Pages data model

Data model

In case you want to use the same template, but use different data for it, you can use page data model. The scenario here is to have different data (in terms of values) with the same structure on different pages. The name of page data model should start with model followed by .. After that you should add at least one character that will represent the name of your data model. The value of model should always point to valid data object.

Page object

All data models can be accessible through global Page object. That object is accessible from each and every template and it always has a context of current page.

You can access page data models via properties of Page.Model object. It will have all the properties defined in page metadata section.

Example

If your template file looks like this:

<img src="{{ Page.Model.banner.url }}"/>

{{ Page.Content }}

<table>
    <tr>
        <th>Title</th>
        <th>Price</th>
    </tr>
    {{# Page.Model.goods }}
        <tr>
            <td>{{ title }}</td>
            <td>{{ price }}</td>
        </tr>
    {{/ Page.Model.goods }}
</table>

And your page file looks like this:

url:                goods1.html  
template:           goods.hjs  
title:              Home  

model.goods:        Data.category1.goods  
model.banner.url:   Data.banners.banner1.url  

---

# Category 1

And your data structure looks like this:

Data
    category1.yml
    category2.yml
    banners.yml

category1.yml

goods:
    -
        title: apple
        price: 10
    -
        title: pear
        price: 12

category2.yml

goods:
    -
        title: potato
        price: 6
    -
        title: tomato
        price: 15

banners.yml

banner1:
    url: "http://mywebsite.com/banner1.png"
banner2:
    url: "http://other.com/something.png"

Finally, the html rendered by Solidify Engine will look like this:

<img src="http://mywebsite.com/banner1.png"/>

<h1>Category 1</h1>

<table>
    <tr>
        <th>Title</th>
        <th>Price</th>
    </tr>
    <tr>
        <td>apple</td>
        <td>10</td>
    </tr>
        <tr>
        <td>pear</td>
        <td>12</td>
    </tr>
</table>

There is one important point to highlight here. Page.Model is predifened and case-sensitive, but goods was generated dynamicaly from page metadata and it's also case-sensitive.

Custom attributes vs data model

The main difference between custom attributes and data model is how they interprete the values you provide.

Custom attributes always treats all values as strings.
Data model always treats all values as references to global Data model. It will copy all values from referenced Data object to current Model object.