Headless CMS Break Down & Roundup

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 contentacms.org

Craft CMS

Ghost

Strapi

Keystone

Joomla (JK!)
44:33 - API (BYOUI)
Hasura

Prisma

Firebase

47:37 - Git Based
Netlify

Forestry

50:30 - Other

Google Sheets Sheety

Airtable

Tina CMS Not a CMS

Markdown under the hood
Notion
Links https://twitter.com/wesbos/status/1254772936935739393
Pixel & Tonic
GraphCool
GraphCMS
Sapper
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