Automation is a key ingredient in content management, and it helps teams to automate processes across their platforms thus avoiding manual work & ensuring consistency. Strapi, a headless CMS that is highly flexible and developer friendly, allows to automate content publishing using workflows & webhooks. In this blog, we will cover how to use these features in Strapi and set up content workflows that are optimized as well as automated.
Workflows and Webhooks in Strapi
Workflows in Strapi represent the steps content takes from creation to publication. This can include drafting, reviewing, editing and publishing the content.
Webhooks are automated messages sent from Strapi to other services when some event occurs. If content gets published in Strapi, a webhook could be triggered which can notify another application about it or helps to update databases etc automatically.
Setting Up Workflows in Strapi
Although Strapi does not have workflow management, it is possible to utilize the role-based access control system and clearly defining statuses for content. Here’s how you can set up a basic content workflow in Strapi:
- Define Content Statuses:
- Creating Drop-Down Fields in Your Content Types For Different Statuses such as Draft, In Review and Approved or Published. These statuses will help you track where content is in the workflow.
- Use Roles and Permissions:
- Give different task to your team members. A content writer would be able to create and edit their own works but not publish them. Ordinary reviews can be moved from In Review to Approved by Editors and only Admins have publishing permissions.
- You can achieve this by heading to the Roles & Permissions section in Strapi to set up these roles and assign the appropriate permissions for each status.
- Automate Status Changes:
- Strapi lets you make custom controllers or services to automatically change content status changes based on specific triggers. For example, when a content is approved by the editor then it automatically set to Ready for Publishing.
Using Webhooks to Automate Content Publishing
Webhooks in Strapi allow you to trigger external actions when specific events happen, such as content creation, updates, or publication. Here’s how to set up and use webhooks to automate tasks:
- Creating a Webhook in Strapi:
- In strapi admin panel, click on Settings > Webhooks section
- Create New Webhook and specify when the webhook should be triggered. For example, a webhook might want to be triggered everytime content is published.
- URL gives the location of a provided external service to take care of that webhook payload. This could be an API endpoint, a serverless function or any other service that can receive HTTP POST Requests.
- Configuring the Webhook Payload:
- Modify the data to send in Webhook payload. With Strapi you can also include specific fields from your content like title, author or published date. The receiving service can then utilize this data to do things such as push notifications, update a database or trigger some deployment.
- Common Use Cases for Webhooks:
- Triggering Deployments: When you publish content, the ability to trigger a deployment process in any static site generator (like Gatsby or Next.js) ensuring that the latest content is available on your live site.
- Sending Notifications: You can send notifications to Slack, email, or other communication tools to alert team members when content is published.
- Updating External Systems: Webhooks can be used to update external databases, CRMs, or analytics platforms whenever content changes in Strapi.
Advanced Automation with Custom Scripts and Plugins
If you need more complicated automations, add your custom scripts or plugins to extend Strapi:
- Custom Scripts:
- Write custom scripts to automate tasks like bulk publishing, updating content based on specific criteria, or integrating with third-party APIs. These scripts can be run as cron jobs or triggered by webhooks.
- Plugins:
- Strapi’s plugin system allows you to develop or install plugins that add new features to your CMS. For example, you could create a plugin that integrates with a marketing automation tool, automatically sending published content to be shared on social media.
- CI/CD Pipelines Integrations
- Integrate Strapi with your CI/CD pipeline to automate testing, building, and deploying your site whenever content is updated. Deploying and Scaling Strapi on Kubernetes.
Best Practices for Automating Content Workflows in Strapi
- Plan Your Workflow:
- Before setting up automation, plan your content workflow carefully. Define clear roles, statuses, and actions for each stage of the content lifecycle.
- Test Webhooks Thoroughly:
- Webhooks can be powerful but also tricky to debug. Test them thoroughly to ensure that they trigger correctly and that the payloads are properly formatted for the receiving service.
- Monitor Automation Processes:
- Set up monitoring and logging for your automated processes to catch any errors or unexpected behavior. This is more crucial in cases of mission critical operations, for example content deployment.
- Document Your Workflow:
- Write down all your workflows, roles, permissions and webhooks. This makes onboarding new team members easier and helps maintaining system over time.
Conclusion
Automating content publishing in Strapi through workflows and webhooks can enhance your team’s efficiency, reduce manual errors, and ensure that your content is always up-to-date and correctly managed. Whether you’re running a simple blog or a complex content platform, Strapi’s flexibility allows for customization to fit your specific needs, allowing teams to concentrate on content creation, no matter the scale of the platform.
