Build a Blog in 4 Steps
Carson Gibbons is the Co-Founder & CMO of Cosmic JS, an API-first Cloud-based Content Management Platform that decouples content from code, allowing devs to build slick apps and websites in any programming language they want.
Having no development experience myself, building my own blog seemed like an insurmountable feat. I could have used a web-builder product or even installed a CMS, but whenever I thought about the domain registrar vs. the hosting server vs. the actual blog itself, my eyes would usually glaze over. I’ll outline in 4 steps how I built my blog (yes, the one you are reading right now).
1. SIGN UP FOR COSMIC JS
Every Cosmic JS account comes with a free test bucket. Sign up with an email address or your GitHub account and start making API requests immediately.
2. INSTALL THE FUTURE IMPERFECT APP
Future Imperfect is an awesome Node.js app that uses the Express framework. It is adapted from a theme at html5up.net. You can browse all of the Cosmic JS Apps and filter between Node.js, React, Angular JS, PHP & Bootstrap applications.
3. EDIT GLOBAL OBJECTS, OBJECT TYPES & METAFIELDS
Global Objects
These are my Global Objects, the Objects that are present everywhere within my application — Header, Navigation & my Contact links.
Objects & Object Types
These are all of my Objects — notice their ‘Type’ in the third column — I can draw distinctions between objects that are pages, posts, global objects & even metafields. ‘Authors’ is an example of a metafield, pages are an example of an object type, and posts are an example of an object type as well — you can simply drag and drop relationships between objects. For example, Navigation is a Global Object, but my ‘About Page’ is an Object Type = Page. Tie the relationship between ‘Navigation’ and ‘About’.
Metafields
Within each option I have options to include Metafields, the ‘widgets’ that rest within pages of your app. One of my metafields is Authors, so that with each post I write, the option to include an author avatar shows up.
4. DEPLOY W/ MY CUSTOM DOMAIN
Within your Dashboard, go to Web Hosting and you’ll see the options above. You can download your bucket of content and host it elsewhere, or you can deploy onto the Cosmic JS App Server. I deployed my Future Imperfect app onto the Cosmic JS App Server with my own custom domain and can post my blog articles all from one web-based CMS that updates instantly. I don’t have to worry about hosting servers or web-builders — I simply get to publish my content and know that it’s being served to every web-based device in responsive format.
Cosmic JS is an API-first cloud-based content management platform that makes it easy to manage applications and content. Sign up for Cosmic JS to install any one of our apps for easy customization. If you have any questions about the benefits of going API-first, reach out to us on Twitter and join the Cosmic Community on Slack.
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READ MORE
- How to Build an API-Powered, Static Website
- JSON Powers the World
- Creating Extendable Content Objects Served via API
- Sharing Resources With a Content Management API
- How to Build a Cross-Platform Blog Using React Native and Node.js
- How to Create an Intuitive Website Navigation Menu
- Build a Blog in 4 Steps
- The Cosmic Stack
