Creating a Gatsby Site with WordPress Data

This tutorial builds upon a previous article, providing a detailed walkthrough of integrating Gatsby and WordPress. Gatsby's speed and security benefits appeal to WordPress users, offering a way to leverage these advantages while retaining the familiar WordPress content management experience.

This guide focuses on practical implementation, drawing from various resources and addressing potential challenges. Note that WPGraphQL and Gatsby CLI are actively developed, meaning version compatibility is crucial. This project utilizes WPGraphQL 0.8.3, gatsby-source-wpgraphql 2.5.1, and Gatsby CLI 2.12.21. Always refer to the official documentation for the latest updates.

Several excellent Gatsby starters exist, including Alexandra Spalato's gatsby-wordpress-theme-blog and Zac Gordon and Muhammad Muhsin's twenty-nineteen-gatsby-theme.

Prerequisites

To follow along, you'll need:

• Basic React and JavaScript knowledge. Numerous online resources offer introductory guides.
• A grasp of Gatsby's dynamic page creation mechanisms. Comprehensive tutorials are readily available.
• A working WordPress installation. Plenty of guides exist to assist with setup.

Leveraging Existing Resources

This project benefited from prior Gatsby experience and reusable components (typography, layouts, etc.). Key resources included:

• Henrik Wirth's comprehensive Gatsby WordPress starter guide.
• Jason Lenstorf's Jamstack migration tutorial.
• Muhammad Muhsin's guide on porting the Twenty Nineteen theme.

This tutorial mirrors Henrik Wirth's structure, omitting advanced features like image handling and ACF Flexible Content.

Project Phases:

1. WordPress and Gatsby Setup
2. Content Migration
3. Navigation Implementation
4. Blog Post Display
5. Styling and Deployment

Phase 1: Setting Up WordPress and Gatsby

Begin by establishing a WordPress site (existing or new, even a local installation works). This project uses the Twenty Twenty theme.

Install Essential Plugins

Install WPGraphQL (for the GraphQL API) and WPGraphiQL (optional, but helpful for testing queries). These plugins may not be available in the WordPress Plugin Directory; download them directly from GitHub and install manually. WPGraphiQL provides a convenient testing interface within the WordPress dashboard.

Gatsby Site Initialization

Create a local Gatsby site using the default starter:

gatsby new wordpress-gatsby https://github.com/gatsbyjs/gatsby-starter-default

Start the development server (gatsby develop) and access the starter page at localhost:8000.

Install and configure the gatsby-source-graphql plugin:

yarn add gatsby-source-graphql  # or npm install --save gatsby-source-graphql

Configure gatsby-config.js:

module.exports = {
  plugins: [
    {
      resolve: "gatsby-source-graphql",
      options: {
        typeName: "WPGraphQL",
        fieldName: "wpcontent",
        url: "https://tinjurewp.com/wp-gatsby/graphql", // Or use environment variables
      },
    },
  ],
};

Consider using the dotenv module for environment variables to manage sensitive data.

After restarting the server, the WPGraphQL API is accessible via Gatsby at https://localhost:8000/__graphql/.

Phase 2: Migrating WordPress Content

Gatsby creates pages during the build process by querying data with GraphQL. This involves using Gatsby's onCreateNode and createPages APIs.

Content Preparation

Add posts and pages to your WordPress site. Remove index.js and page-2.js from the Gatsby pages folder to avoid conflicts.

Template Creation

Create templates for posts (/src/templates/post/index.js) and pages (/src/templates/page/index.js):

// src/templates/post/index.js (example)
import React from "react";
import Layout from "../../components/layout";
import SEO from "../../components/SEO";

const Post = ({ pageContext }) => {
  const post = pageContext.post;
  return (
    <layout>
      <seo title="{post.title}"></seo>
      <h1 id="post-title">{post.title}</h1>
      <div dangerouslysetinnerhtml="{{" __html: post.content></div>
    </layout>
  );
};

export default Post;

createPages API Implementation

Use Gatsby's createPages API to generate pages from WordPress data. This involves GraphQL queries and data mapping. (Refer to the complete code in the linked GitHub repository).

Phase 3: Implementing Navigation

WordPress's navigation management allows creating menus. This section focuses on porting the primary menu to Gatsby.

Menu Creation in WordPress

Create a menu named "PRIMARY" in WordPress, adding links to your homepage, sample page, and other relevant content.

GraphQL Query

Query menu items using GraphiQL:

query MyQuery {
  menuItems(where: { location: PRIMARY }) {
    nodes {
      label
      url
      title
      target
    }
  }
}

Component Creation

Create components for menu items (MenuItem.js) and the menu itself (Menu.js), handling URL conversion from absolute to relative paths. (Refer to the complete code in the linked GitHub repository).

Integrating the Menu

Add the Menu component to your Layout component. Implement a UniversalLink component to handle both internal and external links.

Phase 4: Displaying Blog Posts

This phase focuses on creating blog post templates and components for pagination.

Global Variables

Create a globals.js file to manage settings like blogURI.

Blog Template

Create a blog template (/src/templates/post/blog.js) to display posts, utilizing PostEntry and Pagination components.

Post Entry Component

Create a PostEntry component to display individual posts, including featured images and excerpts.

Image Component

Create an Image component to handle featured images, including fallback images.

Pagination Component

Create a Pagination component for navigating through paginated posts.

Refactoring createPages and createPosts

Refactor createPages.js and createPosts.js using GraphQL fragments to improve code organization and maintainability. (Refer to the complete code in the linked GitHub repository).

Phase 5: Styling and Deployment

This section covers styling and deployment strategies.

Styling

Use Sass or other preferred methods for styling. Consider incorporating WordPress block styles using @wordpress/block-library.

Deployment

Utilize Netlify or other platforms for continuous deployment. Consider using the JAMstack Deployments plugin for automatic deployments triggered by WordPress changes.

This comprehensive guide provides a solid foundation for integrating Gatsby and WordPress. Remember to consult the linked GitHub repository for the complete code examples and further details. The process involves several steps and requires a good understanding of both Gatsby and WordPress. However, the result is a fast, secure, and maintainable website.

The above is the detailed content of Creating a Gatsby Site with WordPress Data. For more information, please follow other related articles on the PHP Chinese website!