The Benefits of Decoupled Content Management
When the browser becomes the master chef
The times they are a’changing… what’s new, right?
For years, website makers have been building and leveraging content management systems to structure, store and present (or theme) content. Specifically, popular open-source content management systems (WordPress chief among them) have drastically increased access to web publishing. Thanks to their all-in-one approach (not to mention the one-click installs provided by many web hosts), content management has saturated the web. In fact, the web (aka Facebook, for some people) and content management are nearly indistinguishable now.
However, recent advances in browser capabilities may be putting your favorite content management system (CMS) out of a job: namely, content presentation. JavaScript is the cool kid on the block, and she wants to do more with your content than your CMS can.
Enter headless content management.
A headless content management system behaves much like a traditional CMS — except that it stops short of rendering and delivering web pages. Instead, the headless CMS delivers content in the form of structured data via an API (application programming interface). Then, a separate application (perhaps running in your browser) can pick up the data and do anything with it (say, theme a webpage).
This idea (of data passing between applications) isn’t new; in fact, it’s older than the internet. But it’s definitely reaching a new level of use. The Internet of Things is premised on this concept. The Cloud is increasingly structured for this kind of architecture. And advancements in web browser capabilities are driving this change beyond web applications into web publishing.
In an effort to bring truth to the masses, permit me a metaphor.
Until now, the browser has been like a college freshman who doesn’t know how to cook. A frozen dinner is very helpful to this dude: The meal comes assembled and ready to eat (pending 10 minutes in a microwave).
Now, compare this bro with a master chef: Give her the same ingredients that are in the frozen dinner, just don’t blend and freeze them. And she can make a far superior meal. In fact, she can make 10 distinctly superior meals.
These days, the browser is more like a master chef. It’s ready to put everything together and consume information in a radically inventive way — and produce a far more satisfying outcome.
Sounds neat, but why? How does decoupling content management (content structure and storage) from webpage presentation pay the bills?
Portability
If your CMS stops at structured data, that same data can be accessed from any number of applications — a website, a mobile app, a coffee maker (no joke).
Reusability
Your CMS (and its content) can survive through multiple iterations (even a complete redesign) of your website. And the labor involved with creating a new website is reduced by removing content structuring and migration from the equation.
Polish and performance
Giving the browser the unassembled ingredients of a webpage instead of a completed web page enables more: more efficient bandwidth usage, more informed content presentation, more engaging interactions. JavaScript is freed to do the amazing things it is capable of today — and tomorrow, it will be easier to update for new amazingness.
Unsurprisingly, maintainers of the popular content management systems have been retooling for headless content management. In this brave new world, you could still sign in to the familiar warmth of the WordPress administrative interface, but you aren’t dependent on WordPress to present and deliver web pages the same way it has for the past 15 years.
At Journey Group, we’re increasingly excited to decouple content management for our clients.
If the pairing of tried-and-true content management systems like WordPress or Drupal with the greatest experience a browser can deliver doesn’t whet your content management appetite, I don’t know what will.
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