Liquid markup is a simple and versatile templating language used to create dynamic and reusable content.

Originally created by Shopify, Liquid is an open-source project used by many world-class web applications, including Slate.

Basic components

Liquid markups syntax is straightforward and easy to read. It’s both accessible enough for beginners to get a handle on and powerful enough to be useful to advanced users.

There are three basic Liquid components:

• Objects: Contain content to be displayed on a page using {{ double curly braces }}

• Tags: Create logic and loops using {% curly percentage delimiters %}

• Filters: Change the output of Liquid objects using {{ double curly braces | and | pipe | characters }}

You’ll get a deeper look at each of these components as you explore this section.

Example: Using tags to conditionally display a message

To get a taste for how Liquid works, here’s an example of some code that uses tags:

{% if {{major}} == 'Philosophy' %}
    Trying to grasp Zeno's paradox? You'll get there. 
{% elsif {{major}} == 'Math' %}
    You picked a prime opportunity to study math!
{% endif %}

Here, we’re using if tags to display content that depends on the reader’s major.

If you were a math major looking at this content, you would see:

You picked a prime opportunity to study math!

In Liquid, there is a clear separation between the logic that drives what is displayed versus the actual content that gets output.

As you can see in the previous example, the if tags, enclosed in curly braces and percent signs {% %}, are easily distinguishable from our email body content.

Using Liquid markup in Slate

Like content blocks and snippets in Slate, Liquid markup can be used to create content that’s relevant to the user in portals, Deliver mailings, and more.

Some other examples include:

• Letter templates: MergePublic queries can access exports of custom fields not available by default in letter templates.

• Dashboards: Access to exports are created directly in the query tool of Dashboards

• Portals (Reader, Status, Event): Queries for accessing exports are directly created and accessed within the portal and connected by the method. Using Liquid Markup in Portals

• Forms: Exports are created directly in the Merge Fields section in the Edit Properties menu

• Mailings: Liquid markup can be accessed by using recipient list queries and the WYSIWYG editor

• Content Blocks and Snippets: Dynamic Content Blocks

Additional resources

Check out our Joy of Liquid Markup webinar for an audiovisual crash course in using Liquid markup in Slate: