Overview - Strapi CMS

Strapi as a headless CMS for WEBSALE: log-in, content editing, components, collections, and connection to the storefront template theme.

This documentation describes how to use Strapi in the WEBSALE context – from signing in and managing content to making customizations and, where needed, extending it with additional components.

Strapi is a modern content management system (CMS) for managing shop content. As a headless CMS, it follows the API-first principle: content is maintained in Strapi and then delivered to the shop via the JSON interface. This makes Strapi particularly suitable for larger and more complex projects.

Strapi is not a kit system (page builder) like Wix, Jimdo, or WordPress Elementor. It serves to maintain content – the design (layout) is not created in Strapi but in the template theme of the storefront. There are no design libraries with ready-made elements to select via drag and drop, and in Strapi you do not see the finished page design in advance. Instead, you work with input masks and forms: for example, an image, a heading, and a link are entered into defined fields. How this content is displayed in the shop (for example as a slideshow, image gallery, or teaser) is defined once in the template theme.

The principle is comparable to product and category data from PIM or merchandise management: information is maintained in data fields, and the shop template defines the output in category and product pages.

This approach corresponds to the WEBSALE approach for the storefront: WEBSALE does not provide a drag-and-drop page builder or rigid design templates. The content comes from various data sources (for example merchandise management, PIM, CMS), while the presentation is implemented individually in the template theme using HTML templates as well as CSS and JavaScript files.

The creation and customization of the template theme is usually carried out by web designers and frontend developers. Based on the WEBSALE template engine, HTML templates are built, styled with CSS, and supplemented with logic and interactions using JavaScript if required. How the storefront can generally be built and adapted is described in the frontend documentation.

For editorial quality assurance, a test approach is available: content can first be published for testing only and viewed in the shop via the shop test mode (preview view) and checked. Changes can thus be made iteratively until the content is final. Only then is the content published in the live context and visible to end customers. This way, content can also be prepared and reviewed internally; approvals are made manually by default (without automated approval workflows).

The WEBSALE demo shop is delivered with the Strapi CMS by default and already contains a defined set of input masks and matching displays.

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SEO meta data for CMS pages

For CMS pages, a meta info plugin is available by default. It is used to maintain the SEO-relevant fields of a page, such as SEO URL, meta title, meta description, and robots, centrally and independently of the free content type modeling. This way, these values can be set per page without having to model them individually in every project-specific content type.

The values maintained this way are transferred to the shop and processed there like the meta data of other pages. The corresponding configuration node is seoMetaData – in particular viewSchemes, which provides the meta data for CMS pages analogous to categories, products, and the home page.

A detailed classification of the meta info plugin can be found under Basics & architecture of Strapi.

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Which content is relevant

Content maintenance and changes to existing content

If you only want to maintain content or adjust existing content, it is enough to read the following two chapters.

• Sign-in & user management of Strapi
• Editing content in Strapi

For pure content maintenance, no development knowledge is required.

Creating new content elements

If new content elements are needed or existing input masks and structures are to be extended, these chapters are additionally relevant:

• Basics & architecture of Strapi
• Components & collections in Strapi
• Adapting templates for Strapi content

For new components/forms as well as extensions of structures and displays, knowledge of HTML, CSS, JavaScript, JSON, and the WEBSALE template engine is required.

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Table of contents

• Sign-in & user management of Strapi — This page describes how access to the Strapi CMS works and how users are managed in Strapi. This includes the initial login, basic settings such as the language, and creating, editing, and deleting users.
• Basics & architecture of Strapi — This page explains the basic concepts and architecture of Strapi. The aim is to provide an understanding of how Strapi is built as a headless CMS, what role the API-first approach plays, and how content from Strapi is delivered to the WEBSALE shop.
• Components & collections in Strapi — This page explains how content is structured in Strapi and what role components, collections, and single entries play. You will learn what the respective content types are used for, how they differ, and how they work together in the content manager to maintain content.
• Editing content in Strapi — This page describes how content is maintained and adapted in the Strapi CMS in the WEBSALE context. This includes editing existing content, creating new content, and the basic differences between saving and publishing – including notes on prior testing.
• Adapting templates for Strapi content — This page describes how the shop templates must be adapted when Strapi components or content are changed or new.