
Today I learned about headless wordpress. Wordpress now offers a REST API which
makes it possible to decouple the frontend completely from the wordpress
backend.

This is pretty cool, because I'm faster and more comfortable with JavaScript
when developing the frontend compared to the wordpress way where you mix you're
HTML with PHP.

For example: This makes it possible for me to use GatsbyJS for the frontend and
consume the content from wordpress through the API. Gatsby offers a plugin to do
all the heavy lifting for me and enables the bridge between wordpress and
Gatsby:
[gatsby-source-wordpress](https://www.gatsbyjs.org/packages/gatsby-source-wordpress/)

Of course this brings some pros and cons with it. I researched a bit and
collected a few articles which go into detail about using wordpress as a
headless CMS.

From the gatsby documentation:
[What is Headless WordPress?](https://www.gatsbyjs.com/docs/glossary/headless-wordpress/)

From Chris Coyier on css-tricks.com:
[Just How Niche is Headless WordPress?](https://css-tricks.com/just-how-niche-is-headless-wordpress/)


Headless Wordpress


When you are using GatsbyJS there is a really useful plugin to add **git
infomation** to your pages.

The
[gatsby-transformer-gitinfo](https://www.gatsbyjs.com/plugins/gatsby-transformer-gitinfo/)
plugin enables to query for `gitLogLatest` fields like `gitLogLatestEmail`,
`gitLogLatestName` and `gitLogLatestDate`.

```graphql
{
  allMdx {
    edges {
      node {
        parent {
          ... on File {
            fields {
              gitLogLatestDate
              gitLogLatestAuthorEmail
              gitLogLatestAuthorName
            }
          }
        }
      }
    }
  }
}
```

This returns the following results:

```
{
  "data": {
    "allMdx": {
      "edges": [
        {
          "node": {
            "parent": {
              "fields": {
                "gitLogLatestDate": "2020-03-25 17:17:56 +0100",
                "gitLogLatestAuthorEmail": "marcokuehbauch@gmail.com",
                "gitLogLatestAuthorName": "Marco Kühbauch"
              }
            }
          }
        },
      ],
    },
  },
},
```

I found this particuarly useful when I wanted to add a **"Last updated on"**
feature to my blog post.

I didn't want to add the updated date **manually** to every blog post I worked
on. So using the git commit date for this is super helpful.

By adding a **"Last updated on"** feature I wanted to make sure that my content
stays **relevant** and shows the users, if it's still **usable information** or
if it's outdated.

A great sideeffect is, that it's also good for **SEO** to tell search engines,
when your content was last updated and therefore rank it better.


Improving SEO with Gatsby Gitinfo


Today I learned how to build Landingpages with GatsbyJS and Contentful. This is
an absolutely powerful combination. Both projects themselves are already doing a
pretty good job, but combining them seems like a no-brainer.

GatsbyJS makes it really easy to query your Content from Contentful with
GraphQL. It server-side-renders your content and returns just static HTML pages.

Learn more:
https://www.contentful.com/r/knowledgebase/gatsbyjs-and-contentful-in-five-minutes/


Today I learned

Headless Wordpress

Improving SEO with Gatsby Gitinfo

Working with GatsbyJS and Contentful