Pages, menus and settings of a member site

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Know how a page works

• A row in config/pages.json. It holds the page’s slug, title, position, published flag, layout and menu.
• A file, pages/<slug>.liquid. It holds the page’s content. The home page’s file is pages/index.liquid.

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Write the pages file

{
  "layout": null,
  "pages": [
    { "slug": "/", "title": "Home", "position": 1, "published": true, "layout": null, "menu": null },
    { "slug": "about", "title": "About", "position": 2, "published": true, "layout": null, "menu": "main" },
    { "slug": "spring-sale", "title": "Spring sale", "position": 3, "published": false, "layout": "none", "menu": null }
  ]
}

• The CLI needs four keys. A row must have slug, title, position and published. layout and menu default to null. Any other key is refused.
• The file API needs two. Written through the file API, a row needs only slug and title. position defaults to the row’s place in the list, published to false, and layout and menu to null.
• A site holds at most 50 pages. A new page needs a row and a file.
• The home page is /. Its file is pages/index.liquid, which is why no other page can take the slug index. If a site has no served home page, /accounts/<site-handle> answers not found for every member, and the /accounts landing skips the site. See Sites home.
• Rows are matched by slug. Writing config/pages.json through the file API makes the site’s pages match the file. It changes the rows it names, adds new ones with an empty file, and removes every page whose row is missing, with its content. A page you rename is a new page and a removal.
• An unpublished page is hidden everywhere. It isn’t in site.pages, site.pages_menu or any menu, and a visitor who opens its address gets not found. A draft preview shows it.

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Pick a layout

1. The page row’s layout.
2. The site’s default layout.
3. The layout named site, which is layouts/site.liquid.

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Write the menus file

{
  "menus": [
    {
      "slug": "main",
      "title": "Main menu",
      "items": [
        { "title": "Home", "page": "/" },
        { "title": "About", "page": "about" },
        {
          "title": "Help",
          "items": [
            { "title": "Contact", "url": "https://shop.example.com/contact" },
            { "title": "Returns", "url": "https://shop.example.com/returns" }
          ]
        }
      ]
    },
    {
      "slug": "footer",
      "title": "Footer",
      "items": [{ "title": "Contact", "url": "https://shop.example.com/contact" }]
    }
  ]
}

• A menu has a slug, a title and items. The slug is lowercase words joined by single hyphens and unique in the file. The title can’t be empty. items is optional.
• An item has a title. It can carry a page, which is the slug of a page in config/pages.json (/ is the home page), or a url, which is an http or https address. It never carries both. An item with neither is a heading.
• Items nest to any depth. Put children under items. The order of the list is the order members see.
• Every other key is refused. So is an item whose page names no page of the site.
• The file replaces every menu. Menus are matched by slug and keep their identity. A menu you leave out is deleted, and the pages that used it lose their menu. To clear every menu, write a file whose menus list is empty.
• A link to a page the site doesn’t serve is left out, with the items under it. That includes a page that is unpublished. A heading keeps its place and has no link.

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Choose which menu a page uses

1. The menu named in the page row’s menu.
2. The menu with the slug main.
3. site.pages_menu, a menu Fluid builds from the site’s served pages.

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Write the settings file

• Writing the file replaces the whole object. The site’s settings field in Change a site does the same.
• Never put a member’s data in it. The settings are the same for every viewer and are visible to every viewer.
• It always exists. You can write it but not remove it.

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Know what is live at once

• A new page isn’t served until you publish. Its row is live at once, but its content is a draft. Members get not found for the page until the next publish.
• Unpublishing a page takes effect at once. Setting published to false on a page members already see removes it from the site, from its menus and from site.pages without a publish.