Creating a Blog Post Series with Sequential Numbering in Jekyll

Creating a blog post series can be an effective way to engage your readers and organize your content. When using Jekyll, a popular static site generator, you can implement sequential numbering for your series to help readers easily follow along. This article guides you through setting up a numbered blog post series in Jekyll.

Understanding the Concept of Sequential Numbering

Sequential numbering assigns a unique number to each post within a series, indicating its order. This helps readers understand the progression and ensures your series remains organized, especially as you add new posts over time.

Setting Up Your Jekyll Post Files

Start by creating individual Markdown files for each post in your series. Use a consistent naming convention that includes the series number, such as 2024-04-01-my-series-01-introduction.md. Inside each file, add front matter with relevant metadata, including a custom series_number variable.

Example front matter:

---
layout: post
title: "Introduction to Our Series"
date: 2024-04-01
series_name: "My Series"
series_number: 1
---

Automating the Sequential Numbering

To automate numbering, modify your Jekyll templates to display the series_number variable. For example, in your post layout, include:

<h2>Post Series & Number: {{ page.series_number }}</h2>

This ensures each post displays its position in the series. To maintain order, you can sort posts by series_number in your collection or index page.

Listing the Series in Order

To create a series index page, list all posts with the same series_name and sort them by series_number. Use Liquid code like:

<ul>
  {% assign series_posts = site.posts | where: "series_name", "My Series" | sort: "series_number" %}
  {% for post in series_posts %}
    <li><a href="{{ post.url }}">{{ post.title }} ({{ post.series_number }})</a></li>
  {% endfor %}
</ul>

Conclusion

Using sequential numbering in your Jekyll blog series improves navigation and clarity. By setting up your posts with a series_number variable and customizing your templates, you can create a professional, easy-to-follow series that engages your readers and keeps your content organized.