4 ms·

Funny, just spent this morning working on a Hugo project for the first time in a while, because I just discovered https://netlifycms.org https://netlifycms.org.

Funny, just spent this morning working on a Hugo project for the first time in a while, because I just discovered https://netlifycms.org https://netlifycms.org. I love Hugo and how fast it generates my business site (https://sunboxlabs.com https://sunboxlabs.com), but having just hired a first (non-technical) writer I had a classic dilemma: either teach them the Hugo command line/markdown or switch to something like Forestry/ButterCMS/Wordpress for a non-technical CMS. Then I found https://NetlifyCMS.org https://NetlifyCMS.org: You just add an /static/admin/ folder with two files in it and BOOM: non-technical users can create and edit posts with a Wordpress like dashboard (saves as Markdown to Git still). Strongly recommended.

seanwilson 6y ago
What's your workflow for letting your writer preview the generated styled pages?
- nikodunk 6y ago
  Great question. We basically set every article as a draft, and because they can write in WYSIWIG writer now (no markdown) and the netlifycms admin dashboard allows them to see a fully-rendered preview that gets us 80% of the way. At that point (once we've checked the links and typos, etc) we flip the draft boolean to false and check the article looks as expected on production. Not perfect – we'd probably have a staging server if we were bigger – but we're still small :)
  - seanwilson 6y ago
    Thanks, I was just thinking about how this works vs something like WordPress where you can preview how the actual edited page will look before you publish. Netlify CMS lets you view the Markdown, but the non-tech editor would have to understand there's a build delay to the page going live and the final page might need reviewing. Nothing's perfect though, I just find most static site stories don't address the above so any thoughts are appreciated!
    - chrisdalke 6y ago
      If I remember correctly you can have Netlify CMS commit changes to a branch that is auto-deployed, so you can see the fully rendered preview.
      - seanwilson 6y ago
        Yep, but how do you explain that to a non-tech person (e.g. URL to visit, how long to wait for the build to finish)?
        trystero 6y ago
        It's all reflected in the UI, with a "View Live" button that appears when the build is done. It's quite user friendly. I recommend you test it yourself: https://cms-demo.netlify.com/ https://cms-demo.netlify.com/

seanwilson 6y ago

What's your workflow for letting your writer preview the generated styled pages?

nikodunk 6y ago
Great question. We basically set every article as a draft, and because they can write in WYSIWIG writer now (no markdown) and the netlifycms admin dashboard allows them to see a fully-rendered preview that gets us 80% of the way. At that point (once we've checked the links and typos, etc) we flip the draft boolean to false and check the article looks as expected on production. Not perfect – we'd probably have a staging server if we were bigger – but we're still small :)
- seanwilson 6y ago
  Thanks, I was just thinking about how this works vs something like WordPress where you can preview how the actual edited page will look before you publish. Netlify CMS lets you view the Markdown, but the non-tech editor would have to understand there's a build delay to the page going live and the final page might need reviewing. Nothing's perfect though, I just find most static site stories don't address the above so any thoughts are appreciated!
  - chrisdalke 6y ago
    If I remember correctly you can have Netlify CMS commit changes to a branch that is auto-deployed, so you can see the fully rendered preview.
    - seanwilson 6y ago
      Yep, but how do you explain that to a non-tech person (e.g. URL to visit, how long to wait for the build to finish)?
      - trystero 6y ago
        It's all reflected in the UI, with a "View Live" button that appears when the build is done. It's quite user friendly. I recommend you test it yourself: https://cms-demo.netlify.com/ https://cms-demo.netlify.com/