If you are using a static website generator (or framework with build option) with Strapi (Gatsby, Nuxt, Next, etc.) it is necessary to rebuild it when the content is updated in Strapi. In a Headless CMS, this is typically called a Webhook feature. Unfortunately it is not available yet in Strapi even if it has been requested.
But what we like at Strapi is to help developers. So even if the feature is not developed yet, this short article gives you an easy way to implement work around! 😃
As you may know, every Content Type (aka models) has lifecycle callbacks: functions which are triggered every time an entry is fetched, inserted, updated or deleted. Here is the list:
save
(both triggered on entry creation and update): beforeSave
, afterSave
.fetch
: beforeFetch
, afterFetch
.fetchAll
: beforeFetchAll
, afterFetchAll
.create
: beforeCreate
, afterCreate
.update
: beforeUpdate
, afterUpdate
.destroy
: beforeDestroy
, afterDestroy
.All of these functions are available in a file located at api/yourContentType/models/YourContentType.js
.
If your goal is to rebuild a static website, the only useful callbacks are afterCreate
, afterUpdate
and afterDestroy
. So, uncomment them, add logs and try to create, update and delete entries from the admin panel.
Path: api/yourContentType/models/YourContentType.js
We are almost there: the only thing we still need to do is to actually make the HTTP call to the URL which will rebuild the static website.
So first of all, let's store this URL in a proper way. To do so, edit config/environments/development/custom.json
:
Path: config/environments/development/custom.json
1{
2 "staticWebsiteBuildURL": "https://yourservice.com/"
3}
Do the same thing for other environments.
Now it is time to make the HTTP call. In this example we will use axios
as it is already in the list of Strapi's dependencies. Let's install it:
1npm i axios --save
Edit api/yourContentType/models/YourContentType.js
:
Path: api/yourContentType/models/YourContentType.js
Until September 2018, remove
lifecycle callback was not supported by Mongoose. This has been added but strapi-hook-mongoose
is not adapted yet to this update.
So, to trigger an url on delete, please add request.post(strapi.config.currentEnvironment.staticWebsiteBuildURL, entry);
in:
remove
action of api/yourContentType/services/YourContentType.js
(triggered by your public API).delete
action of plugins/content-manager/services/ContentManager.js
(triggered by the Content Manager).Note: do not forget to require request
at the top of these files.
Articles of this type are made to help you. We hope they do! Please comment with your suggestions.
Need more help? Ask your questions on StackOverflow, submit issues on GitHub and request features on ProductBoard!
Pierre created Strapi with Aurélien and Jim back in 2015. He's a strong believer in open-source, remote and people-first organizations. You can also find him regularly windsurfing or mountain-biking!