config.toml has the following authors defined: (hash, guest)
[params.authors]
[params.authors.hash]
name = "Hash Borgir"
bio = "Hash is a Software Developer and generally a tech geek and computer nerd. He also consumes massive quantities of Cannabis and takes extremely deep journeys inwardly, meditates, explores the Universe within."
location = "Colorado, USA"
email = ""
twitter= "HashBorgir"
image = "/images/authors/Hash_Borgir/user.jpg"
instagram = "hashborgir"
[params.authors.guest]
name = "Guest Writer"
bio = "Guest author profile. No bio. "
location = "Colorado, USA"
email = ""
twitter= ""
image = "/images/authors/Guest/Manbrown2.png"
instagram = ""
Article front matter is like this:
+++
author = “hash” which corresponds to .Site.Params.authors.hash
+++
This is my partial for listing all the authors as defined in the site on the sidebar.
{{ $baseurl := .Site.BaseURL }}
<div class="panel sidebar-menu">
<div class="panel-heading">
<h2 class="panel-title">Authors</h23>
</div>
<div class="panel-body">
<ul class="authors-list nav nav-pills nav-stacked">
{{ range $name, $items := .Site.Params.authors }}
{{ range $key, $val := $items }}
{{ if eq $key "name" }}
<li><a href="{{ $baseurl }}authors/{{ $val | urlize | lower }}"><i class="fa fa-user"></i> {{ $val }}</a>
</li>
{{ end }}
{{ end }}
{{ end }}
</ul>
</div>
</div>
<hr />
What I want to do, is display in (parentheses) the number of articles by this author. I am having much trouble with the syntax of this language/template langauge etc.
I try this: and many variations and can’t seem to get this right to get the # of posts by a certain author.
{{ range $name, $items := .Site.Params.authors }}
{{ range $key, $val := $items }}
{{ if eq $key "name" }}
{{range $k, $v := (where .Site.Pages "Author" $key) }}
<li><a href="{{ $baseurl }}authors/{{ $val | urlize | lower }}"><i class="fa fa-user"></i> {{ $val }}{{len $k}}</a>
</li>
{{ end }}
{{ end }}
{{ end }}
{{ end }}
Please advise.
I’m not sure how far you are into the dev of your site and you have definitely thrown out a lot of content here in the forums over the last 24 hours 
FYI and before I make suggestions, see the following so that you know that author metadata is on the milestones list for the next Hugo v:
https://github.com/spf13/hugo/pull/1850
With the current version of Hugo, you might be able to handle this easily with taxonomies; aka, authors in your site’s configuration. Then you would be able to list ALL articles by a certain author without having to do any extra work.
With the advent of “everything is a page,” you should be able to add author information (i.e., metadata/front matter and content) via individual _index.md files.
Here are a couple places to check:
Content Organization (will give you a run-down of _index.md): https://hugodocs.info/content-management/organization/
And also List page template (will show you where to add and how to call these files): https://hugodocs.info/templates/lists/#what-is-a-list-page-template
This approach will make it much easier for you to grab len as well for a list of .Data.Pages on a list page. This also helps you because it means you can add author-list pages auto-magically whenever you add a new author to a piece of content; e.g.—
authors: [Hash Borgir, Ryan Watters, Jon Doe, Benjamin Franklin]
Even if you only have two files for authors/hash-borgir/_index.md and authors/ryan-watters/_index.md, the final output url for yoursite.com/jon-doe and yoursite.comd/benjamin-franklin/ will still be generated with the list you define in the taxonomy terms template but will pull default values rather than those definied in _index.md files.
Does that help?
All the articles on my site have front matter
author = “hash” which maps to .Site.Params.authors.hash (which is an array, which contains author profile info)
All I’m trying to do is get the array which has all the pages from a certain author.
{{ range $name, $items := .Site.Params.authors }}
{{ range $key, $val := $items }}
{{ if eq $key "name" }}
<li>
<a href="{{ $baseurl }}authors/{{ $val | urlize | lower }}"><i class="fa fa-user"></i> {{ $val }}
</a>
{{ range $a, $b := index (where .Site.Pages "Params.author" $key) }}
{{ len $a }}
{{ end }}
</li>
{{ end }}
{{ end }}
{{ end }}
see this:
{{ range $a, $b := index (where .Site.Pages "Params.author" $key) }}
{{ len $a }}
{{ end }}
$key is “hash” and I am trying to count the number of items in the array which contains all the pages written by author hash.
What you have told me is a great solution but requires me to redevelop my whole site and that’s not possible at the moment.
All I am trying to do right now is figure out this template syntax and be able to get and iterate over arrays.
Forget I mentioned author.
