New World - Strapi

The “New World” series finds its technical beginning here. In this article I will operate Strapi as a Docker container/stack.

What was Strapi again?

Strapi is a Headless CMS. That means: Strapi provides all requirements that apply to a backend. Data storage, web service, and administration are a few of these requirements.

The display of content etc. must be provided separately by the operator/developer. I will use GatsbyJS as an example.

What can Strapi do?

Ghost, for example, is a system that I have come to like very much. Ghost can also be operated as a Headless CMS. If Ghost offered the creation of custom “content types”, I wouldn’t write this post.

ContentTypes / Fields

With Strapi I can create custom content types. Various field types are also offered, with which the content type can be modeled.

The relationship/relations field is worth mentioning separately here. For someone who has been modeling content types for over 10 years – I can do SharePoint and I can do it pretty well – the lookup field was always such a half-finished thing. With MOSS 2007 it was cool, over the years not so much :)

The lookup field can today still do 1->1 or 1->n relations. Strapi can do more: besides 1->1 and 1->n, n->n is also possible… and then the whole inverse :)

GraphQL

Strapi can do GraphQL and it does it quite well! Strapi can in my opinion also be used for quick showcases or small to medium PoCs.

I model my (relational) data model at the surface, I assign the required permissions for the API via a surface and can then query/develop against it. That’s simple, simple :)

The Technological Stack

Strapi is written in Node.js. For me this part is actually very uninteresting, as I see languages and/or frameworks as tools that I should be able to use.

What is interesting, however: I can react programmatically at various points and e.g. adjust the service, controller, or model for a content type. The latter – Models – even offer the possibility to react to various events when managing entities. Something like with SharePoint ListEventReceivers. I love it :)

What Strapi Can’t Do

Strapi can’t do a lot of things OOTB, most of it can be implemented/integrated programmatically.

Admin Interface

What I don’t like so much is the admin interface. It’s better than some other Headless CMS systems, but still damn ugly. Try setting a date in a date field that is before 2012…

No ContentType Hierarchy

There are also functions that I’m used to from SharePoint and actually miss in Strapi: Hierarchical ContentType structure!

If Strapi offered something like that, it would be the ideal platform for me to build small ontologies and with a bit of logic build a semantic web environment.

Putting into Operation with External MongoDB

This undertaking is actually very simple since the makers of Strapi provide a Docker image and also fairly good documentation.

The corresponding docker-compose.yml:

version: '3'

services:
  strapi:
    container_name: strapi
    image: strapi/strapi:${TAG}
    environment:
      - DATABASE_CLIENT=${DATABASE_CLIENT}
      - DATABASE_HOST=${DATABASE_HOST}
      - DATABASE_PORT=${DATABASE_PORT}
      - DATABASE_NAME=${DATABASE_NAME}
      - DATABASE_USERNAME=${DATABASE_USERNAME}
      - DATABASE_PASSWORD=${DATABASE_PASSWORD}
      - DATABASE_AUTHENTICATION_DATABASE=${DATABASE_AUTHENTICATION_DATABASE}
      - VIRTUAL_HOST=${VIRTUAL_HOST}
      - LETSENCRYPT_HOST=${LETSENCRYPT_HOST}
      - LETSENCRYPT_EMAIL=${LETSENCRYPT_EMAIL}
    ports:
      - 1337:1337
    volumes:
      - strapi_data:/srv/app

volumes:
  strapi_data:

networks:
  default:
    external:
      name: nginx-proxy

Start with docker-compose up and then you can start modeling.

How Will It Continue?

What will definitely follow at some point: A guide on how to set up Strapi as a local development environment via package manager, make adjustments, and build a Docker image… And how to (relatively easily) import the articles from Ghost.

New World - Strapi - Part 1