Setting up a headless CMS with Netlify

Hi, I am new to the concept of a CMS or headless CMS. My understanding is it helps you edit content without needing to dive into the code. This makes it easier to edit/add copy or blogs on a site. That’s exactly what I am looking for but I’m not sure if my site qualifies. Do I need to rebuild it from scratch?

I have used basic HTML, CSS (bootstrap) & JS (jquery). It’s not a React of JS generated site and I’m not even sure how to use them. I started a new site using the gatsby-netlify-cms template on GitHub but I have no clue how to integrate it into my existing site because it seems to be limited to just react?

I’m confused and a noob. Any guidance or info to help direct my research so I don’t waste hours in the wrong rabbit hole will be very appreciated.

Thanks!

Hi @allirix!

Netlify CMS edits text files in your GitHub (or GitLab, or Bitbucket) repo. Those files are usually markdown. Then you use a static site generator to plug the values from your markdown files into your HTML files. I would suggest using a JavaScript static site generator called Eleventy - here’s a tutorial on using it with Netlify CMS: Turning Netlify CMS Up to Eleventy