Overview
Choosing the right CMS (Content Management System) is a decision that has long-term effects. All of them were created so that the website could be managed by people without much developer knowledge. But some pride themselves on being completely independent of the dev team. So what is a solution for companies or managers who would like to create, update and publish content without asking anyone for help?
This was a case of the Save Wild Cats Foundation, established out of love for cats and the belief that people should take responsibility for the damage they do. The fund team works intensively to prevent the extinction of the rarest species of wild cats, supporting scientific research, and educational activities and creating a genetic material bank to increase the population of wild cats in their natural habitat. One of the most important tools used to reach the supporters is the fund’s website. Chop-Chop was responsible for its creation.
Strapi – when no coding knowledge is required
Although it is known that all companies should operate effectively, in the case of foundations it is much more important. Every penny spent on internal operations will not contribute to the main goal. As it turns out, this also applies to the website. Its first version was ok, but it needed constant developer care to implement new things on the website or change the existing ones. Therefore, Chop-Chop was asked to introduce solutions that would allow the content manager to manage the website on their own. Strapi turned out to be the solution.
Content managers that would like to get their pages live in hours, test some new ideas or launch new campaigns in less time, more and more often choose a headless CMS solution, like Strapi.
How Strapi works?
Unlike other CMS, Strapi doesn’t lock you in rigid templates. Instead, you can design pages with custom components. In the Save Wild Cats Foundation case, Chop-Chop had set up a component library. Those components are now used by the content manager to modify the layout or add something new to the website anytime needed. It is said that you can become Strapi pro user in just 2 minutes.
Strapi from the developer’s point of view
Strapi is not only a great tool for content managers but also a reliable one for developers CMS with Node.js backend framework and React.js as an admin panel.
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
42
43
44
45
46
47
48
49
export type StrapiSessionData {
productName: string;
price: number;
currency: string;
image: string;
baseUrl: string;
paymentMethods: Array<'p24' | 'card'>;
customerEmail: string;
}
class StrapiGraphqlAPI {
protected client: GraphQLClient;
protected restClient: AxiosInstance;
constructor() {
this.client = new GraphQLClient(`${process.env.API_BASE_URL}/graphql`, {
headers: {},
});
this.restClient = axios.create({ baseURL: process.env.API_BASE_URL });
}
public getPages = (locale: Locale) =>
this.client.request<PagesQuery>(PagesDocument, { locale });
public getGlobalContent = (locale: Locale) =>
this.client.request<GlobalContentQuery>(GlobalContentDocument, {
locale,
});
public getPosts = (locale: Locale) =>
this.client.request<PostsQuery>(PostsDocument, { locale });
public createDonationEntry = (data: DonationData) =>
this.client.request<CreateDonationEntryMutation>(
CreateDonationEntryDocument,
data,
);
public getStrapiSession = (data: StrapiSessionData) =>
this.restClient
.post<{ message: string; session: { url: string } }>(
`/api/strapi`,
data,
)
.then((response) => response.data.session.url);
}
export const API = new StrapiGraphqlAPI();Because Strapi is (and by the company’s declaration will always be) free, it has no limitations on the number of API calls, admin panel users, content types, locales, and environments.
Talking about API, you can build schema, models, and controllers directly from the editor. There is also extensive database support, which means that you can choose from quite a few: PostgradeSQL, MongoDB, and MariaDB
When talking about frontend frameworks you can also choose from a bunch of popular ones such as Gatsby, Vue.js, Nuxt.js, Nest.js, React, Angular, Svelte, Sapper, and Hugo.
Extensions and connectivity
For every foundation, donations play an important role. Strapi makes it easy as well.
You can manage online payments and subscriptions with free plugins like for example Stripe Payment, which is a suite of payment API. You can set it in just 10 minutes. Just enter Sripe API credentials, create products, then embed the payment button to redirect your client to the payment page. After redirecting to the checkout page, which can also be fully customized the whole operation is done.
Hosting Strapi
With Strapi you don’t have to worry about hosting. Strapi Cloud is a platform that helps you deploy and host Strapi. Automatic backups, multi-database support, global and fast CDN, and large API rate limits are just a few strengths of the cloud.
Is Strapi the right solution for you?
There is no good or bad CMS. All of them have strengths and weaknesses. Popular WordPress could be better in terms of support & development as it is a well-established project while Strapi is still a new one. But if you are looking for a simple design that is easy to maintain, and where is less to go wrong, or you are keen on a clean and undemanding interface, you can consider Stripe ad your potential number one choice.