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A statically generated blog example using Next.js and Agility CMS

This example showcases Next.js's Static Generation feature using Agility CMS as the data source.

IMPORTANT - This example uses Agility CMS's Page Management features. This means that the CMS ultimately drives what pages are available and what content is on each page. This enables Editors to focus on managing their pages, while allowing you, (the Developer) to focus on building UI components for the editors to compose their pages.

Demo

Deploy your own

Once you have access to the environment variables you'll need, deploy the example using Vercel:

Deploy with Vercel

Related examples

How to use

Execute create-next-app with npm or Yarn to bootstrap the example:

npx create-next-app --example cms-agilitycms cms-agilitycms-app
# or
yarn create next-app --example cms-agilitycms cms-agilitycms-app
# or
pnpm create next-app -- --example cms-agilitycms cms-agilitycms-app

Configuration

How is this Different from Other CMS Examples?

The key principle behind Agility CMS is that Editors should have full control of their pages and what content is on each page without getting into code.

This means you'll not only be defining Content for your Posts and Authors, but you'll also be defining UI Components to compose your pages. This site will consist of a single Page Template and a collection of Modules that represent the UI components you see on the page.

NOTE - Modules and Page Templates in Agility CMS simply correspond to React Components in your website.

Once you've gone through the steps below, you'll be able to dynamically manage pages (and what is on them) directly through the CMS without requiring a developer.

Step 1. Create an account and a project on Agility CMS

First, create an account on Agility CMS.

After creating an account you'll be asked to create a new project. Use any name of your liking as the Project Name and select the Blank (advanced users) template to create a blank Agility CMS instance.

Step 2. Create an Author Content Definition

From within the Agility CMS Content Manager, navigate to Settings > Content Definitions and click New to create a new Content Definition.

  • The Title should be Author. This will also pre-populate Reference Name for you.

Next, add these fields via the Form Builder tab (you don't have to modify any other settings):

  • Name - Set Field Label to Name and Field Type to Text
  • Picture - Set Field Label to Picture and Field Type to Image

When you are done, click Save & Close to save your Author content definition.

Step 3. Create a List based on your Author Content Definition

From within the Agility CMS Content Manager, navigate to Shared Content and click the + (New) button, then fill the form like so:

  • Type should be Content List
  • Content Definition should be Author
  • Display Name should be set to Authors. This will also pre-populate Reference Name for you.

Step 4. Create a Post Content Definition

From within the Agility CMS Content Manager, navigate to Settings > Content Definitions and click New to create a new Content Definition.

  • The Title should be Post.

Next, add these fields via the Form Builder tab (you don't have to modify any other settings):

  • Title - Set Field Type to Text
  • Slug - Set Field Type to Text
  • Date - Set Field Type to Date/Time
  • AuthorID - Set Field Type to Number and enable Hide field from input form
  • Author - Do the following:
    • Field Type - Linked Content
    • Content Definition - Author
    • Content View - Shared Content
    • Shared Content - Authors
    • Render As - Dropdown List
    • Save Value To Field - AuthorID
  • Excerpt - Set Field Type to Text
  • Content - Set Field Type to HTML
  • Cover Image - Set Field Type to Image

When you are done, click Save & Close to save your Post content definition.

Step 5. Create a Dynamic Page List based on your Posts Content Definition

From within the Agility CMS Content Manager, navigate to Shared Content and click the + (New) button, then fill the form like so:

  • Type should be Dynamic Page List
  • Content Definition should be Post
  • Display Name should be Posts. This will also pre-populate Reference Name for you

Step 6. Populate Content

Go to Shared Content, select the Authors list and click the + New button to create a new content item:

  • You just need 1 Author content item.
  • Use dummy data for the text.
  • For the image, you can download one from Unsplash.

Click on Save and Publish once you're done.

Next, select the Posts list and click the + New button to create a new content item:

  • We recommend creating at least 2 Post content items.
  • Use dummy data for the text.
  • You can write markdown for the Content field.
  • For the images, you can download ones from Unsplash.
  • Pick the Author you created earlier.

For each post content item, you need to click Publish after saving. If not, the post will be in the Staging state.

Step 7. Define your Intro Module

Navigate to Settings > Module Definitions and click New to create a new Module Definition.

  • Set Title to Intro
  • Set Description to Displays an intro message.

In this case, we are not adding any fields to control the output or behavior, since the content is actually hard-coded in the template.

Click Save & Close to save the definition.

Step 8. Define your Hero Post Module

Navigate to Settings > Module Definitions and click New to create a new Module Definition.

  • Set Title to Hero Post
  • Set Description to Displays the latest Post.

In this case, we are not adding any fields to control the output or behavior, since the latest post will be used by default and all of the data is associated to the post itself.

Click Save & Close to save the definition.

Step 9. Define your More Stories Module

Navigate to Settings > Module Definitions and click New to create a new Module Definition.

  • Set Title to More Stories
  • Set Description to Displays a listing of Posts.

Next, add the following field:

  • Title - Set Field Type to Text

Click Save & Close to save the definition.

Step 10. Define your Post Details Module

Navigate to Settings > Module Definitions and click New to create a new Module Definition.

  • Set Title to Post Details
  • Set Description to Displays the details of a Post.

In this case, we are not adding any fields to control the output or behavior, since the data is associated to the post itself.

Click Save & Close to save the definition.

Step 11. Define a One Column Page Template

Navigate to Settings > Page Templates and click New to create a new Page Template.

