Sanity CMS : Your Ultimate Headless CMS Solution
In the changing world of content management systems (CMS), Sanity CMS shines as a versatile, up-to-date platform designed for both developers and content creators.
Table of Contents
Unlike conventional CMSs, which frequently enforce strict frameworks and processes, Sanity CMS is constructed to be highly adaptable, making it a great option for projects that demand flexible content management with a focus on organized content and the ability to grow.
What is Sanity CMS
Sanity is a modern headless CMS (Content Management System). Sanity uses structured content to endlessly reuse content across any channel and a composable approach to help businesses connect to any third-party technology, data source, and front-end framework.
With Sanity, you can manage your text, images, and other media with APIs. You can also use the open-source single-page application Sanity Studio to quickly set up an editing environment that you can customize.
With Sanity, you have access to a bunch of APIs, libraries, and tooling that help you leverage the benefits of having all your content available as a single source of truth. This article will quickly walk you through some central concepts, giving you a head start.
Sanity is a hosted CMS that is known for its ease of use and collaboration features. It is a good choice for projects that need a quick and easy way to get started with a headless CMS. Sanity also offers a variety of integrations with other popular tools, such as React and Gatsby.
The front end of your website or application can be built using any technology that can interact with this API, allowing for greater flexibility and performance.
Features:
- Real-time Collaboration: Sanity CMS offers real-time content editing, enabling multiple users to work on the same content simultaneously. This is particularly useful for teams working in fast-paced environments.
- Customizable Content Models: Unlike traditional CMSs that force you into predefined content types, Sanity CMS allows you to define your content structure using JSON schemas. This makes it possible to tailor the CMS to fit your specific needs.
- Scalability: Sanity is designed to scale with your project. Whether you’re managing a small blog or a large e-commerce site with thousands of products, Sanity can handle it.
- Structured Content: Sanity emphasizes structured content, which is content stored in a format that makes it easy to query and manipulate. This is ideal for projects that require content to be reused across different platforms or displayed in various formats.
- Portable Text: Sanity introduces a rich text editor that outputs structured data instead of HTML, making it easier to manage content in different contexts.
- Headless Architecture: Being headless, Sanity allows you to decouple the backend from the frontend, giving you the freedom to choose your frontend technology, whether it’s React, Vue.js, or even a static site generator like Next.js.
- Content Lake: Sanity’s Content Lake is a real-time, globally distributed backend that ensures low latency and high availability for your content.
Project Structure:
├── README.md ├── dist │ ├── index.html │ └── static │ ... │ └── ... ├── package-lock.json ├── package.json ├── sanity.cli.ts ├── sanity.config.ts ├── schemas │ ├── author.ts │ ├── blockContent.ts │ ├── category.ts │ ├── index.ts │ └── post.ts ├── static └── tsconfig.json
Sanity Studio contains the following files and folders out of the box:
- package.json: Contains the necessary dependencies for the studio project. There will also be a dependency lock file that might look different depending on which package manager you use.
- sanity.cli.ts: The configuration file for the Sanity CLI. Contains information on what project ID and dataset the CLI should connect to for project-specific commands.
- sanity.config.ts: The configuration file for the Studio contains information about what project(s) that the Studio should connect to, as well as schemas, plugins, and other customizations.
- schemas: It’s a convention to organize schema files in a dedicated folder. It’s not required to have a schemas folder, as schemas are imported as JavaScript into the Studio config object.
- static: If you want to bundle static files in the studio, you can place these files in the static folder. The built-in developer tooling using Vite will pick these up automatically. If you use a different bundler, then you might need to configure this to bundle files from this folder as well.
- tsconfig.json (only if TypeScript is used) Contains the settings for the transpilation of TypeScript into JavaScript.
- dist: This folder is auto-generated and contains the production build of Sanity Studio as a result of running npm run build.
Sanity CMS Installation
Before getting started with Sanity CMS, ensure you have the following installed on your system:
- Node.js (version 14 or higher)
- npm (Node Package Manager)
- A Sanity account (You can sign up for free at Sanity.io and log into the account to the default browser as it asks for login into the account during the setup process.)
Step 1: Sanity CMS provides a Command Line Interface (CLI) that helps you set up and manage your projects. To install the Sanity CLI, open your terminal and run the “npm install -g @sanity/cli” command in your terminal
Step 2: Once the CLI is installed, you can create a new Sanity project by running the “sanity init” command. This command will prompt you with any questions regarding the setup project. During the setup process, you’ll be asked to provide a project name, select a dataset (usually production), and choose a project output path. After this, the CLI will download the necessary files and set up your project.
Step 3: Once completed, run the “npm run dev” command in your terminal and open “http://localhost:3333/” in your browser to see the output.
You can also refer to the below video for the whole installation process:
Use cases of Sanity CMS
To illustrate the versatility of Sanity CMS, let’s explore some real-world examples:
- E-commerce: Create a flexible product catalog, manage product variations, and deliver personalized shopping experiences.
- Digital marketing: Build a content hub for blogs, landing pages, and email campaigns, optimizing content performance through analytics.
- Content-rich websites: Structure complex content like news articles, documentation, or knowledge bases efficiently.
- Decoupled applications: Power native mobile apps and smart devices with structured content from Sanity.
Credits:
- Photo by Joanna Kosinska on Unsplash
Reference:
Conclusion:
Sanity CMS provides a distinctive mix of adaptability, instant teamwork, and organized content handling, rendering it an effective instrument for contemporary web creation. Whether your goal is to develop a basic website or a sophisticated application, Sanity’s serverless design and flexible content frameworks can adjust to your requirements.
After completing this guide, you should now possess a fundamental grasp of how to establish and utilize Sanity CMS for your projects. The subsequent phases include delving further into GROQ for more complex searches, investigating Sanity’s add-ons for enhanced features, and incorporating the CMS into your live development process.
Enjoy your coding journey!