Adding to the Collection

Everything in this collection is a folder with a page in it, whether it is an object or an essay about several. To add either, copy one of the samples, rename the folder, and change what is inside. Nothing else on the site needs editing — the grid, the gallery, the map, and search all read from the page you just made.

Adding an object

The short version

  1. Copy any folder under objects/ and give the copy a new name.
  2. Put your images in its images/ folder.
  3. Open index.md in the copy and change the front matter and the text.
  4. Commit. The object appears on the objects page and in the gallery, and, if it has coordinates, on the map.

The folder name becomes the object’s web address, so use lowercase words joined by hyphens: bowl-with-dragons, not Bowl With Dragons (final).md.

What each front matter field does

The block at the top of an object page, between the --- lines, is where the catalogue facts live. Write them once here and they appear everywhere.

Field Required What it does
title yes The object’s name, used on the page, the grid, and the map
summary yes One or two sentences. Appears under the title on the grid and in the map popup
thumbnail yes The image the grid tile and the gallery tile use, and the picture in the map popup. A path inside this folder, e.g. images/bowl.jpg
header-image no The wide image across the top of the object’s own page
header-title no The text shown on that header. Without it the header renders empty
header-tier no hero (full screen), section (~60vh), or banner (~22vh). The samples use banner
header-position no Which part of the image to keep when it is cropped, e.g. center 38%
author no Who wrote the entry. Shown on cards that display a byline
geo no [latitude, longitude]. Add it and the object appears on the map; leave it out and it does not
placename no Where the object is from, shown in the map popup
medium, object-date, collection no Your own catalogue fields. These three are printed in the map popup because map.md asks for them by name; add whatever else your collection needs
tags no A list. Objects that share a tag can be found together

Field names you invent yourself work the same way as the ones above. If your collection needs accession-number or excavation-season, add it — and if you want it in the map popup as well, add it to the fields list in map.md.

Adding an essay

An object page describes one thing. An essay follows something through several of them, and lives in exactly the same shape: a folder under essays/ with an index.md inside it. Copy one of the two samples and change what is in it.

Essays use title, summary, thumbnail, tags, and the header- fields the same way objects do. Two fields are theirs alone:

Field Required What it does
position no A number. Fixes the order the essays appear in on the essays page; without it the order is whatever Jekyll happened to find
objects no The objects the essay argues from, each with a slug (the object’s folder name) and an optional label

The objects block is what builds the strip of thumbnails inside an essay:

objects:
  - slug: buddha-head
    label: Gandhara, 4th–5th century
  - slug: bowl-with-dragons
    label: Tabriz, 1210

{% include layout/picks.html
  items=page.objects
  collection="objects"
  variant="strip"
  columns=2
  kicker="Objects in this essay"
  title="Two things that borrowed a shape."
%}

Each object’s picture, title, and link come from its own page, so the strip never needs updating when an object does. Name a slug that does not exist and the page prints a visible warning rather than quietly dropping it.

Link the objects in the prose as well as in the strip — a reader partway through a paragraph should be able to go and look at the thing being described. An essay does not own the objects it cites: several essays can argue from the same object, and deleting an essay leaves the objects untouched.

An essay borrows the objects’ images by default, with a site-root path:

{% include images/figure.html
  image-path="/objects/buddha-head/images/buddha-head-back.jpg"
  alt-text="The reverse of the stucco head"
%}

When an essay needs pictures of its own — a map, a diagram, a comparison from outside the collection — give it an images/ folder next to its index.md and write the shorter relative path, exactly as the objects do.

Images

Keep an object’s images in its own folder, next to its page. Then a path like images/bowl.jpg works, and moving the folder moves everything with it.

Two sizes are worth thinking about:

  • The thumbnail is seen small, in a grid with others. Crop it so the object fills the frame. The objects page squares it; the gallery keeps whatever proportions you give it, so the crop you choose is the shape it will be.
  • The header image runs wide and shallow across the top of the page. A tall image will be cropped badly; a wide one will not.

Images larger than about 2000 pixels on the long side make pages slow to load without looking any better. Resize before uploading.

Writing the entry

The sample objects show the shape: a paragraph saying what the reader is looking at, then sections that make an argument about it. Use the Component Library for figures, asides, pull quotes, and carousels.

Two habits worth keeping:

Say why the object is in the collection. The front matter already says what it is. The page should say what it lets a reader see.

Credit the image. If it comes from a museum’s open-access collection, name the museum and link the record. Captions are the right place.

Removing the samples

The three sample objects and the two sample essays are stand-ins. When you have your own, delete their folders, then edit index.md at the top level — the hero text, the three featured objects, and the closing links all name them.

Delete the essays and nothing else breaks: the objects they cite carry on without them, and the essays page simply shows no cards. If your collection has no use for essays at all, remove the essays/ folder and its line in _data/nav-top.yml.