different template for html book title page

[ThierryO]

Bug description

The title-block html template is applied to every page of an HTML book. It would be nice to have (partial) template which runs only on the book's title page and one which runs only on the other pages.

Checklist

• Please include a minimal, fully reproducible example in a single .qmd file? Please provide the whole file rather than the snippet you believe is causing the issue.
• Please format your issue so it is easier for us to read the bug report.
• Please document the RStudio IDE version you're running (if applicable), by providing the value displayed in the "About RStudio" main menu dialog?
• Please document the operating system you're running. If on Linux, please provide the specific distribution.

[mcanouil]

You could follow https://quarto.org/docs/extensions/formats.html to make your own format extension using the partials you like where you like it to be, probably using a Lua filter.

[ThierryO]

I am working on our own format extension. Any pointers to a Lua example related to our problem?

[mcanouil]

You might actually not need a Lua filter.
You could simply add to your yaml titlepage: true/false, then in the partials:

$if(titlepage)$
<code that should only appear when titlepage exists and is true>
$endif$

[ThierryO]

$titlepage$ is false on all pages.

The workaround I found it to check whether $author-meta$ is set.

[mcanouil]

If you don't add titlepage: true on any page/document yaml header block, of course it is false.

[cderv]

I agree with @mcanouil you need to have a way to define you title page. Probably you are referring to index.qmd which will be index.html ?

You can use a YAML variable as suggested and adapt the partials to include another partials for this page.
If you want to add more logic that Pandoc's template allows, you need to go through Lua and you can include some content in the template from there (See https://quarto.org/docs/extensions/lua.html#includes)

Just to another idea to the already suggested one.

[ThierryO]

I'm creating a custom style for quarto books. IMHO I should not have to manually define which page will be the "homepage". The default style for html books is able to detect which page is the index.html. I'm looking for the correct way of detecting that so I can use a different style on the index.html.

[mcanouil]

You are trying to find something (i.e., "The correct way") that does not exist right now.
If you want to mimic the behaviour you can check the code base and write your own format with your own metadata, it will be as "correct" as the answers above.

Since you are creating your own format, why not create a Lua filter that will add some metadata according to the availability of some yaml metadata? This way you could define exactly what for you should be a home page and what is not.

[cderv]

IMHO I should not have to manually define which page will be the "homepage". The default style for html books is able to detect which page is the index.html.

I think it is just using the file that is index.qmd in a Book project.

You are trying to find something (i.e., "The correct way") that does not exist right now.

It is possible that we indeed need to adapt the Extension mechanism for custom formats for Book project. 🤔 I like the idea of something most straightforward.

[ThierryO]

Did something change on this? I'm running quarto 1.1.189 and working on a custom book template. My custom template.html is used on all pages except the main title page. That seems to use the build-in template. How can I set a custom template.html for the title page? Having a different template for the title page and other pages would be a nice solution for my problem.

[mcanouil]

No commits are referencing this issue and it is still open, so I am pretty confident that the answer is "no".