If some of the articles on my website have front matter
donkey=“egore”
I want to get the number of articles who have donkey=“egore” defined. I want to be able to define which donkey to search for, and get the # of articles which have that particular donkey. 
Hehe, more silly goofy stuff.
{{ range $a, $b := index (where .Site.Pages “Params.donkey” $donkeyname }}
{{ len $a }}
{{ end }}
I have no idea what to do.
- Can you point me to a repo I can pull and test locally?
The suggestion I provided will take care of all your Eeyore-related needs.
Thanks for noticin’ me.
That requires me to redo just about the whole of everything. sigh
Haha, I’m not saying you have to redo anything; I just want you to point me to a repo so i can test it and help you.
I’m sure can get this all done at the templating, so don’t worry.
I sent a private message with repository link.
If you just want the number, this works, but I think there are DRYer ways to do it (just too busy right now)…
<!--This assumes the authors are being added in front matter in an array; if not, just use $author := .Params.author-->
{{$author := index (.Params.authors) 0 }}
{{$.Scratch.Set "arts" 0}}
{{ range .Site.Pages }}
{{ if in .Params.authors $author}}
{{$.Scratch.Add "arts" 1}}
{{ end }}
{{ end }}
{{$.Scratch.Get "arts"}}
If you want to get a list of the articles themselves…
<!--This assumes the authors are being added in front matter in an array; if not, just use $author := .Params.author-->
{{$author := index (.Params.authors) 0 }}
<ul class="author-articles">
{{ range where .Site.Pages ".Params.author" $author }}
<li>Whatever it is you want to add here....</li>
{{ end }}
</ul>
Keep in mind the above doesn’t sort, but you can do that via multiple methods.
Following is not tested
I can tell you that this is at least an issue…
{{range $k, $v := (where .Site.Pages "Author" $key) }}
Author isn’t like Section, so you have to treat it as a param…
{{range $k, $v := (where .Site.Pages ".Params.author" $key) }}
As far as getting the length…you’re inside a loop, so I would suggest looking at the scratch method I used above.
Just don’t say I didn’t warn you about how this would be easier using taxonomies… 
1 Like
Sir, I AM using taxonomies.
BTW, this is all being done in a partial template, not a list template, not an _index template, not anything but a partial for my sidebar.
I have no idea how else to describe my issue.
May we please just forget about authors?
I’m just trying to count articles that have a certain front matter defined, that’s all.
If you’re trying to count the number of matches, you can use len directly:
{{ len (where .Site.Pages ".Params.author" "hash") }}
Or you could assign it with something like $len := len....
Oops. Just saw “partial” in your message. You may want $.Site.Pages to escape the dot.
{{ range $name, $items := .Site.Params.authors }}
{{ range $key, $val := $items }}
{{ if eq $key "name" }}
<li>
<a href="{{ $baseurl }}authors/{{ $val | urlize | lower }}"><i class="fa fa-user"></i> {{ $val }}
</a>
</li>
{{ len (where .Site.Pages ".Params.author" "hash") }}
{{ end }}
{{ end }}
{{ end }}
ERROR 2017/03/19 16:54:25 theme/partials/widgets/author.html template: theme/partials/widgets/author.html:20:43: executing “theme/partials/widgets/author.html” at <.Site.Pages>: can’t evaluate field Site in type interface {}
Try $.Site.Pages to escape the dot.
1 Like
Are you telling me THAT is why it didn’t work for two day and now I have less hair on my head? 
sigh $.Site.Pages works.
My old code works now…
Can you please explain b/c I do not understand this language much.
It’s scope. When you’re in the range, the rules for Go templates say that dot (the .) binds to the values in the range. You have to use the $. to escape that and go to the global values. That’s a Go templating issue - it’s not unique to Hugo.
2 Likes
Oh wow, man. Thank you so much! That instantly fixes my issues.
{{ range $name, $items := .Site.Params.authors }}
{{ range $key, $val := $items }}
{{ if eq $key "name" }}
<li>
<a href="{{ $baseurl }}authors/{{ $val | urlize | lower }}"><i class="fa fa-user"></i> {{ $val }}
({{ len (where $.Site.Pages ".Params.author" $name) }})
</a>
</li>
{{ end }}
{{ end }}
{{ end }}
EDIT: And testing now w/ the guest author who only has one article:
1 Like
So now, I want to figure out what you’re talking about. Might take me a day or two, but I can start another branch on Gitlab and try out the changes there, as you suggest.
Oh, the _index thing is new since we last talked and I did some Hugo templating.
(Since the I’ve been writing mostly and didn’t have to do Hugo template work, but now for a new site and there are new feautres I dunno about. This is pretty cool, thanks!)
1 Like
Oops. For authors? Sorry, if I had gotten into your repo, I probably would have seen that in your config.
Thank you @michael_henderson!