Pages.ByDate }}
        <li>
            <h1><a href="{{ .Permalink }}">{{ .Title }}</a></h1>
            <time>{{ .Date.Format "Mon, Jan 2, 2006" }}</time>
        </li>
    {{ end }}
</ul>

By Publish Date

layouts/partials/by-publish-date.html

<ul>
    <!-- orders content according to the "publishdate" field in front matter -->
    {{ range .Pages.ByPublishDate }}
        <li>
            <h1><a href="{{ .Permalink }}">{{ .Title }}</a></h1>
            <time>{{ .Date.Format "Mon, Jan 2, 2006" }}</time>
        </li>
    {{ end }}
</ul>

By Expiration Date

layouts/partials/by-expiry-date.html

<ul>
    {{ range .Pages.ByExpiryDate }}
        <li>
            <h1><a href="{{ .Permalink }}">{{ .Title }}</a></h1>
            <time>{{ .Date.Format "Mon, Jan 2, 2006" }}</time>
        </li>
    {{ end }}
</ul>

By Last Modified Date

layouts/partials/by-last-mod.html

<ul>
    <!-- orders content according to the "lastmod" field in front matter -->
    {{ range .Pages.ByLastmod }}
        <li>
            <h1><a href="{{ .Permalink }}">{{ .Title }}</a></h1>
            <time>{{ .Date.Format "Mon, Jan 2, 2006" }}</time>
        </li>
    {{ end }}
</ul>

By Length

layouts/partials/by-length.html

<ul>
    <!-- orders content according to content length in ascending order (i.e., the shortest content will be listed first) -->
    {{ range .Pages.ByLength }}
        <li>
            <h1><a href="{{ .Permalink }}">{{ .Title }}</a></h1>
            <time>{{ .Date.Format "Mon, Jan 2, 2006" }}</time>
        </li>
    {{ end }}
</ul>

By Title

layouts/partials/by-title.html

<ul>
    <!-- ranges through content in ascending order according to the "title" field set in front matter -->
    {{ range .Pages.ByTitle }}
        <li>
            <h1><a href="{{ .Permalink }}">{{ .Title }}</a></h1>
            <time>{{ .Date.Format "Mon, Jan 2, 2006" }}</time>
        </li>
    {{ end }}
</ul>

By Link Title

layouts/partials/by-link-title.html

<ul>
    <!-- ranges through content in ascending order according to the "linktitle" field in front matter. If a "linktitle" field is not set, the range will start with content that only has a "title" field and use that value for .LinkTitle -->
    {{ range .Pages.ByLinkTitle }}
        <li>
            <h1><a href="{{ .Permalink }}">{{ .LinkTitle }}</a></h1>
            <time>{{ .Date.Format "Mon, Jan 2, 2006" }}</time>
        </li>
    {{ end }}
</ul>

By Parameter

Order based on the specified front matter parameter. Content that does not have the specified front matter field will use the site’s .Site.Params default. If the parameter is not found at all in some entries, those entries will appear together at the end of the ordering.

layouts/partials/by-rating.html

<!-- Ranges through content according to the "rating" field set in front matter -->
{{ range (.Pages.ByParam "rating") }}
  <!-- ... -->
{{ end }}

If the targeted front matter field is nested beneath another field, you can access the field using dot notation.

layouts/partials/by-nested-param.html

{{ range (.Pages.ByParam "author.last_name") }}
  <!-- ... -->
{{ end }}

Reverse Order

Reversing order can be applied to any of the above methods. The following uses ByDate as an example:

layouts/partials/by-date-reverse.html

<ul>
    {{ range .Pages.ByDate.Reverse }}
        <li>
            <h1><a href="{{ .Permalink }}">{{ .Title }}</a></h1>
            <time>{{ .Date.Format "Mon, Jan 2, 2006" }}</time>
        </li>
    {{ end }}
</ul>

Group Content

Hugo provides some functions for grouping pages by Section, Type, Date, etc.

