what is Headless CMS

bici · 2019-03-26 16:00:40

even after reading about it … i have no idea what they are refering to?

michaelkpate · 2019-03-26 17:10:46

bici wrote #317315:

even after reading about it … i have no idea what they are refering to?

It is (if I understand it) a way to run the backend of a CMS without an interface – which I have never understood the advantage of.

Decoupled CMS architecture (aka “headless”) is rising in popularity. This model allows cutting-edge user experiences, gives developers greater flexibility to innovate, and helps site owners future-proof their builds by allowing them to refresh the design without re-implementing the whole CMS. With all this upside, it’s no wonder this type of build has gained serious traction in both the Drupal and WordPress communities as of late. – What is Decoupled CMS?

I think the idea is that you can then build your own. Which seems like a lot of work to reinvent the wheel. Which I think mostly appeals to people looking for hefty custom development contracts.

etc · 2019-03-26 17:42:44

Textpattern is half-headless now – any output format but limited API.

Bloke · 2019-03-26 17:52:59

Yep. Txp has always been waaaay ahead of the curve in this regard. When most all the other CMSs (bar EE) have their code rigidly enforced by the theme developers and hamstrung by the admin side, we’ve had complete freedom to set the front-end exactly how the designer wishes.

As etc says: add an API and we’re gold standard.

jakob · 2019-03-26 18:22:00

And I thought a headless CMS was when I’d completely lost track of my plan and gone round in circles. Or was that legless CMS?

bici · 2019-03-26 19:15:57

Bloke wrote #317319:

As etc says: add an API and we’re gold standard.

pass the plate

PS once again I am so glad for having found TxP so many moons ago.

Last edited by bici (2019-03-26 19:18:10)

Destry · 2019-03-27 08:19:57

‘Headless’, as far as it has any relevance to smaller publishing systems like our beloved, or emerging systems like from the source post, is a relatively recent term being used. But it’s been around a long time in component content management systems, which are headless without actually calling them that. We’re talking enterprise tech (historically speaking) that generally involves big-bucks contracts to set up for a corporation, and involves multiple layers of software working together:

data input UI (head)
parsing into components (the CCMS)
metadata layer
data retrieval UI
transformation layer (turning legacy data into any kind of formatted output)

Putting it simply, headless is the ability to use any compatible software to input data without using the storage server itself. In a classic example, in techcomm, so many tech writers are locked into MS Word as a content creation tool, that sometimes Word is engineered into being the ‘head’ (data entry point) for the legacy. But usually it’s a more sophisticated DITA application based on OASIS standards. (Just think fancy XML systems.)

But a simpler web-publishing example might be iA Writer to Medium. In other words, instead of using Medium (don’t at all) to write posts, you use some third-party tool you like better and is more convenient to your workflow.

Bloke · 2019-03-27 09:24:27

Bundling XML-RPC with Textpattern was our attempt years ago to capture this market (e.g. third party tools like MarsEdit) but very few took it up because, frankly, it’s crap.

But if we had a suitable RESTish API which talked a common language (e.g. JSON) then I can see a day where we can do stuff like Elastic do: you can insert stuff into the Elastic database by just throwing a JSON blob at a well-known URL endpoint.

Theirs is a bit different because you can index anything (it operates as a schema-less system out of the box) but the point is, if you have the minimum key elements in the JSON blob that Textpattern expects to be filled out, anything’s possible. For example, transmit a block like this:

{
    "title": "My review of Captain Marvel",
    "body": "Lorem ipsum...",
    "excerpt": "Intro lorem ipsum",
    "section": "reviews",
    "images": {
        "image": {
            "url": "https://example.org/some./path/to/marvel.jpg",
            "alt": "Captain Marvel in all her glory"
        },
        "image": {
            "url": "https://example.org/some./path/to/lee.jpg",
            "alt": "Stan Lee"
        }
    },
    "category": "movies"
}

to example.com/textpattern/article/post and it gets shoved in the database. Provide more records and they get automatically inserted in one go. And clever APIs would know that the images are to go in the txp_images table and the rest goes in the textpattern table, with the items linked. It really is up to us how we define it using best practices.

The key to it is then managing secure authentication. After that you can plug pretty much any third party system that can create JSON (or XML) from content into it.

We’re already part way there with the XML import facility that makss wrote for 4.7. All we need to do is expose that via an API.

philwareham · 2019-03-27 09:27:44

If we add in GraphQL support (potentially a core plugin, as discussed previously) then we have a great headless CMS offering.

Bloke · 2019-03-27 09:30:04

philwareham wrote #317339:

If we add in GraphQL support (potentially a core plugin, as discussed previously) then we have a great headless CMS offering.

Exactamundo.

Destry · 2019-03-27 10:30:15

Exciting.

So I see myself opening up my article drafting tool of choice,* select a pre-designed template having all the needed fields accounted for in the JSON top matter, or whatever it is — and these fields would correspond with whatever custom fields I created with the unlimited custom fields in core — write my draft accordingly, in the comfort a man of my stature is entitled to, and send it off with a Cmd + S to the Textabulator.

Would I then be able to open the same source file later if I wanted to revise a live article? Or would I be resigned to the admin-editor post publish?

———-

^{*Preferably something exactly like iA Writer but supporting Textile, for which there is not one frickin’ application in existence.}

Bloke · 2019-03-27 10:50:40

Destry wrote #317341:

select a pre-designed template having all the needed fields accounted for in the JSON top matter

See, this is how I’m not sure the best workflow. Clearly, if you’re using some third party tool for content composition it needs to be told – somehow – which fields to show, their types, options (for dropdown lists), required status, and so forth. It’s essentially supplying metadata about the fields in some format that the tool understands to paint the interface.

Things become tricky if you’ve, for example, installed a plugin that alters the available custom fields base on chosen Section. I think that’s probably outside scope.

write my draft accordingly, in the comfort a man of my stature is entitled to, and send it off with a Cmd + S to the Textabulator.

In essence, yes. Once the tool knows: a) what fields to render and how to render them, b) how to package up the resulting content and transmit it to us in a format we understand, c) where to send that info (with valid login credentials), then it’s game on.

Would I then be able to open the same source file later if I wanted to revise a live article? Or would I be resigned to the admin-editor post publish?

No idea. I’ve never seen such a tool in action so I don’t know the capabilites. But let’s say we open up example.org/textpattern/article/edit/{ID} then your tool could visit that URL and fetch the contents of the given article. Again, we’d need to supply the field metadata so the tool could render the fields appropriately.

Honestly, if the admin UI is distraction-free – something we strive to achieve – and works on multiple devices out of the box, the need for introducing some third party publishing tool is reduced somewhat. But in the interests of opening it up to such tools, if it’s not a major headache and we already have 70% of the infrastructure built already, we might as well do the remaining bit to plug the gap sometime.

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#1 2019-03-26 16:00:40