Liquid Context & Data Drops

Quick Reference of Global Variables

Config Drop

config surfaces per-site configuration managed in the Nimbu backend. Use it to populate select elements, locale pickers, and country lists.

URL & Request Helpers

The url drop is available during real requests and encapsulates canonical URL utilities:

• url.current – Full URL including domain.
• url.current_path – Path without scheme and host.
• url.language_independent_path – Path stripped from the locale prefix.
• url.back / url.referrer – Referrer URL when provided.
• url.query_string – Raw query string.

Combine with locale_url_prefix to build consistent navigation. The bare path helper mirrors the path stored in the Rack env (including simulator overrides) and is helpful for conditional rendering.

Navigation & Content Drops

Menus

menus.<slug> returns a navigation tree with:

• Menu level accessors: name, permalink, items, all_items, updated_at.
• Menu item accessors: name, kind, description, target, leaf?, children, children?, active?, active_parent?.

Render menus with the {% nav %} tag for automatic markup, or iterate manually over menus.<slug>.items for full control.

Blogs & Articles

blogs aggregates all blogs and blog posts:

• blogs.<slug> – Blog drop exposing id, name, articles, articles_count, tags, description, url, next_article, previous_article, updated_at, and header assets.
• blogs.articles – Collection across all blogs.
• Article accessors include publication metadata, associated blog, URL, author, translations, header/thumbnail/OG imagery, and convenience enumerables (first, last, latest, random, etc.).

Pages & Trees

Use the {% tree %}, {% breadcrumbs %}, and {% sitemap %} tags to generate hierarchical navigation. The page object inside layouts provides translation metadata and locale-aware URLs.

Channel Data (channels Drop)

Channels behave like custom CMS collections. channels.<slug> exposes:

• Enumeration helpers: all, first, last, latest, count, size, empty?, any?, random (limited by loop limit).
• Query helpers: {% scope %} tag, {% sort %} tag, where, where_exp, group_by, find, and Liquid filters such as sort and numeric_sort.
• Metadata: slug, name, description, attributes, select_options, new_entry, updated_at.
• Publishable channels automatically hide drafts and future scheduled entries in public rendering. Explicit scopes on _status or _publish_at override that filter.
• ACL filtering is opt-in for channel loops. Use {% scope use_acl %} when the current customer should only see rows allowed by the channel ACL and each entry's _acl.

Individual channel entries always include id, created_at, updated_at, title, url, _permalink, _slug, _seo_title, _seo_description, alongside all custom fields defined in the backend. Publishable channel entries also expose _status (draft, published, or scheduled) and _publish_at. These managed fields are not listed as ordinary custom fields. References to other channels or products are exposed as nested drops; references to publishable channel entries are filtered in public rendering.

Commerce Drops

Products

products gives you access to the entire catalogue:

• Collection helpers: attributes, attributes_with_counts, attributes_in_use, attributes_in_use_with_counts, attributes_in_use_with_zero_counts, current_filters, select_options, first, last, count, latest, random, etc.
• Product fields: id, created_at, updated_at, name, description, sku, weight, url, variants, next, previous, price, on_sale, on_sale_price, effective_price, status, current_stock, amount_in_cart, tax_scheme, type, vendor, aggregated?, subproducts, advanced_pricing_enabled?, pricing_schemes, pricing_schemes_for_current_customer, price_for_current_customer, price_points_for_current_customer, seo_title, seo_description, plus custom attributes.
• Variant fields: id, name, url, price, on_sale_price, weight, no_taxes, no_shipping, sku, stock, tax_scheme.

Collections, Types, Vendors

• collections.<slug> – Access assigned products and metadata (name, description, slug, url, current?, product_count).
• product_types / product_vendors – Provide taxonomy lists with enumerable helpers (first, last, all, count, random, etc.) and per-entry attributes (name, slug, url, current?).

Orders & Cart

orders exposes order collections for account pages. The cart drop (in session) includes line items, totals, shipping and payment information, and is compatible with filters like checkout_button, payment_form, and cart-edit helpers documented in Filters & Tags.

Customers

customers allows querying customer records, while the session-level customer drop exposes the authenticated user with fields such as id, email, first_name, last_name, addresses, and any custom attributes configured in the backend.

Consent Manager

consent_manager centralizes user consent interactions. Use it with the {% consent_manager %} tag and related helpers to render banners, check acceptance of categories, or suppress tracking based on user preferences.

Working with Editable Content

Editable regions (editable_field, editable_text, editable_select, editable_file, editable_switch, editable_reference, editable_canvas, editable_group, repeatable) let content authors change copy, media, or references directly in the backend. Each tag supports optional label, hint, and assign parameters. Refer to Forms & Editable Content for syntax, grouping, and repeatable region patterns.

Copywriting & Translation Keys

Wrap literal strings in {% translate %} tags to make them translatable. Provide a default: fallback and optional variables. Example:

{% translate 'cta.checkout', default: 'Checkout %{amount}', amount: cart.total_price | money_with_currency %}

Define locale names and other shared strings via Copywriting keys (e.g. locale.en, locale.fr) to populate UI elements such as language selectors and footers.

Common Patterns

• When filtering channels by references, use the stored _id fields (field_id, field_ids). Combine with map: '_id' to build arrays of IDs.
• Construct dynamic scopes by capturing expressions: {% scope {{ dynamic_expression }} %}.
• Cache localized fragments by including locale and translation outputs in cache keys.
• Use form_model inside {% form %} blocks to inspect bound values and validation errors when re-rendering forms after submission.

This overview prepares you to use the filter and tag catalogue in the next chapter.