By Page Field

layouts/partials/by-page-field.html

<!-- Groups content according to content section. The ".Key" in this instance will be the section's title. -->
{{ range .Pages.GroupBy "Section" }}
<h3>{{ .Key }}</h3>
<ul>
    {{ range .Pages }}
    <li>
    <a href="{{ .Permalink }}">{{ .Title }}</a>
    <div class="meta">{{ .Date.Format "Mon, Jan 2, 2006" }}</div>
    </li>
    {{ end }}
</ul>
{{ end }}

In the above example, you may want {{.Title}} to point the title field you have added to your _index.md file instead. You can access this value using the .GetPage function:

layouts/partials/by-page-field.html

<!-- Groups content according to content section.-->
{{ range .Pages.GroupBy "Section" }}
<!-- Checks for existence of _index.md for a section; if available, pulls from "title" in front matter -->
{{ with $.Site.GetPage "section" .Key }}
<h3>{{.Title}}</h3>
{{ else }}
<!-- If no _index.md is available, ".Key" defaults to the section title and filters to title casing -->
<h3>{{ .Key | title }}</h3>
{{ end }}
<ul>
    {{ range .Pages }}
    <li>
    <a href="{{ .Permalink }}">{{ .Title }}</a>
    <div class="meta">{{ .Date.Format "Mon, Jan 2, 2006" }}</div>
    </li>
    {{ end }}
</ul>
{{ end }}

By Date

layouts/partials/by-page-date.html

<!-- Groups content by month according to the "date" field in front matter -->
{{ range .Pages.GroupByDate "2006-01" }}
<h3>{{ .Key }}</h3>
<ul>
    {{ range .Pages }}
    <li>
    <a href="{{ .Permalink }}">{{ .Title }}</a>
    <div class="meta">{{ .Date.Format "Mon, Jan 2, 2006" }}</div>
    </li>
    {{ end }}
</ul>
{{ end }}

By Publish Date

layouts/partials/by-page-publish-date.html

<!-- Groups content by month according to the "publishDate" field in front matter -->
{{ range .Pages.GroupByPublishDate "2006-01" }}
<h3>{{ .Key }}</h3>
<ul>
    {{ range .Pages }}
    <li>
    <a href="{{ .Permalink }}">{{ .Title }}</a>
    <div class="meta">{{ .PublishDate.Format "Mon, Jan 2, 2006" }}</div>
    </li>
    {{ end }}
</ul>
{{ end }}

By Lastmod

layouts/partials/by-page-lastmod.html

<!-- Groups content by month according to the "lastMod" field in front matter -->
{{ range .Pages.GroupByLastmod "2006-01" }}
<h3>{{ .Key }}</h3>
<ul>
    {{ range .Pages }}
    <li>
    <a href="{{ .Permalink }}">{{ .Title }}</a>
    <div class="meta">{{ .Lastmod.Format "Mon, Jan 2, 2006" }}</div>
    </li>
    {{ end }}
</ul>
{{ end }}

By Expiry Date

layouts/partials/by-page-expiry-date.html

<!-- Groups content by month according to the "expiryDate" field in front matter -->
{{ range .Pages.GroupByExpiryDate "2006-01" }}
<h3>{{ .Key }}</h3>
<ul>
    {{ range .Pages }}
    <li>
    <a href="{{ .Permalink }}">{{ .Title }}</a>
    <div class="meta">{{ .ExpiryDate.Format "Mon, Jan 2, 2006" }}</div>
    </li>
    {{ end }}
</ul>
{{ end }}

By Page Parameter

layouts/partials/by-page-param.html

<!-- Groups content according to the "param_key" field in front matter -->
{{ range .Pages.GroupByParam "param_key" }}
<h3>{{ .Key }}</h3>
<ul>
    {{ range .Pages }}
    <li>
    <a href="{{ .Permalink }}">{{ .Title }}</a>
    <div class="meta">{{ .Date.Format "Mon, Jan 2, 2006" }}</div>
    </li>
    {{ end }}
</ul>
{{ end }}

