How Headless CMS Works
Introduction:
Before understanding what a headless CMS is and how headless CMS works, let us take a look at the traditional content management system and what it intended to do. Traditional content management systems are available in the market since the early days of web development. WordPress and Joomla are platforms that were designed to store and present components of content such as texts, images and videos on websites.
The approach of traditional CMS was to manage content by putting contents, HTML, CSS, and images, all in one place. This approach made it impossible to reprocess contents as they became combined with code.
The need for more adaptable methods of content management systems increased as digital platforms became more evolved with time. Companies are now developing apps, websites, conversational interfaces, digital displays, and so on. The traditional CMS failed to keep pace with these developments because such a system organises content in webpage-oriented frameworks, which made it impossible for various platforms to adapt the same content.
What is a headless CMS?
A headless CMS is a content management system that serves content as data to multiple devices or platforms via application programming interface (API), rather than having content restricted to a specific website or app.
A headless CMS refers to any kind of back-end content management system where the ‘body’, content repository is separated from the ‘head’, presentation layer.
This means that by using headless CMS, teams can use one housed content repository to deliver content to various frontend platforms, such as TVs, websites, and mobile apps, etc. from one single source via API.
Some platforms with traditional content management systems provide a headless API, that allows teams or companies to send contents to a separate presentation layer. This method is called ‘headless’ as the presentation layer is separated or decoupled from the body.
One method of solving the restrictions of traditional content management systems is to implement a headless CMS. Cutting off a presentation layer will create a headless CMS if the presentation layer of the content is the head of the content management system.
Although headless CMS allows teams and companies to choose a suitable presentation layer or head for a digital platform, there is an underlying issue that still remains unsolved, that is to create content in a way so that it can be reusable on various channels and platforms.
Now that we have understood what headless CMS is, let us take a look at how headless CMS works.
How Does Headless CMS Works
A headless CMS works in two ways:
1. By providing editors with a connection to manage contents
2. By providing content for developers and experts via API with which they can build applications.
The majority of headless content management systems will offer a Software as a Service (SaaS), where editors will have to log into an application and the APIs are hosted in a cloud-based backend.
A few headless CMSes will allow companies to hold the whole solution in their own database and server. This means that enterprises and teams will have to perform their own scaling and operations.
Download Headless CMS Themes
Portfo- React Headless cms template
Portfo is an innovative frontity personal portfolio theme perfect for each designer, developer, and content writer. This theme has everything you need, whether you have to construct an enticing presentation of your artistic or design portfolio or display your art gallery or shop.
Portfo offers a vast collection of homepage templates and shop layouts, practical inner pages, and blogs that can be customised according to your styles and needs. Both Dark and Light Versions are available.
Picksy: React Grocery Ecommerce Template
Picksy is an E-commerce Template based on React Gatsby which uses two headless application programming interfaces (API). One of these APIs is Shopify Storefront API for E-commerce purpose and the other one is for Static Content Management [Prismic]. Users can easily edit or change any text or product data from there. Shopify E-commerce API is behaving as a fully functional E-commerce and is ready to be used by businesses. Picksy is the perfect choice for you if you are looking for something to build your website quickly. Picksy is written with React [TypeScript], Gatsby. You will be able to deploy it as a static site very easily and it is faster loading to the end user.