  • Name should be One Column Template
  • Digital Channel Type should be Website
  • Under Module Zones click + (New)
    • Set Display Name to Main Content Zone, it will populate Reference Name for you
    • Click Save to apply the Main Content Zone

Click Save & Close to save the page template.

Step 12. Add a new Page called home

Navigate to Pages and click the + (New) button in the page tree to create a new Page.

  • Set Type to Page
  • Set Page Template to One Column Template
  • Set Menu Text to Home - Page Title and Page Name fields will be auto-populated.

Click Save to create the /home page.

Next, let's add the Intro, Hero Post and More Stories modules to the Main Content Zone of the home page:

  • Click the + (New) button on Main Content Zone and select Intro to add the module to the page

  • Click Save & Close on the module to return back to the page

  • Click the + (New) button on Main Content Zone and select Hero Post to add the module to the page

  • Click Save & Close on the module to return back to the page

  • Click the + (New) button on Main Content Zone and select More Stories to add the module to the page

    • Set Title to More Stories

  • Click Save & Close on the module to return back to the page

Then click Publish on the page in order to publish the page and all of its modules.

Step 13. Add a new Folder called posts

Navigate to Pages and click the Website channel, then click the + (New) button in the page tree to create a new Folder in the root of the site:

  • Set Type to Folder
  • Set Menu Text to Posts, Folder Name will be auto-populated to posts

Click Save to create the /posts folder.

Important: Click Publish on the folder.

Step 14. Add a new Dynamic Page called posts-dynamic

Navigate to Pages and select the existing /posts folder. Click the + (New) button in the page tree to create a new Dynamic Page underneath the posts page.

  • Set Type to Dynamic Page
  • Set Page Template to One Column Template
  • Set Build Pages From to Posts
  • Set Sitemap Label to posts-dynamic
  • Set Page Path Formula to ##Slug##
  • Set Page Title Formula and Menu Text Formula to ##Title##

Click Save to create the /posts/posts-dynamic dynamic page.

Next, let's add the Post Details and More Stories modules to the Main Content Zone of the posts-dynamic page:

  • Click the + (New) button on Main Content Zone and select Post Details to add the module to the page
  • Click the + (New) button on Main Content Zone and select More Stories to add the module to the page
    • Set Title to More Stories
  • Click Save & Close on the module to return back to the posts-dynamic page

Then click Publish on the page in order to publish the page and all of its modules.

Step 15. Set up environment variables

Copy the .env.local.example file in this directory to .env.local (which will be ignored by Git):

cp .env.local.example .env.local

Go to the Getting Started section from the menu and click on API Keys. You should see a new modal called Content API Details, then click in the Show API Key(s) button within it.

Then set each variable on .env.local:

  • AGILITY_CMS_GUID should be the Instance GUID field
  • AGILITY_CMS_API_FETCH_KEY should be the Live API Key field
  • AGILITY_CMS_API_PREVIEW_KEY should be the Preview API Key field - this is used when the site is in Preview Mode and allows your site to pull the latest content, regardless of whether it is published or not.
  • AGILITY_CMS_SECURITY_KEY should be the Security Key field that can be found in Settings > Global Security - this is used to communicate between the CMS and your site to validate Preview Mode

Your .env.local file should look like this:

AGILITY_CMS_GUID=...
AGILITY_CMS_API_FETCH_KEY=...
AGILITY_CMS_API_PREVIEW_KEY=...
AGILITY_CMS_SECURITY_KEY=...

Step 16. Run Next.js in development mode

npm install
npm run dev

# or

yarn install
yarn dev

Your blog should be up and running on http://localhost:3000! If it doesn't work, post on GitHub discussions.

Step 17. Deploy on Vercel

You can deploy this app to the cloud with Vercel (Documentation).

Deploy Your Local Project

To deploy your local project to Vercel, push it to GitHub/GitLab/Bitbucket and import to Vercel.

Important: When you import your project on Vercel, make sure to click on Environment Variables and set them to match your .env.local file.

Deploy from Our Template

Alternatively, you can deploy using our template by clicking on the Deploy button below.

Deploy with Vercel

Step 18. Try preview mode

Now that you've deployed your app to Vercel, take note of the URL of your deployed site. This will be registered in Agility CMS so that when editors click the Preview button within Agility CMS, your app is loaded in Preview Mode. Learn more about NextJS Preview Mode).

To enable the Preview Mode, you'll need to add your site to Domain Configuration in Agility CMS:

  • Go to Settings > Domain Configuration
  • Click on the existing channel in the list called Website
  • Click on the + (New) button to add a new domain:
    • Set Name to Production
    • Set Domain URL to the URL of your production deployment, it should look like https://<your-vercel-domain>.vercel.app
    • Enable Preview Domain
    • Click Save to save your settings

Go to one of your Posts and update the title. For example, you can add [Staging] in front of the title. Click Save, but DO NOT click Publish. By doing this, the post will be in the staging state.

To enter Preview Mode, click the Preview button on the details of your Post. This redirects you to the / page, however you will now be in Preview Mode so you can navigate to your Post you want to view on the website.

You should now be able to see the updated title. To exit the preview mode, you can click Click here to exit preview mode at the top.

NOTE - To set up preview on a specific Post (as opposed to the / page), click on the Settings tab of the Post list in Shared Content. For Item Preview Page set it to ~/posts/posts-dynamic and for Item Preview Query String Parameter set it to contentid.