---
layout: news_item
title: 'Jekyll 3.3 is here with better theme support, new URL filters, and tons more'
date: 2016-10-03 17:08:38 -0700
author: parkr
version: 3.3.0
categories: [release]
---

We have tons of new features for you in our latest release of Jekyll. Three
key things you might want to give a whirl:

### 1. Themes can now ship static & dynamic assets in an `/assets` directory

We're really stoked about this one. In Jekyll 3.2, we shipped the ability
to use a theme that was packaged as a gem. Due to security necessities and
ease-of-use concerns, this initial ship only included support for includes,
layouts, and sass partials. A theme couldn't write any CSS, JavaScript, or
content to your site.

In an effort to make theme management a bit easier, any files you put into
`/assets` in your theme will be read in as though they were part of the
user's site. This means you can ship SCSS and CoffeeScript, images and
webfonts, JSON and other data. Same rules apply here as in a Jekyll site:
if it has YAML front matter, it will be converted and renderd. No YAML
front matter, and it will simply be copied over like a static asset. Neat,
huh?

See our [documentation on the subject](/docs/assets#assets-directory) for
more info.

### 2. `relative_url` and `absolute_url` filters

Want a clean way to prepend the `baseurl` or `url` in your config? These
new filters have you covered. When working locally, if you set your
`baseurl` to match your deployment environment, say `baseurl: "/myproject"`,
then `relative_url` will ensure that this baseurl is prepended to anything
you pass it:

{% highlight liquid %}
{% raw %}
{{ "/docs/assets/" | relative_url }} => /myproject/docs/assets
{% endraw %}
{% endhighlight %}

A result of `relative_url` will safely always yield a link which is
relative to the domain root. A similar principle applies to `absolute_url`.
It prepends your `baseurl` and `url` values, making absolute URL's all the
easier to make:

{% highlight liquid %}
{% raw %}
{{ "/docs/assets/" | absolute_url }} => http://jekyllrb.com/myproject/docs/assets
{% endraw %}
{% endhighlight %}

### 3. `site.url` is set by the development server

When you run `jekyll serve` locally, it starts a web server, usually at
`http://localhost:4000`, that you use to preview your site during
development. If you are using the new `absolute_url` filter, or using
`site.url` anywhere, you have probably had to create a development config
which resets the `url` value to point to `http://localhost:4000`.

No longer! When you run `jekyll serve`, Jekyll will build your site with
the value of the `host`, `port`, and SSL-related options. This defaults to
`url: http://localhost:4000`. When you are developing locally, `site.url`
will yield `http://localhost:4000`.

Note that this only applies when `JEKYLL_ENV` is equal to `development`. If
you set `JEKYLL_ENV=production` and run `jekyll serve`, it will not
overwrite the value of `url` in your config. And again, this only applies
to serving, not to building.

## A *lot* more!

There are dozens of bug fixes and minor improvements to make your Jekyll
experience better than ever. With every Jekyll release, we strive to bring
greater stability and reliability to your everyday development workflow.

As always, thanks to our many contributors who contributed countless hours
of their free time to making this release happen:

!! TODO: Add list of contributors for this release!

[Full release notes]({{ "/docs/history/" | relative_url }}) are available
for your perusal. If you notice any issues, please don't hesitate to file a
bug report.

Happy Jekylling!