navbar.html

<nav class="navbar navbar-expand-lg navbar-themed">

  <a class="navbar-brand" href="{{ site.baseurl }}/"><h5><b>{{ site.title }}</b></h5></a>

  <button class="navbar-toggler" type="button" data-toggle="collapse" data-target="#navbarNavAltMarkup" aria-controls="navbarNavAltMarkup" aria-expanded="false" aria-label="Toggle navigation">
    <i class="fas fa-1x fa-bars text-themed"></i>
  </button>

  <div class="collapse navbar-collapse" id="navbarNavAltMarkup">
    <div class="navbar-nav ml-auto">

      {%- assign html_pages = site.html_pages | sort: 'weight' -%}
      {%- assign filtered_pages = "" | split: "" -%}

      {%- for html_page in html_pages -%} 

        {%- assign exclude = false -%}

        {%- for exclude_path in site.nav_exclude -%}

          {%- if exclude_path == html_page.path -%}
            {%- assign exclude = true -%}
            {%- break -%}
          {%- elsif exclude_path contains '**' -%}
            {%- assign match = exclude_path | remove: '**' -%}
            {%- if html_page.path contains match -%}
              {%- assign exclude = true -%}
              {%- break -%}
            {%- endif -%}
          {%- endif -%}

        {%- endfor -%}

        {%- unless exclude -%}
          {%- assign filtered_pages = filtered_pages | push: html_page -%}
        {%- endunless -%}

      {%- endfor -%}

      {% for html_page in filtered_pages %}  

        {%- if page.url contains html_page.url -%}
          {%- assign active_status = "active" -%}
        {%- else -%}
          {%- assign active_status = "" -%}
        {%- endif -%}

        {%- if html_page.external_url -%}
          {%- assign url = html_page.external_url -%}
        {%- else -%}
          {%- assign url = html_page.url | relative_url -%}
        {%- endif -%}

        <a class="nav-item nav-link {{ active_status }}" href="{{ url }}" {%- if html_page.external_url and site.open_new_tab -%} target="_blank" {%- endif -%}>{{ html_page.title }}</a>

      {% endfor %}

      <span id="theme-toggler" class="nav-item nav-link" role="button" onclick="toggleTheme()"></span>
    </div>
  </div>

</nav>