Linking to Patterns with Pattern Lab's Default `link` Variable
You can build patterns that link to one another to help simulate using a real website. This is especially useful when working with the Pages and Templates pattern types. Rather than having to remember the actual path to a pattern you can use the same shorthand syntax you'd use to include one pattern within another. Important: Pattern links do not support the same fuzzy matching of names as the shorthand partials syntax does. The basic format is:
{{ link.pattern-name }}
For example, if you wanted to add a link to the article
page from your blog
page you could write the following:
<a href="{{ link.pages-article }}">Article Headline</a>
This would compile to:
<a href="/patterns/pages-layouts-article/pages-layouts-article.html">Article Headline</a>
Additionally, you can use pattern links within JSON to link to other pages, templates, or patterns within Pattern Lab. For instance, if you had a pattern containing the following:
<a href="{{ url }}">This is a link</a>
You can set the URL to a pattern link via JSON like so:
{
"url" : "link.pages-article"
}
Using pattern links in JSON is especially helpful at keeping the pattern's structure and content entirely separate.