Why split your Configuration File?

Rather than have a single CloudCannon Configuration File, you can split your configuration across multiple files. With a split Configuration File, you can organize your configuration more effectively, especially for larger sites or when working with shared configurations.

You can split the following configuration into dedicated Configuration Files:

• Collections (_collection_config)
• Schemas (collections_config.*.schemas)
• Inputs (_inputs
• Structures and Structure values (_structures, _structures.*.values.value)
• Snippets (_snippets, _snippets_imports)
• Rich Text (_editables)

There are several reasons why splitting your CloudCannon configuration across multiple files might be right for your Site:

• Splitting your configuration across multiple files allows you to keep related configurations in dedicated files (e.g., Input configuration in one file and Schema configuration in another). When updating your Site, you can navigate directly to the file you need, without going through a single long Configuration File.
• Collaborating with your team is easier with split Configuration Files, as you can work on different parts of your Site configuration simultaneously.
• You can use Custom Permission Groups to only allow your team members to edit specific Site configuration.
• Split Configuration Files also allow you to reduce configuration redundancy. For example, rather than defining a common Input under several Collections, you can reference a single Inputs Configuration File from each Collection.

For more information, please read our documentation on best practices for splitting your configuration, defining the same key in multiple Configuration Files, and split your Configuration File, and our Configuration File reference documentation.

How does splitting your Configuration File work?#

When you split your Site configuration across multiple Configuration Files, CloudCannon still requires one main Configuration File (i.e., cloudcannon.config.yml). Your main Configuration File will point to other Configuration Files on your Site using *_from_glob keys.

collections_config_from_glob:
  - /.cloudcannon/collections/*.cloudcannon.collections.yml

{
  "collections_config_from_glob": [
    "/.cloudcannon/collections/*.cloudcannon.collections.yml"
  ]
}

Each Configuration File can reference any other Configuration File (as long as they all ultimately connect back to your main Configuration File), allowing you to organize your content to the level you require.

path: content/posts
icon: event
schemas_from_glob:
  - /.cloudcannon/schemas/*.cloudcannon.schemas.yml
  - '!/.cloudcannon/schemas/pages.cloudcannon.schemas.yml'
_inputs_from_glob:
  - /.cloudcannon/inputs/seo.cloudcannon.inputs.yml
  - /.cloudcannon/inputs/blog-details.cloudcannon.inputs.yml
_inputs:
  authors:
    type: multiselect
    options:
      values: collections.authors

{
  "path": "content/posts",
  "icon": "event",
  "schemas_from_glob": [
    "/.cloudcannon/schemas/*.cloudcannon.schemas.yml",
    "!/.cloudcannon/schemas/pages.cloudcannon.schemas.yml"
  ],
  "_inputs_from_glob": [
    "/.cloudcannon/inputs/seo.cloudcannon.inputs.yml",
    "/.cloudcannon/inputs/blog-details.cloudcannon.inputs.yml"
  ],
  "_inputs": {
    "authors": {
      "type": "multiselect",
      "options": {
        "values": "collections.authors"
      }
    }
  }
}

Whenever you load your Site or update a Configuration File, CloudCannon will merge your configuration and apply it to your Site.

Limitations#

There are a few reasons that split Configuration Files may not be right for your Site.

1. Currently, you can only split your Configuration File for Sites using Unified Configuration.
2. You cannot use *_from_glob keys in the front matter of content files.
3. While you can split out several sections of your Configuration File, the equivalent *_from_glob key for _select_data is intentionally not supported. Please use data_config instead.

If you have any questions about configuring your Site on CloudCannon, don't hesitate to contact our friendly support team.