## đź“š API
### `Astro` global
The `Astro` global is available in all contexts in `.astro` files. It has the following functions:
#### `fetchContent()`
`Astro.fetchContent()` is a way to load local `*.md` files into your static site setup. You can either use this on its own, or within [Astro Collections][docs-collections].
```jsx
// ./src/components/my-component.astro
---
const data = Astro.fetchContent('../pages/post/*.md'); // returns an array of posts that live at ./src/pages/post/*.md
---
<div>
{data.slice(0, 3).map((post) => (
<article>
<h1>{post.title}</h1>
<p>{post.description}</p>
<a href={post.url}>Read more</a>
</article>
))}
</div>
```
`.fetchContent()` only takes one parameter: a relative URL glob of which local files you’d like to import. Currently only `*.md` files are supported. It’s synchronous, and returns an array of items of type:
```
{
url: string; // the URL of this item (if it’s in pages/)
content: string; // the HTML of this item
// frontmatter data expanded here
}[];
```
#### `request`
`Astro.request` returns an object with the following properties:
| Name | Type | Description |
| :------------- | :---- | :---------------------------------------------- |
| `url` | `URL` | The URL of the request being rendered. |
| `canonicalURL` | `URL` | [Canonical URL][canonical] of the current page. |
⚠️ Temporary restriction: this is only accessible in top-level pages and not in sub-components.
#### `site`
`Astro.site` returns a `URL` made from `buildOptions.site` in your Astro config. If undefined, this will return a URL generated from `localhost`.
### `collection`
```jsx
export let collection;
```
When using the [Collections API][docs-collections], `collection` is a prop exposed to the page with the following shape:
| Name | Type | Description |
| :------------------------ | :-------------------: | :-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| `collection.data` | `Array` | Array of data returned from `data()` for the current page. |
| `collection.start` | `number` | Index of first item on current page, starting at `0` (e.g. if `pageSize: 25`, this would be `0` on page 1, `25` on page 2, etc.). |
| `collection.end` | `number` | Index of last item on current page. |
| `collection.total` | `number` | The total number of items across all pages. |
| `collection.page.current` | `number` | The current page number, starting with `1`. |
| `collection.page.size` | `number` | How many items per-page. |
| `collection.page.last` | `number` | The total number of pages. |
| `collection.url.current` | `string` | Get the URL of the current page (useful for canonical URLs) |
| `collection.url.prev` | `string \| undefined` | Get the URL of the previous page (will be `undefined` if on page 1). |
| `collection.url.next` | `string \| undefined` | Get the URL of the next page (will be `undefined` if no more pages). |
| `collection.params` | `object` | If page params were used, this returns a `{ key: value }` object of all values. |
### `createCollection()`
```jsx
export async function createCollection() {
return {
async data({ params }) {
// load data
},
pageSize: 25,
routes: [{ tag: 'movie' }, { tag: 'television' }],
permalink: ({ params }) => `/tag/${params.tag}`,
};
}
```
When using the [Collections API][docs-collections], `createCollection()` is an async function that returns an object of the following shape:
| Name | Type | Description |
| :---------- | :---------------------------: | :--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| `data` | `async ({ params }) => any[]` | **Required.** Load data with this function to be returned. |
| `pageSize` | `number` | Specify number of items per page (default: `25`). |
| `routes` | `params[]` | **Required for URL Params.** Return an array of all possible URL `param` values in `{ name: value }` form. |
| `permalink` | `({ params }) => string` | **Required for URL Params.** Given a `param` object of `{ name: value }`, generate the final URL.\* |
| `rss` | [RSS][rss] | Optional: generate an RSS 2.0 feed from this collection ([docs][rss]). |
_\* Note: don’t create confusing URLs with `permalink`, e.g. rearranging params conditionally based on their values._
⚠️ `createCollection()` executes in its own isolated scope before page loads. Therefore you can’t reference anything from its parent scope. If you need to load data you may fetch or use async `import()`s within the function body for anything you need (that’s why it’s `async`—to give you this ability). If it wasn’t isolated, then `collection` would be undefined! Therefore, duplicating imports between `createCollection()` and your Astro component is OK.
#### 📡 RSS Feed
You can optionally generate an RSS 2.0 feed from `createCollection()` by adding an `rss` option. Here are all the options:
```jsx
export async function createCollection() {
return {
async data({ params }) {
// load data
},
pageSize: 25,
rss: {
title: 'My RSS Feed',
description: 'Description of the feed',
/** (optional) add xmlns:* properties to root element */
xmlns: {
itunes: 'http://www.itunes.com/dtds/podcast-1.0.dtd',
content: 'http://purl.org/rss/1.0/modules/content/',
},
/** (optional) add arbitrary XML to <channel> */
customData: `<language>en-us</language>
<itunes:author>The Sunset Explorers</itunes:author>`,
/** Format each item from things returned in data() */
item: (item) => ({
title: item.title,
description: item.description,
pubDate: item.pubDate + 'Z', // enforce GMT timezone (otherwise it’ll be different based on where it’s built)
/** (optional) add arbitrary XML to each <item> */
customData: `<itunes:episodeType>${item.type}</itunes:episodeType>
<itunes:duration>${item.duration}</itunes:duration>
<itunes:explicit>${item.explicit || false}</itunes:explicit>`,
}),
},
};
}
```
Astro will generate an RSS 2.0 feed at `/feed/[collection].xml` (for example, `/src/pages/$podcast.xml` would generate `/feed/podcast.xml`).
⚠️ Even though Astro will create the RSS feed for you, you’ll still need to add `<link>` tags manually in your `<head>` HTML:
```html
<link rel="alternate" type="application/rss+xml" title="My RSS Feed" href="/feed/podcast.xml" />
```
[canonical]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canonical_link_element
[config]: ../README.md#%EF%B8%8F-configuration
[docs-collections]: ./collections.md
[rss]: #-rss-feed