Using Gastby.js as a front end for Drupal… And other CMS’s

Gatsby is a really fast React-based static site generator. You can use it to create a static site, with content pulled from Drupal and other content management systems.

Source: Decoupling Drupal with Gatsby | Evolving Web

While it seem odd to think about using a static website generator like Gatsby as a front end to a dynamic content system like Drupal, it does make sense to give this a try if your CMS is driving a basic brochure-ware site or you need to spin up a mini site for an event, product, or service. This step-by-step article walks you through getting this going on Drupal 8. With some creative thinking this could work for Drupal 7 and WordPress too.

What is Gatsby.js? Good Question. Here’s a Quick Answer.

Gatsby is a React-based, GraphQL powered, static site generator. What does that even mean?  Well, it weaves together the best parts of React, webpack, react-router, GraphQL, and other front-end tools in to one very enjoyable developer experience. Don’t get hung up on the moniker ‘static site generator’.  That term has been around for a while, but Gatsby is far more like a modern front-end framework than a static site generator of old.

You code and develop your site, Gatsby transforms it into a directory with a single HTML file and your static assets. This folder is uploaded to your favorite hosting provider, and voila.
Overall think, part Jekyll, part create-react-app.

Source: What is Gatsby.js | Mediacurrent

Looks like I need to take a peek at Gatsby.js and see what’s going on there. Most intriguing are features to leverage APIs on existing CMS’s to pull the content and display it with a new more modern front-end.