4 ms·

NetlifyCMS is great for blogs. Anything more complex, I wouldn't recommend.

michaelbrooks 7y ago
I bet with a bit of engineering it could be pretty flexible. You could have a folder containing modules and then folders in there for submodules. You could then get JS to pick out specific modules and submodules on specific pages. There would be a lot involved and probably wouldn't be worth the effort when more dynamic solutions are already out there, but I think it would be doable.
XzAeRosho 7y ago
I'm curious. What would you recommend for more complex stuff?
- lukeholder 7y ago
  Craft CMS
- mattkevan 7y ago
  For static sites Forestry.io is good. The editor experience is great and you can do clever stuff with front matter - including adding a component based layout builder. https://forestry.io/blog/blocks-give-your-editors-the-power-to-build-pages/ https://forestry.io/blog/blocks-give-your-editors-the-power-...
  - sgallant 7y ago
    Co-creator here. We just launched some starters if you want to kick the tires. https://forestry.io/starters/ https://forestry.io/starters/ The UI for these starters doesn't show off advanced stuff, but click on "Front Matter" and add complex fields/groups/blocks to get a feel for the UI.
- vcoelho 7y ago
  Craft or Directus probably if I had more time. My requirements at the time were: - Can be integrated in a Vue static site generator - Has a free plan (single user) - Could be hosted for free at least during development - Could have relations ("Post" can have a "Category" field that list its content as options) - Has a admin UI that a non-developer could figure out
seanwilson 7y ago
What problems do you find with it? It might be limited in features but I'd rather not have to maintain e.g. a WordPress server for more if I can avoid it.
- vcoelho 7y ago
  I was trying to build a static site for a non-developer user that is essentially a catalog of products. Each "Product" has a list of variations, which has 2 fields: name and price. The relation widget in "Product" could only store name or price, not both, making it harder to build the select I wanted. Also, I've run into trouble with simple things like setting an unique ID for each "Product" without typing it manually, like an incremental id. Datetime field with UNIX formater was the closest I found, but it was not foolproof enough.
- CSSer 7y ago
  As someone who really enjoys Netlify, I suspect that the CMS project is just under-staffed. I’ve been building out a fairly complex Gatsby project with it recently. While doing so, I spent a lot of time reviewing issues and finding workarounds for various problems on Github. As far as I can tell, there isn’t more than a couple people dedicated to working on it internally, and although a lot of people seem interested in the project, it doesn’t seem like very many of them are prepared to contribute. One need only briefly peruse the issues to find a half dozen (solid) issues with replies from the team lead along the lines of, “This is a good point. Willing to accept PRs” This is troubling, and it makes me wonder if Netlify’s choice to open source this was their way of acknowledging the need for the project without demonstrating an actual willingness to dedicate the resources writing a decent CMS actually requires. So they thought, “maybe if we throw it out there, people will help” Politics aside, the largest problems I’ve had it with it revolve around the tension of organizing things in the CMS for the user vs configuring things for easy digestion in the SSG. If you set up the CMS how your, for example, non-tech savvy friend might expect it to look and then go build the front-end, you are almost certainty going to have a very bad time. This is because Netlify CMS’ widgets nest everything in deeply complex frontmatter by default, which makes sourcing and transforming it feel like a cumbersome chore. In my discussions with other people about it, more than one person has said, “So it sounds like the biggest benefit is just that it’s free. Thanks, but I’ll pass. My company pays for the base tier of X” EDIT: I’d just like to point out that I think I would/will use it again. The next time around, I’ll probably use almost exclusively folder collections. This breaks out the markdown into oddly organized bits in the CMS, but it makes it much easier to consume and combine in the build step.
barbellguy97 7y ago
Curious as well. Currently trying to integrate ut for a client with a Gatsby template. Has been very smooth sailing so far.
cacozen 7y ago
Well, Smashing Magazine runs on NetlifyCMS - it can be actually pretty powerful when extended with "integrations".
- sgallant 7y ago
  To my knowledge Smashing Magazine had to move on from NetlifyCMS and now just edit raw markdown.
ssijak 7y ago
Even for blogs it is not ideal. I’ve set it up on my wifes website and blog and after some time I switched it to Contentful which has good enough free tier and is much better, especcially for bon tech users imho.

