diff --git a/includes/layout.php b/includes/layout.php
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..e69de29
diff --git a/includes/retrieve_data.php b/includes/retrieve_data.php
index 9af2d6f..179b128 100644
--- a/includes/retrieve_data.php
+++ b/includes/retrieve_data.php
@@ -1,12 +1,26 @@
 <?php
-$fname = "/srv/http/sitedata.yml";
-
-$myfile = fopen($fname, "r") or die("Unable to open file!");
-$data =  fread($myfile,filesize($fname));
-fclose($myfile);
-
-$parsed = yaml_parse($data);
-
-var_dump($parsed);
+function retrieve_data ($file, $public_only) {
+  $freader = fopen($file, "r") or die("Unable to open file!");
+  $yamldata =  fread($freader,filesize($file));
+  fclose($freader);
 
+  $data = yaml_parse($yamldata);
+  if($public_only){
+    $filtereddata = array();
+    foreach($data as $category => $items){
+      $filteredcat = array();
+      foreach($items as $item => $value){
+        if($value[public]=true){
+          $filteredcat[$item] = $value;
+        }
+      }
+      if($filteredcat){
+        $filtereddata[$category] = $filteredcat;
+      }
+    }
+    return $filtereddata;
+  } else {
+    return $data;
+  }
+}
 ?>