How to render a .md file from a .erb template?

[joemasilotti]

The docs on ERB + Markdown mention:

Alternatively, you can author a document with a .md extension and configure it via template_engine: erb to get processed through ERB.

I'm trying to render src/_partials/_about.md from src/index.erb but the file doesn't seem to be found.

# bridgetown.config.yml
template_engine: erb

# src/index.erb
<%= render "about" %>

# src/_partials/_about.md
---
template_engine: erb

---

* One
* Two

But I keep getting the following error. Restarting the server doesn't help.

[Bridgetown]   Conversion error: Bridgetown::Converters::ERBTemplates encountered an error while converting `index.erb'
[Bridgetown]   Exception raised: Errno::ENOENT
[Bridgetown] No such file or directory @ rb_sysopen - /Users/joemasilotti/workspace/projects/masilotti.com/bridgetown/src/_partials/_about.erb
[Bridgetown]                  1: /Users/joemasilotti/.rbenv/versions/3.1.2/lib/ruby/gems/3.1.0/gems/tilt-2.0.11/lib/tilt/template.rb:236:in `initialize'
[Bridgetown]                  2: /Users/joemasilotti/.rbenv/versions/3.1.2/lib/ruby/gems/3.1.0/gems/tilt-2.0.11/lib/tilt/template.rb:236:in `open'
[Bridgetown]                  3: /Users/joemasilotti/.rbenv/versions/3.1.2/lib/ruby/gems/3.1.0/gems/tilt-2.0.11/lib/tilt/template.rb:236:in `read_template_file'
[Bridgetown]                  4: /Users/joemasilotti/.rbenv/versions/3.1.2/lib/ruby/gems/3.1.0/gems/tilt-2.0.11/lib/tilt/template.rb:85:in `block in initialize'
[Bridgetown]                  5: /Users/joemasilotti/.rbenv/versions/3.1.2/lib/ruby/gems/3.1.0/gems/tilt-2.0.11/lib/tilt/template.rb:86:in `initialize'

I see that it's looking for a .erb file but that kind of defeats the purpose, no?

Any ideas on what I'm doing wrong here?

[jaredcwhite]

Ah, so partials don't actually support front matter or participate in the rendering pipeline for documents. They're literally just an extended bit of whichever template is in use (ERB, Serbea, etc.).

I think what you'd want to do is creating something like a "snippets" collection, so you could place various markdown files in there. Then you could reference those from within a template rather than using render:

<%= collections.snippets.resources.find { _1.data.slug == "about" }.content %>

I'm writing that off the top of my head so if it doesn't work let me know. (You could also DRY that syntax up a bit with a new helper…)

[jaredcwhite]

Sure! I think you could just do:

Bridgetown.configure do |config|
  permalink "pretty"
  template_engine "erb"

  collections do
    snippets do
      output false
    end
  end
end

[joemasilotti]

Interestingly enough that doesn't error but also doesn't convert the markdown to HTML.

[jaredcwhite]

Geez. 🤦🏻‍♂️ Now I'm wondering if this goes back to the issue of the order of which collection renders versus a different collection. There's not yet a configurable way to define those dependencies.

If it's not too much trouble, could you create a test case repo with this issue and I can try to hammer on in a bit?

[jaredcwhite]

In the meantime, you could run it through the markdownify helper as a stopgap

[joemasilotti]

I'll stick with the bridgetown.config.yml, for now!

This repo/branch replicates the issue on the homepage.