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The complicated futility of WordPress

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Re: The complicated futility of WordPress

#21

Post by seanwilson »

Are there any good options for an open source headless CMS that works with a static site generator that has a page builder that has quick and accurate live previews before you deploy? E.g. so you can build new landing pages from header, testimonial and contact form blocks.

There's lots of options if you just want Markdown but this isn't enough for heavily branded business websites where you need to check how complex pages will look before they go live, like if the h1 text in the header line wraps weird or is hard to read against the header background image.

Edit: I get that CMS projects need to make money by the way but the lack of vendor lock-in is a big upside to WordPress.

Netlify CMS might be an option (https://www.manuelkruisz.com/blog/posts/custom-previews-next...)?

Re: The complicated futility of WordPress

#22

Post by thombles »

0xbadcafebee wrote: post #8

I hope more people stop building bespoke websites and start building tools for regular people to just make things. It's 2021. It should not be this hard for a regular person to update a website. If you can make a powerpoint presentation with MS PowerPoint, why can't you make a website that way?

It's funny you invoke PowerPoint - MS FrontPage was exactly this tool and it worked reasonably well, as did iWeb. Publishing WYSIWYG websites from the desktop was given up in the 00s, and now we have Squarespace and Facebook Pages.

Re: The complicated futility of WordPress

#23

Post by hunterb123 »

seanwilson wrote: post #21

Are there any good options for an open source headless CMS that works with a static site generator that has a page builder that has quick and accurate live previews before you deploy? E.g. so you can build new landing pages from header, testimonial and contact form blocks. There's lots of options if you just want Markdown but this isn't enough for heavily branded business websites where you need to check how complex…

Yes, Strapi (https://strapi.io/) though I'm not sure about previews.

https://www.sanity.io/studio is open source, but some parts of the CMS aren't I don't think.

Possibly there could be an adapter to use Sanity Studio w/ Strapi?

Re: The complicated futility of WordPress

#24

Post by xyzzyrz »

seanwilson wrote: post #21

Are there any good options for an open source headless CMS that works with a static site generator that has a page builder that has quick and accurate live previews before you deploy? E.g. so you can build new landing pages from header, testimonial and contact form blocks. There's lots of options if you just want Markdown but this isn't enough for heavily branded business websites where you need to check how complex…

For building these kinds of pages, there are now actual page builders worth considering that work with various frameworks, like https://www.plasmic.app which also lets you drag and drop your own components/blocks.

Re: The complicated futility of WordPress

#25

Post by jrm4 »

I trust Nassim Taleb's "Lindy" concept more than any new tool in this space. It works because it has worked very well for most things for a long time and I don't need any other explanation.

(My best guess is that -- content management systems inherently suck, and that Wordpress is one of the few successful ones precisely because it did not set out to be a content management system.)

Re: The complicated futility of WordPress

#26

Post by chyeah »

seanwilson wrote: post #21

Are there any good options for an open source headless CMS that works with a static site generator that has a page builder that has quick and accurate live previews before you deploy? E.g. so you can build new landing pages from header, testimonial and contact form blocks. There's lots of options if you just want Markdown but this isn't enough for heavily branded business websites where you need to check how complex…

Prismic's "slices" might be what you're looking for if you want out-of-the-box functionality and hosting.

If you're wanting a bit more flexibility from a code-perspective (and you don't mind TypeScript), I've found Payload CMS to be a great option to build out a page builder as you've described using their "blocks".

Re: The complicated futility of WordPress

#27

Post by seanwilson »

xyzzyrz wrote: post #24
seanwilson wrote: post #21

Are there any good options for an open source headless CMS that works with a static site generator that has a page builder that has quick and accurate live previews before you deploy? E.g. so you can build new landing pages from header, testimonial and contact form blocks. There's lots of options if you just want Markdown but this isn't enough for heavily branded business websites where you need to check how complex…

For building these kinds of pages, there are now actual page builders worth considering that work with various frameworks, like https://www.plasmic.app which also lets you drag and drop your own components/blocks.

Doesn't look like it's open source: https://forum.plasmic.app/t/any-plans-for-self-hosted-plasmi... "We don’t currently have plans for a self-hosted solution"

Re: The complicated futility of WordPress

#28

Post by seanwilson »

hunterb123 wrote: post #23
seanwilson wrote: post #21

Are there any good options for an open source headless CMS that works with a static site generator that has a page builder that has quick and accurate live previews before you deploy? E.g. so you can build new landing pages from header, testimonial and contact form blocks. There's lots of options if you just want Markdown but this isn't enough for heavily branded business websites where you need to check how complex…

Yes, Strapi ( https://strapi.io/ ) though I'm not sure about previews. https://www.sanity.io/studio is open source, but some parts of the CMS aren't I don't think. Possibly there could be an adapter to use Sanity Studio w/ Strapi?

Looks like Strapi has paid only features. Are these significant to most sites?

https://strapi.io/pricing-self-hosted "Free...Up to 3 default roles"

https://strapi.io/blog/introducing-strapi-enterprise-edition...

Sanity.io doesn't seem to be fully open source: https://github.com/sanity-io/sanity/issues/978

"You can only run the Studio connected to the Sanity hosted backend. There is no option for connecting the Studio to another backend."

Re: The complicated futility of WordPress

#29

Post by seanwilson »

chyeah wrote: post #26
seanwilson wrote: post #21

Are there any good options for an open source headless CMS that works with a static site generator that has a page builder that has quick and accurate live previews before you deploy? E.g. so you can build new landing pages from header, testimonial and contact form blocks. There's lots of options if you just want Markdown but this isn't enough for heavily branded business websites where you need to check how complex…

Prismic's "slices" might be what you're looking for if you want out-of-the-box functionality and hosting. If you're wanting a bit more flexibility from a code-perspective (and you don't mind TypeScript), I've found Payload CMS to be a great option to build out a page builder as you've described using their "blocks".

Looks like Prismic and Payload CMS aren't open source?

https://github.com/payloadcms/payload/blob/master/license.md - "Payload is free to download and install—and free to use for Personal Purposes. We are passionate about Payload, and we hope that you will enjoy it, too. A valid license is required to utilize Payload as detailed below"

https://prismic.io/faq/product - "Proprietary, not open source"

Re: The complicated futility of WordPress

#30

Post by openknot »

anon23anon wrote: post #3

I was recently doing some electrical work on my house. The past owner had really jacked things up. I couldn't figure out and had to call an electrician. I'd imagine the majority of their work is DIY'ers who've f'ed up and had to call a pro. To me that's what going to happen here - marketing will continually screw and tinker w/ shit till it's broke and then they'll call you to fix it. I also want to add this is a good…

>I also want to add this is a good example of why marketing should probably just be using tools like Insta, Twitter, FB etc to get their message out. Now if you actually have a good company blog w/ good resources than that's different but I think that's more the exception than the norm.

Would you be willing to elaborate this position? I disagree that only being on social media is sufficient for marketing a service/product/organization.

Social media channels can be used to link content to a website, where there is far more control over how the information is presented (e.g. with embedded documents, testimonials, contact forms, and more pictures that can't be added as easily to sical media). You also have more control over the content on your website, on the low but real chance that you lose control of your company's social media accounts due to an unexpected reason.

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