Jekyll: Include a file from directory outside of _includes

Question

I have an directory called /patterns in my Jekyll site, whose structure generally looks generally like this:

_includes _layouts _site /patterns index

Answer 1

I improved the plugin that @Jeremy Lynch referred to. Here is the documentation:

include_absolute

Jekyll's built-in include tag does not support including files outside of the _includes folder. This plugin supports 4 types of includes:

1. Absolute filenames (start with /).
2. Filenames relative to the top-level directory of the Jekyll web site (Do not preface with . or /).
3. Filenames relative to the user home directory (preface with ~).
4. Executable filenames on the PATH (preface with !).

Syntax:

{% include_absolute path [ optionalParam1='yes' optionalParam2='green' ] %}

The optional parameters can have any name. The included file will have parameters substituted.

Installation

Copy include_absolute.rb into /_plugins and restart Jekyll.

Examples

1. Include files without parameters; all four types of includes are shown.

   {% include_absolute '../../folder/outside/jekyll/site/foo.html' %}
   {% include_absolute 'folder/within/jekyll/site/bar.js' %}
   {% include_absolute '/etc/passwd' %}
   {% include_absolute '~/.ssh/config' %}
   

2. Include a file and pass parameters to it.

   {% include_absolute '~/folder/under/home/directory/foo.html' param1='yes' param2='green' %}