I bet with a bit of engineering it could be pretty flexible. You could have a folder containing modules and then folders in there for submodules. You could then get JS to pick out specific modules and submodules on specific pages. There would be a lot involved and probably wouldn't be worth the effort when more dynamic solutions are already out there, but I think it would be doable.

XzAeRosho 7y ago

I'm curious. What would you recommend for more complex stuff?

lukeholder 7y ago
Craft CMS
mattkevan 7y ago
For static sites Forestry.io is good. The editor experience is great and you can do clever stuff with front matter - including adding a component based layout builder. https://forestry.io/blog/blocks-give-your-editors-the-power-to-build-pages/ https://forestry.io/blog/blocks-give-your-editors-the-power-...
- sgallant 7y ago
  Co-creator here. We just launched some starters if you want to kick the tires. https://forestry.io/starters/ https://forestry.io/starters/ The UI for these starters doesn't show off advanced stuff, but click on "Front Matter" and add complex fields/groups/blocks to get a feel for the UI.
vcoelho 7y ago
Craft or Directus probably if I had more time. My requirements at the time were: - Can be integrated in a Vue static site generator - Has a free plan (single user) - Could be hosted for free at least during development - Could have relations ("Post" can have a "Category" field that list its content as options) - Has a admin UI that a non-developer could figure out

seanwilson 7y ago

What problems do you find with it? It might be limited in features but I'd rather not have to maintain e.g. a WordPress server for more if I can avoid it.

vcoelho 7y ago
I was trying to build a static site for a non-developer user that is essentially a catalog of products. Each "Product" has a list of variations, which has 2 fields: name and price. The relation widget in "Product" could only store name or price, not both, making it harder to build the select I wanted. Also, I've run into trouble with simple things like setting an unique ID for each "Product" without typing it manually, like an incremental id. Datetime field with UNIX formater was the closest I found, but it was not foolproof enough.
CSSer 7y ago
As someone who really enjoys Netlify, I suspect that the CMS project is just under-staffed. I’ve been building out a fairly complex Gatsby project with it recently. While doing so, I spent a lot of time reviewing issues and finding workarounds for various problems on Github. As far as I can tell, there isn’t more than a couple people dedicated to working on it internally, and although a lot of people seem interested in the project, it doesn’t seem like very many of them are prepared to contribute. One need only briefly peruse the issues to find a half dozen (solid) issues with replies from the team lead along the lines of, “This is a good point. Willing to accept PRs” This is troubling, and it makes me wonder if Netlify’s choice to open source this was their way of acknowledging the need for the project without demonstrating an actual willingness to dedicate the resources writing a decent CMS actually requires. So they thought, “maybe if we throw it out there, people will help” Politics aside, the largest problems I’ve had it with it revolve around the tension of organizing things in the CMS for the user vs configuring things for easy digestion in the SSG. If you set up the CMS how your, for example, non-tech savvy friend might expect it to look and then go build the front-end, you are almost certainty going to have a very bad time. This is because Netlify CMS’ widgets nest everything in deeply complex frontmatter by default, which makes sourcing and transforming it feel like a cumbersome chore. In my discussions with other people about it, more than one person has said, “So it sounds like the biggest benefit is just that it’s free. Thanks, but I’ll pass. My company pays for the base tier of X” EDIT: I’d just like to point out that I think I would/will use it again. The next time around, I’ll probably use almost exclusively folder collections. This breaks out the markdown into oddly organized bits in the CMS, but it makes it much easier to consume and combine in the build step.

barbellguy97 7y ago

Curious as well. Currently trying to integrate ut for a client with a Gatsby template. Has been very smooth sailing so far.

cacozen 7y ago

Well, Smashing Magazine runs on NetlifyCMS - it can be actually pretty powerful when extended with "integrations".

sgallant 7y ago
To my knowledge Smashing Magazine had to move on from NetlifyCMS and now just edit raw markdown.

ssijak 7y ago

Even for blogs it is not ideal. I’ve set it up on my wifes website and blog and after some time I switched it to Contentful which has good enough free tier and is much better, especcially for bon tech users imho.