Project configuration

Project configuration files are written in YAML (betty.yaml or betty.yml) or JSON (betty.json) and are placed in the root of the project directory. Both YAML and JSON files follow the exact same structure. Example configuration:

YAML

url: https://ancestry.example.com/betty
debug: true
clean_urls: true
title: Betty's ancestry
name: betty-ancestry
author: Bart Feenstra
logo: my-ancestry-logo.png
lifetime_threshold: 125
locales:
  - locale: en-US
    alias: en
  - locale: nl
entity_types:
  person:
    generate_html_list: true
  file:
    generate_html_list: false
event_types:
  moon-landing:
    label: Moon Landing
genders:
  genderqueer:
    label: Genderqueer
place_types:
  moon:
    label: Moon
presence_roles:
  astronaut:
    label: Astronaut
extensions: {}

JSON

{
  "url" : "https://ancestry.example.com/betty",
  "debug" : true,
  "clean_urls" : true,
  "title": "Betty's ancestry",
  "name": "betty-ancestry",
  "author": "Bart Feenstra",
  "logo": "my-ancestry-logo.png",
  "lifetime_threshold": 125,
  "locales": [
    {
      "locale": "en-US",
      "alias": "en"
    },
    {
      "locale": "nl"
    }
  ],
  "entity_types": {
    "person": {
      "generate_html_list": true
    },
    "file": {
      "generate_html_list": false
    }
  },
  "event_types": {
    "moon-landing": {
      "label": "Moon Landing"
    }
  },
  "genders": {
    "genderqueer": {
      "label": "Genderqueer"
    }
  },
  "place_types": {
    "moon": {
      "label": "Moon"
    }
  },
  "presence_roles": {
    "astronaut": {
      "label": "Astronaut"
    }
  },
  "extensions": {}
}

url

^required

The absolute, public URL at which the site will be published.

debug

^optional

true to output more detailed logs and disable optimizations that make debugging harder. Defaults to false.

clean_urls

^optional

A boolean indicating whether to use clean URLs, e.g. /path instead of /path/index.html. Defaults to false.

title

^optional

The project’s human-readable title. This can be a string or multiple translations.

name

^optional

The project’s machine name.

author

^optional

The project’s author and copyright holder. This can be a string or multiple translations.

logo

^optional

The path to your site’s logo file. Defaults to the Betty logo.

lifetime_threshold

^optional

The number of years people are expected to live at most, e.g. after which they’re presumed to have died. Defaults to 125.

locales

^optional

If no locales are specified, Betty defaults to US English (en-US).

Read more about translations.

An array of locales, each of which is an object with the following keys:

locales[].locale

^required

An IETF BCP 47 language tag.

locales[].alias

^optional

A shorthand alias to use instead of the full language tag, such as when rendering URLs.

entity_types

^optional

Keys are entity type (plugin) IDs, and values are objects containing the following keys:

entity_types{}.generate_html_list

^optional

Whether to generate the HTML page to list entities of this type. Defaults to false.

event_types

^optional

Keys are event type (plugin) IDs, and values are objects containing the following keys:

event_types{}.label

^required

The event type’s human-readable label. This can be a string or multiple translations.

event_types{}.description

^optional

The event type’s human-readable long description. This can be a string or multiple translations.

genders

^optional

Keys are gender (plugin) IDs, and values are objects containing the following keys:

genders{}.label

^required

The gender’s human-readable label. This can be a string or multiple translations.

genders{}.description

^optional

The gender’s human-readable long description. This can be a string or multiple translations.

place_types

^optional

Keys are place type (plugin) IDs, and values are objects containing the following keys:

place_types{}.label

^required

The place type’s human-readable label. This can be a string or multiple translations.

place_types{}.description

^optional

The place type’s human-readable long description. This can be a string or multiple translations.

presence_roles

^optional

Keys are presence role (plugin) IDs, and values are objects containing the following keys:

presence_roles{}.label

^required

The presence role’s human-readable label. This can be a string or multiple translations.

presence_roles{}.description

^optional

The presence role’s human-readable long description. This can be a string or multiple translations.

extensions

^optional

The extensions to enable. Keys are extension names, and values are objects containing the following keys, both of which may be omitted to quickly enable an extension using its default configuration:

extensions{}.enabled

^optional

A boolean indicating whether the extension is enabled. Defaults to true.

extensions{}.configuration

^optional

An object containing the extension’s own configuration, if it provides any configuration options.