June 3rd, 2020 ×
Headless CMS Break Down & Roundup
Wes Bos Host
Scott Tolinski Host
In this episode of Syntax, Scott and Wes talk about headless content management systems — why you might want to use one, things you should take into account, and more!
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Show Notes
02:38 - What and why
- A headless CMS doesn't mean you have to use a static site generator
- A headless CMS has an API:
- REST
- GraphQL
- GROQ
- A headless CMS can pipe its content into:
- Static Site on build - like Gatsby
- An app on run/refresh
- An existing website - widget
- What makes a CMS? Do you need a UI?
- What is the threshold?
- Is a hotdog a sandwich?
- Things to think about when choosing an API
- Auth - Rules + roles + levels
- How easy is it to create new data types?
- Is it code or UI?
- Can my mom use it?
- Can you create one-off content types? (e.g. settings pages)
- Custom workflows
- dRafts, revisions, roll backs
- How are images handled? Do you need another service for that?
- Pre-determined UI
- Is custom UI possible?
- Two-way relationships?
- Tags?
- Data validation?
- UI + API?
- Hosting?
- Pricing?
- Content movability?
- Can you get your data out?
- Schemas
- Users
- Revisions
- CORS or realtime API?
- APIs
- Can you insert data via the API? (or just pull)
- Node API
- Importing data
24:37 - Hosted
- Sanity
- Prismic
- Contentful
- Dato CMS
- Storyblok
- 8Base
- Agility CMS
- Seems to be making a big corporate play
36:59 - Self-Hosted
- WordPress
- WordPress REST API
- GraphQL API
- WP GraphQL
- Advanced Custom Fields for custom UI
- Most things in WordPress are custom post types and taxonomies, so data from plugins can often be surfaced
- The theme UI from plugins is often lost
- Drupal
- Craft CMS
- Ghost
- Strapi
- Keystone
- Joomla (JK!)
44:33 - API (BYOUI)
47:37 - Git Based
50:30 - Other
- Google Sheets
- Airtable
- Tina CMS
- Not a CMS
- Markdown under the hood
- Notion
Links
××× SIIIIICK ××× PIIIICKS ×××
- Scott: DEWALT Random Orbit Sander
- Wes: Shelf Brackets
Shameless Plugs
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- Wes: Wes' YouTube Channel
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