A Blog Site

A statically generated blog example using Next.js and Contentful (21)

Publish Date:

Mike Freeman

Demo

https://next-blog-contentful.vercel.app/

Deploy your own

Using the Deploy Button below, you'll deploy the Next.js project as well as connect it to your Contentful space using the Vercel Contentful Integration.

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-contentful cms-contentful-app
# or
yarn create next-app --example cms-contentful cms-contentful-app

Configuration

Step 1. Create an account and a space on Contentful

First, create an account on Contentful.

After creating an account, create a new empty space from the dashboard and assign to it any name of your liking.

Step 2. Create a content model

The content model defines the data structures of your application/websites. The structures are flexible and you can tailor them to your needs.

For this example you need to create a content model that defines an author and a post content type. You can create these two by running a script or by doing it manually to familiarize yourself with the Contentful user interface.

Run a script to create the content model

This project includes a setup script which you can use to set up the content model expected by the source code.

In your Contentful dashboard go to Settings > General Settings and copy the Space ID.

Next, go to Settings > API > Content management tokens and create a new token by clicking Generate personal token. This token has the same access rights as the logged in user. Do not share it publicly, you will only use it to set up your space and can delete it afterwards.

With the space ID and management access token at hand run the following command:

npx cross-env CONTENTFUL_SPACE_ID=YOUR_SPACE_ID CONTENTFUL_MANAGEMENT_TOKEN=XXX npm run setup

This command will create the needed content structures and set up your Contentful space ready to use. The output should look as follows:

> cms-contentful@1.0.0 setup /Users/stefan.judis/Projects/next.js/examples/cms-contentful
> node ./contentful/setup.js $CONTENTFUL_SPACE_ID $CONTENTFUL_MANAGEMENT_TOKEN

┌──────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│ The following entities are going to be imported: │
├─────────────────────────────────┬────────────────┤
│ Content Types                   │ 2              │
├─────────────────────────────────┼────────────────┤
│ Editor Interfaces               │ 2              │
├─────────────────────────────────┼────────────────┤
│ Locales                         │ 1              │
├─────────────────────────────────┼────────────────┤
│ Webhooks                        │ 0              │
├─────────────────────────────────┼────────────────┤
│ Entries                         │ 0              │
├─────────────────────────────────┼────────────────┤
│ Assets                          │ 0              │
└─────────────────────────────────┴────────────────┘
 ✔ Validating content-file
 ✔ Initialize client (1s)
 ✔ Checking if destination space already has any content and retrieving it (2s)
 ✔ Apply transformations to source data (1s)
 ✔ Push content to destination space
   ✔ Connecting to space (1s)
   ...
   ...
   ...

Create the content model manually

Create an Author content type

From your contentful space, go to Content model and add a new content type:

  • Give it the Name Author, the Api Identifier should be author

Once the content model is saved, add these fields (you don't have to modify the settings unless specified):

  • name - Text field (type short text). Field ID should be set to name
  • picture - Media field (type one file). Field ID should be set to picture

Save the content type and continue.

Create a post type

From your contentful space, go to Content model and add another content type:

  • Give it the Name Post, the Api Identifier should be post

Next, add these fields (you don't have to modify the settings unless specified):

  • title - Text field (type short text)
  • content - Rich text field
  • excerpt - Text field (type Long text, full-text search)
  • coverImage - Media field (type one file)
  • date - Date and time field
  • slug - Text field. You can optionally go to the settings of this field, and under Appearance, select Slug to display it as a slug of the title field.
  • author - Reference field (type one reference)

Save the content type and continue.

Step 3. Validate your content model

After setting up the content model (either manually or by running npm run setup or yarn setup), it should look as follows.

Content model overview

Content model overview

Step 4. Populate Content

Go to the Content section in your space, then click on Add entry and select the Author content type:

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

Next, create another entry with the content type Post:

  • We recommend creating at least 2 post entries.
  • Use dummy data for the text.
  • For images, you can download them from Unsplash.
  • Pick the author you created earlier.

Important: For each entry and asset, you need to click on Publish. If not, the entry will be in draft state.

Published content entry

Step 5. Set up environment variables

From your contentful space, go to Settings > API keys. There will be an example Content delivery / preview token - you can use these API keys. (You may also create a new key.)

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

cp .env.local.example .env.local

Then set each variable on .env.local:

  • CONTENTFUL_SPACE_ID should be the Space ID field of your API Key
  • CONTENTFUL_ACCESS_TOKEN should be the Content Delivery API - access token field of your API key
  • CONTENTFUL_PREVIEW_ACCESS_TOKEN should be the Content Preview API - access token field of your API key
  • CONTENTFUL_PREVIEW_SECRET should be any value you want. It must be URL friendly as the dashboard will send it as a query parameter to enable preview mode

Your .env.local file should look like this:

CONTENTFUL_SPACE_ID=...
CONTENTFUL_ACCESS_TOKEN=...
CONTENTFUL_PREVIEW_ACCESS_TOKEN=...
CONTENTFUL_PREVIEW_SECRET=...

Step 6. 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 7. Try preview mode

In your Contentful space, go to Settings > Content preview and add a new content preview for development.

The Name field may be anything, like Development. Then, under Content preview URLs, check Post and set its value to:

http://localhost:3000/api/preview?secret=<CONTENTFUL_PREVIEW_SECRET>&slug={entry.fields.slug}

Replace <CONTENTFUL_PREVIEW_SECRET> with its respective value in .env.local.

Content preview setup

Once saved, go to one of the posts you've created and:

  • Update the title. For example, you can add [Draft] in front of the title.
  • The state of the post will switch to CHANGED automatically. Do not publish it. By doing this, the post will be in draft state.
  • In the sidebar, you will see the Open preview button. Click on it!

Content entry overview

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

Step 8. 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.

This will deploy the Next.js project as well as connect it to your Contentful space using the Vercel Contentful Integration. If you are using Preview Mode, make sure to add CONTENTFUL_PREVIEW_SECRET as an Environment Variable as well.

Deploy with Vercel