Using Drupal As A Headless CMS With Vue.js

Introduction

A study by Tammy Everts, CXO at SpeedCurve, showed that just a 2-second delay in load time can lead to 87% of users abandoning a transaction. Slow page loads are a common problem with traditional CMSs, which often struggle to deliver fast and engaging user experiences.

Traditional CMSs also face other issues, like difficulty scaling up for high traffic, and trouble integrating with new technologies. These problems make it harder to create smooth, personalized experiences for users.

A headless CMS can solve these issues by using APIs to manage and deliver content across different platforms. This makes content delivery faster and allows developers to use modern tools to create unique user experiences. Drupal’s large collection of modules and plugins makes a headless CMS even more powerful.

Why Choose Vue.js for Building A Headless Drupal CMS?

Vue.js is a progressive JavaScript framework used for building user interfaces and single-page applications. Vue.js can be used to enhance parts of a web page or build entire web applications from scratch.

On the frontend, Vue.js is renowned for its ease of learning and use, making it accessible to developers at all skill levels. Its performance and reactivity ensure smooth and dynamic user interfaces, which are crucial for modern web applications. 

Pairing Vue.js with a headless Drupal CMS provides several benefits:

• Seamless Integration: Vue.js can easily integrate with Drupal's powerful content management capabilities through APIs, allowing for efficient content delivery across multiple platforms.
• Performance: Vue.js offers a lightweight and fast framework, which improves site performance and reduces load times—key for keeping users engaged.
• Developer-Friendly: Vue.js has a gentle learning curve, extensive documentation, and a supportive community, making it accessible for developers of all levels.
• Scalability: With Vue.js, you can build complex, scalable applications while maintaining a modular codebase, making it easier to manage and expand as your project grows.

Using Vue.js with a headless Drupal setup creates a powerful combination that delivers rich, engaging digital experiences.

How To Set Up Drupal As A Headless CMS: A Step-by-Step Guide

The following five steps will help set up Drupal as a headless CMS.

Step 1: Installation And Basic Setup

Before installing Drupal, ensure that the following dependencies are installed on the system.

• PHP
• MySQL
• Composer 
• CORS
• Drush

Installing Drupal

Download the latest version of Drupal from the official website or use composer to install it:

composer create-project drupal/recommended-project my_site_name_dir

After installing Drupal, set up the web server (Apache or Nginx) to serve the Drupal site. Complete the installation wizard by configuring the site name and admin user.

To perform the initial configuration, set up basic site information, such as the site name and email. Create the admin user account with appropriate permissions.

Enabling The JSON:API Module

The Drupal core JSON:API Module provides a standardized API for accessing content. It simplifies the process of exposing and consuming data. 

Follow the steps given below to install and configure JSON.

1. Install the JSON module using Composer.

composer require drupal/jsonapi

2. Enable the module via Drush or the Drupal admin interface.

drush en jsonapi

Configuring JSON Endpoints

Access the JSON configuration page to verify the available endpoints. Configure permissions to control access to the JSON endpoints.

Modeling Content In Drupal

Based on the requirements, define content types such as articles, blogs, and products. Add fields to the subsequent content types to capture necessary data.

Add custom fields to different content types like text, image, and reference fields. Setting up taxonomy vocabularies will help categorize content effectively.

Additional Tips

• Configure user roles and permissions in the Drupal admin interface to control access to all the content.
• Access content via JSON endpoints like jsonapi, node, and article. Tools like Postman can also be used to test and verify API responses.

Step 2: Setting Up Vue.js For Frontend Development

Follow the given steps to set up and configure Vue.js.

Prerequisites

Ensure node.js and npm/yarn are installed on the system. 

Installing Vue CLI

Install Vue CLI globally using the following code snippet.

npm install -g @vue/cli

Next, create a new project in Vue.js using the following code.

vue create my-vue-app

Additional Tips: Configure development settings, such as hot module replacement and environment variables.

Installing And Configuring Axios

Axios is a popular library for making HTTP requests in JavaScript applications. Axios can be installed using npm. 

npm install axios

It is also important to configure Axios to handle API requests to the Drupal backend. To do this, create an Axios instance to configure default settings, such as the base URL for the API requests. This will make it easier to manage API requests.

Now, import the Axios instance into Vue components to fetch requests from the Drupal backend. 

Source: Hardik Kumar Patel

Step 3: Integrating Vue.js With Drupal

Integrating Vue.js with Drupal involves fetching data from Drupal's JSON endpoints and displaying it in the Vue components. It also includes handling authentication and permissions to secure the web application.

