#metalsmith-paginate

This plug-in makes metalsmith-collections "paginatable". it does so by creating virtual files which contain the information about the collection as well as the previous and next page.

You must use this in conjunction with metalsmith-collections!

##Usage

Firstly you must create a file that contains the information over which collection you want to paginate and the template name:

blog.md

---
template: TEMPLATE-NAME.EXT
paginate: posts
---

Note: if you give the page a title and use the metalsmith-permalinks plug-in you might get some weird result.

Then use your collections as usual and call paginate().

var Metalsmith  = require('metalsmith'),
    collections = require('metalsmith-collections'),
    paginate    = require('metalsmith-paginate'),
    // ...

Metalsmith(__dirname)
    .use(collections({
        posts: {
            pattern: 'content/posts/*.md',
            sortBy: 'date',
            reverse: true
        }
    }))
    .use(paginate({
        perPage: 10,
        path: "blog/page"
    }))
    .use(templates('ENGINE-NAME'))
    // ...
    .build()

##Options | name | description | |:-----|:------------| |perPage|The number of items to be displayed per page| |path|The path were the files will be outputted to. Appended with "-$NUM.html" where $NUM is the page number. So "blog/page" would for example result in the second page being rendered as blog/page-2.html. You can also use the placeholder ':collection' to insert the name of the collection.|

##Templates

The pagination info won't be of any use to you if you don't render it. Each (virtual) pagination file will contain a new object under the key "pagination" which contains the following info:

| name | description | |:-----|:------------| |num|The page number| |total|The total number of pages| |start|The start index| |end|The end index| |prev|The previous page object| |next|The next page object|

You can then use this info in your template. Here's an example using Handlebars with a custom limit helper (which can be found here).

{{#each (limit collections.posts this.pagination.end this.pagination.start)}}
    <li class="post">
        <h2 class="entry-title">
            <a href="{{ this.path }}" rel="bookmark">{{ this.title }}</a>
        </h2>
        <article class="entry-summary">
            {{{ this.excerpt }}}
        </article>
        <footer>

            <a href="{{ this.path }}" class="button">Read More</a>
        </footer>
    </li>
{{/each}}

{{#if this.pagination}}
    <nav class="pagination">
        {{#if this.pagination.next}}
            <a href="{{this.pagination.next.path}}">&lt; Prev</a>
        {{/if}}
    
        {{#if this.pagination.prev}}
            <a href="{{this.pagination.prev.path}}">Next &gt;</a>
        {{/if}}
    </nav>
{{/if}}

Note: This example also uses the metalsmith-permalinks plug-in