5 • Beef up your blog
Generate tag pages
Get ready to…
- Create a page to generate multiple pages
- Specify which page routes to build, and pass each page its own props
Dynamic page routing
Section titled Dynamic page routingYou can create entire sets of pages dynamically using .astro
files that export a getStaticPaths()
function.
Create pages dynamically
Section titled Create pages dynamically-
Create a new file at
src/pages/tags/[tag].astro
. (You will have to create a new folder.) Notice that the file name ([tag].astro
) uses square brackets. Paste the following code into the file:The
getStaticPaths
function returns an array of page routes, and all of the pages at those routes will use the same template defined in the file. -
If you have customized your blog posts, then replace the individual tag values (e.g. “astro”, “successes”, “community”, etc.) with the tags used in your own posts.
-
Make sure that every blog post contains at least one tag, written as an array, e.g.
tags: ["blogging"]
. -
Visit
http://localhost:4321/tags/astro
in your browser preview and you should see a page, generated dynamically from[tag].astro
. Check that you also have pages created for each of your tags at/tags/successes
,/tags/community
, and/tags/learning%20in%20public
, etc., or at each of your custom tags. You may need to first quit and restart the dev server to see these new pages.
Use props in dynamic routes
Section titled Use props in dynamic routes-
Add the following props to your
getStaticPaths()
function in order to make data from all your blog posts available to each page route.Be sure to give each route in your array the new props, and then make those props available to your component template outside of your function.
-
Filter your list of posts to only include posts that contain the page’s own tag.
-
Now you can update your HTML template to show a list of each blog post containing the page’s own tag. Add the following code to
[tag].astro
: -
You can even refactor this to use your
<BlogPost />
component instead! (Don’t forget to import this component at the top of[tag].astro
.) -
Check your browser preview for your individual tag pages, and you should now see a list of all of your blog posts containing that particular tag.
Analyze the pattern
Section titled Analyze the patternFor each of the following, state whether the code is written inside the getStaticPaths()
function, or outside of it.
-
The
Astro.glob()
call to receive information about all your.md
files to pass to each page route. -
The list of routes to be generated (returned) by
getStaticPaths()
-
The received values of
props
andparams
to be used in the HTML template.
Advanced JavaScript: Generate pages from existing tags
Section titled Advanced JavaScript: Generate pages from existing tagsYour tag pages are now defined statically in [tag].astro
. If you add a new tag to a blog post, you will also have to revisit this page and update your page routes.
The following example shows how to replace your code on this page with code that will automatically look for, and generate pages for, each tag used on your blog pages.
1. Check that all your blog posts contain tags
Section titled 1. Check that all your blog posts contain tagsRevisit each of your existing Markdown pages and ensure that every post contains a tags
array in its frontmatter. Even if you only have one tag, it should still be written as an array, e.g. tags: ["blogging"]
.
2. Create an array of all your existing tags
Section titled 2. Create an array of all your existing tagsAdd the following code to provide you with a list of every tag used in your blog posts.
Tell me what this line of code is doing in more detail!
It’s OK if this isn’t something you would have written yourself yet!
It goes through each Markdown post, one by one, and combines each array of tags into one single larger array. Then, it makes a new Set
from all the individual tags it found (to ignore repeated values). Finally, it turns that set into an array (with no duplications), that you can use to show a list of tags on your page.
You now have an array uniqueTags
with element items "astro"
, "successes"
, "community"
, "blogging"
, "setbacks"
, "learning in public"
3. Replace the return
value of the getStaticPaths
function
Section titled 3. Replace the return value of the getStaticPaths functionA getStaticPaths
function should always return a list of objects containing params
(what to call each page route) and optionally any props
(data that you want to pass to those pages). Earlier, you defined each tag name that you knew was used in your blog and passed the entire list of posts as props to each page.
Now, you generate this list of objects automatically using your uniqueTags
array to define each parameter.
And, now the list of all blog posts is filtered before it is sent to each page as props. Be sure to remove the previous line of code filtering the posts, and update your HTML template to use posts
instead of filteredPosts
.
Final code sample
Section titled Final code sampleTo check your work, or if you just want complete, correct code to copy into [tag].astro
, here is what your Astro component should look like:
Now, you should be able to visit any of your tag pages in your browser preview.
Navigate to http://localhost:4321/tags/community
and you should see a list of only your blog posts with the tag community
. Similarly http://localhost:4321/tags/learning%20in%20public
should display a list of the blog posts tagged learning in public
.
In the next section, you will create navigation links to these pages.
Test your knowledge
Section titled Test your knowledgeChoose the term that matches the description.
-
A function that returns an array of page routes.
-
The process of creating multiple page routes from one file in Astro.
-
A value that defines the name of a page route generated dynamically.