Fetching Data From Drupal

To keep the code organized, create a service module in Vue.js to handle API requests to Drupal. 

Handle API requests and responses within the Vue components. The following code helps import data from Drupal into Vue components.

Displaying Drupal Content In Vue.js

Create Vue components to render the content fetched from Drupal. The following code helps create a component to display a single article.

Apply styles to the components using CSS or SCSS. 

Additional Tip: Use Vue-Router to handle the navigation between different web pages. 

Handling Authentication And Permissions

Secure the application by setting up authentication and managing user sessions and permissions. To set up the authentication process, configure Drupal to handle authentication using OAuth2 or JWT.

Similarly, implement user session management in Vue.js to handle login, logout, and access control. Route guards can also be used to protect sensitive routes and ensure only authenticated users can access certain parts of the application.

Step 4: Advanced Features And Optimization

There are some advanced features and optimization techniques that can further enhance the web application.

Real-Time Updates With WebSockets

Use WebSockets to establish a persistent connection between the client and the server. This allows the Vue.js application to receive updates from Drupal as soon as changes occur.

The WebSockets module can be installed by using composer.

composer require drupal/websocket

Libraries like “socket.io-client” or the native WebSocket API help integrate all WebSocket communications in Vue.js. 

Performance Optimization

Use Drupal’s built-in caching mechanisms like page caching, block caching, and view caching. These caching settings can be configured in “admin/config/development/performance.” 

Similarly, use service workers and the Cache API to cache static assets and API responses in Vue.js as well. 

SEO And Accessibility

Implement the following best practices to ensure that the web app is SEO-friendly and accessible. 

• Consider using Nuxt.js, a framework for Vue.js that supports Server-Side Rendering (SSR). SSR's better crawling and indexing ensure search engines can readily access content for ranking, positively affecting a website's search visibility and user engagement.
• Ensure URLs are clean and descriptive. Use the vue-router to create SEO-friendly URLs.
• To ensure accessibility, follow WCAG guidelines, which mandate using semantic HTML elements, providing alt text for images, and ensuring sufficient color contrast.

Lazy Loading And Code Splitting 

Lazy loading is the practice of loading certain parts of the application only when they are needed, rather than loading everything upfront. This is useful for large applications where not all parts of the app are required immediately.

In Vue.js, lazy loading can be implemented using dynamic imports in combination with Vue Router.

Code splitting is the technique to split the code into smaller chunks, which can then be loaded on demand. This works in tandem with lazy loading to further optimize the application. Vue.js uses Webpack for code splitting, and it can be easily configured using dynamic imports. 

Step 5: Deployment And Maintenance

The following steps will help deploy and maintain the web app.

Prerequisites

Before deploying the Vue.js application, it has to be prepared for production. This involves building the application, which compiles and minifies the source code. Run the build command in the Vue.js project directory to create a production-ready version of the application.

Deploying The Web Server 

Transfer the build files to the web server and configure it to serve the static files. After this, update the DNS settings. The new DNS settings should point the domain to the server's IP address. 

Deploying The Drupal Backend

Simultaneously, deploy the Drupal backend by setting up a web server, configuring the database, and ensuring the correct file permissions. Secure the website with HTTPS and, if necessary, set up a reverse proxy to manage routing between Drupal and Vue.js applications.

Maintaining The Build

Ongoing maintenance is crucial to keep the application secure and performant. The following best practices can help in this process.

• Implement monitoring tools like Google Analytics or New Relic to track application and server performance. 
• Regularly update both Drupal and Vue.js dependencies to protect against security vulnerabilities. 
• Follow the best practices for securing API endpoints and user data. 
• Establish automated backup procedures and periodically test your backup and recovery processes to ensure data integrity. 

How Axelerant Helped IDMC Migrate From A Monolithic To Decoupled Digital Experience Platform

The Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre (IDMC) has been a crucial source of data and insights on internal displacement. IDMC was struggling with an outdated website characterized by poor design, complex navigation, and limited search functionality. 

Axelerant helped IDMC understand its requirements and deploy a modern decoupled website using Drupal 10 and Gatsby. The new website allowed IDMC to modernize their platform, enhance performance, and improve security by separating the frontend and backend.

The new setup also provided IDMC with a flexible and scalable content management system, better search functionality, and an overall improved user experience. This halped the organization achieve a 49% increase in SEO performance, enhancing visibility.

IDMC’s website performance also increased by 38%, ensuring better responsiveness.

Want to deploy a similar solution with headless CMS?

The experts at Axelerant can help you to enhance your current setup or start from scratch.