Scaling WordPress with the power of Next.js and the static web!
yarn create next-app -e https://github.com/colbyfayock/next-wordpress-starter
# or
npx create-next-app -e https://github.com/colbyfayock/next-wordpress-starterAdd an .env.local file to the root with the following:
WORDPRESS_GRAPHQL_ENDPOINT="http://wordpressite.com/graphql"
The goal of this project is to take WordPress as a headless CMS and use Next.js to create a static experience without any 3rd party services that can be deployed anywhere.
The hope is to build out as many features as we can to support what's typically expected from an out of the box theme on WordPress. Currently, those features include:
- Blog (https://next-wordpress-starter.spacejelly.dev)
- Pages (https://next-wordpress-starter.spacejelly.dev/about/)
- Posts (https://next-wordpress-starter.spacejelly.dev/posts/how-to-create-a-headless-wordpress-blog-with-next-js-wordpress-starter/)
- Categories (https://next-wordpress-starter.spacejelly.dev/categories/tutorial/)
- Authors (https://next-wordpress-starter.spacejelly.dev/authors/colby-fayock/)
- Search (Client side global navigation and https://next-wordpress-starter.spacejelly.dev/search/?q=wordpress)
- RSS (https://next-wordpress-starter.spacejelly.dev/feed.xml)
- Sitemap (https://next-wordpress-starter.spacejelly.dev/sitemap.xml)
Additionally, the theme is expected to be SEO friendly and performant out of the box, including:
- Unique page titles
- Unique descriptions
- Open Graph tags
You can also optionally enable Yoast SEO plugin support to supercharge your SEO! (See below)
Check out the Issues for what's on deck!
Want something a little more basic? Check out my other starter with an MVP setup to get up and running with WPGraphQL in WordPress: https://github.com/colbyfayock/next-wpgraphql-basic-starter
This project makes use of WPGraphQL to query WordPress with GraphQL. In order to make that request to the appropriate endpoint, we need to set a environment variable to let Next.js know where to request the site information from.
Create a new file locally called .env.local and add the following:
WORDPRESS_GRAPHQL_ENDPOINT="[WPGraphQL Endpoint]"Replace the contents of the variable with your WPGraphQL endpoint. By default, it should resemble [Your Host]/graphql.
Note: environment variables can optionally be statically configured in next.config.js
| Name | Required | Default | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| WORDPRESS_GRAPHQL_ENDPOINT | Yes | - | WordPress WPGraphQL endpoint (ex: host.com/graphl) |
| WORDPRESS_MENU_LOCATION_NAVIGATION | No | PRIMARY | Configures header navigation Menu Location |
| WORDPRESS_PLUGIN_SEO | No | false | Enables SEO plugin support (true, false) |
Please note some themes do not have PRIMARY menu location.
To start the project locally, run:
yarn dev
# or
npm run devThe project should now be available at http://localhost:3000!
It is possible to take advantage of this extension to improve the development experience.
To set up the ESLint extension in Visual Studio Code add a new folder to the root .vscode. Inside add a file settings.json with the following content:
{
"editor.formatOnSave": false,
"editor.codeActionsOnSave": {
"source.fixAll.eslint": true
}
}With this file ESLint will automatically fix and validate syntax errors and format the code on save (based on Prettier configuration).
There are two options as to how you can deploy this project to Netlify:
- Essential Next.js Plugin (recommended)
- Exporting the project via
next export
Essential Next.js Plugin should be provided as an option when you're first importing a project based on this starter. If it's not, you can install this plugin using the Netlify Plugins directory. This will allow the project to take full advantage of all native Next.js features that Netlify supports with this plugin.
Exporting the project lets Next.js compile the project into static assets including HTML files. This allows you to deploy the project as a static site directly to Netlify just like any other site. You can do this by adding next export to the end of the build command inside package.json (ex: next build && next export).
Regardless of which option you choose, you can configure your environment variables either when creating your new site or by navigating to Site Settings > Build & Deploy > Environment and triggering a new deploy once added.
Given Next.js is a Vercel-supported project, you can simply import the project as a new site and configure your environment variables by either adding them during import or by navigating to Settings > Environment Variables and triggering a new build once added.
In order to avoid an additional configuration file, we take advantage of some built-in properties of package.json to configure parts of the website.
| Name | Required | Description |
|---|---|---|
| homepage | Yes | Homepage or hostname used to construct full URLs (ex Open Graph) |
- homepage: Setting the
homepageproperty will update instances where the full URL is required such as Open Graph tags
This project aims to take advantage of as many built-in WordPress features by default like a typical WordPress theme. Those include:
| Name | Usage |
|---|---|
| Site Language | lang attribute on the <html> tag |
| Site Title | Homepage header, page metadata |
| Tagline | Homepage subtitle |
There is some specific WordPress configuration required to allow for the best use of this starter.
This Starter doesn't currently provide any mechanisms for dealing with image content from WordPress. The images are linked to "as is", meaning if the image is uploaded via the WordPress interface, the image will be served from WordPress.
To serve the images statically, you have a few options.
By enabling the Image Accelerator from Jetpack, your images will automatically be served statically and cached via the wp.com CDN. This feature comes free with the basic installation of Jetpack, requiring only that you connect the WordPress site to the Jetpack service.
The Yoast SEO plugin is partially supported including most major features like metadata and open graph customization.
- Yoast SEO plugin
- Add WPGraphQL SEO plugin
To enable the plugin, configure WORDPRESS_PLUGIN_SEO to be true either as an environment variable or within next.config.js.
Examples of websites that started off with Next.js WordPress Starter
WordPress hosting for the public-facing project provided by WP Engine.
Thanks goes to these wonderful people (emoji key):
This project follows the all-contributors specification. Contributions of any kind welcome!