By Page Parameter in Date Format

The following template takes grouping by date a step further and uses Go’s layout string. See the Format function for more examples of how to use Go’s layout string to format dates in Hugo.

layouts/partials/by-page-param-as-date.html

<!-- Groups content by month according to the "param_key" field in front matter -->
{{ range .Pages.GroupByParamDate "param_key" "2006-01" }}
<h3>{{ .Key }}</h3>
<ul>
    {{ range .Pages }}
    <li>
    <a href="{{ .Permalink }}">{{ .Title }}</a>
    <div class="meta">{{ .Date.Format "Mon, Jan 2, 2006" }}</div>
    </li>
    {{ end }}
</ul>
{{ end }}

Reverse Key Order

Ordering of groups is performed by keys in alphanumeric order (A–Z, 1–100) and in reverse chronological order (i.e., with the newest first) for dates.

While these are logical defaults, they are not always the desired order. There are two different syntaxes to change Hugo’s default ordering for groups, both of which work the same way.

1. Adding the Reverse Method

{{ range (.Pages.GroupBy "Section").Reverse }}

{{ range (.Pages.GroupByDate "2006-01").Reverse }}

2. Providing the Alternate Direction

{{ range .Pages.GroupByDate "2006-01" "asc" }}

{{ range .Pages.GroupBy "Section" "desc" }}

Order Within Groups

Because Grouping returns a {{.Key}} and a slice of pages, all of the ordering methods listed above are available.

Here is the ordering for the example that follows:

Content is grouped by month according to the date field in front matter.
Groups are listed in ascending order (i.e., the oldest groups first)
Pages within each respective group are ordered alphabetically according to the title.

layouts/partials/by-group-by-page.html

{{ range .Pages.GroupByDate "2006-01" "asc" }}
<h3>{{ .Key }}</h3>
<ul>
    {{ range .Pages.ByTitle }}
    <li>
    <a href="{{ .Permalink }}">{{ .Title }}</a>
    <div class="meta">{{ .Date.Format "Mon, Jan 2, 2006" }}</div>
    </li>
    {{ end }}
</ul>
{{ end }}

Filtering and Limiting Lists

Sometimes you only want to list a subset of the available content. A common is to only display posts from main sections on the blog’s homepage.

See the documentation on where function and first function for further details.

Lists of Content in Hugo

What is a List Page Template?

List Defaults

Default Templates

Add Content and Front Matter to List Pages

Example Project Directory

List Pages Without `_index.md`

Example List Templates

Section Template

Taxonomy Template

Order Content

Default: Weight > Date > LinkTitle > FilePath

By Weight

By Date

By Publish Date

By Expiration Date

By Last Modified Date

By Length

By Title

By Link Title

By Parameter

Reverse Order

Group Content

By Page Field

By Date

By Publish Date

By Lastmod

By Expiry Date

By Page Parameter

By Page Parameter in Date Format

Reverse Key Order

1. Adding the Reverse Method

2. Providing the Alternate Direction

Order Within Groups

Filtering and Limiting Lists

See Also

Last updated: December 11, 2021: Update lists.md (2c37f4f89)

What is a List Page Template?

List Defaults

Default Templates

Add Content and Front Matter to List Pages

Example Project Directory

List Pages Without _index.md

Example List Templates

Section Template

Taxonomy Template

Order Content

Default: Weight > Date > LinkTitle > FilePath

By Weight

By Date

By Publish Date

By Expiration Date

By Last Modified Date

By Length

By Title

By Link Title

By Parameter

Reverse Order

Group Content

By Page Field

By Date

By Publish Date

By Lastmod

By Expiry Date

By Page Parameter

By Page Parameter in Date Format

Reverse Key Order

1. Adding the Reverse Method

2. Providing the Alternate Direction

Order Within Groups

Filtering and Limiting Lists

See Also

Last updated: December 11, 2021: Update lists.md (2c37f4f89)

List Pages Without `_index.md`