A complete Headless WordPress tech stack built on Nuxt, using GraphQL.
Works best with the fuxt-backend WordPress theme and included WordPress optimized components.
We also have some Shopify components under development here. Headless Shopify and WordPress together finally!
Built by Funkhaus. We normally host on Flywheel.
PS: The name Fuxt comes from Funkhaus and Nuxt. It's provocative.
- Auto installs any WordPress plugin dependencies
- Optimzed for Netlify deployment. Includes custom WordPress plugin for manual and auto deploys.
- WordPress Previews and Drafts work with regular WordPress logins
- Includes Nuxt Storybook module!
- GraphQL powered API using Nuxt GraphQL Request
- ACF first class citizen
- Supports only the classic editor (#guttenbergsucks)
- Google Analytics plugin baked in, pulls from WordPress dashboard (requires ACF Pro)
- Includes lots of components for common WordPress needs
- wp-content (supports oEmbed and shortcodes)
- wp-menu and wp-menu-item (supports sub-menus!)
- wp-image (uses WordPress generated src-sets and much more!)
- wp-link (handles parsing WordPress permalinks)
- Built in webfontloader for fast font loading
- Auto imports root components from
~/components
- Includes GQL email mutation to send email from frontend via backend
- Lots of common functions to save you time!
- Mobile swipe events baked in
- Solve for 100vh on mobile baked in
- Tracks window dimensions and scroll top position into Vuex
- IP Stack region detection built in (requires API key)
- Lodash baked in
- Prettier and ESLint built in for nice looking code
This is just a Nuxt site, so it builds and deploys like any other Nuxt project.
Works best with the fuxt-backend WordPress theme as the backend.
First step: Duplicate and rename .example.env
to .env
. Define any vars environment needed there.
# install dependencies
$ npm install
# serve with hot reload at localhost:3000
$ npm run dev
# serve with hot reload Storybook at localhost:3003
$ npm run storybook
# build for production and launch server
$ npm run build
$ npm start
# build Stroybook for production
$ npx nuxt storybook build
# generate static project
$ npm run generate
For detailed explanation on how things work, checkout Nuxt.js docs.
- Install
fuxt-backend
theme into WordPress from here. Rename theme directory to the site name appended with-backend-2019
, soexample-backend
. Also change the theme name to the same instyle.css
.- Disable privacy mode on WordPress host (if applicable)
- Install promoted Plugins
- Go to Settings > General, and set the "Site Address (URL)" to be the frontend URL. Often times you'll have to email your host (Flywheel) to get them to allow this field to be edited.
- Save Permalinks in the WordPress dashboard (WP-GQL requires this) to the
Post name
option.- Use the
<wp-link>
component to handle parsing the WordPress URL's into Nuxt friendly paths.
- Use the
- Define menu locations in
/functions/theme-config.php
. - If you want to use ACF, there are some default fields we recommend, you can find the file to import from the theme directory
/acf/
or here.- One of these field groups is Site Options, which allows Google Analytics to work. You need ACF Pro installed for this to work.
- See below for instructions on how to remove the ACF Pro requirement.
- Rename your
.env.example
to.env
and configGQL_ENDPOINT
to be the GraphQL endpoint from the WordPress you installed above.
ACF Pro is used for Site Options, which by default is how we store the Google Analytics tracking codes. If you don't want to use ACF Pro, then you will need to do the following:
1. In `~/gql/queries/SiteSettings.gql` delete the entire `acfSettings` block.
1. To get Google Analytics tracking working, change line 5 of `~/plugins/google-gtag.client.js` to pull the codes from your preferred place. I recommend you put them in the Vuex store someplace.
This theme ships with the Nuxt Storybook module installed and configured. Stories should live in /stories
, we even included some examples for you.
You can run Storybook in dev mode by using: npm run stroybook
If you want to export Storybook (to deploy it to a static host): npm run storybook-build
This theme uses webfontloader for font loading.
- If you are using a
@font-face
font, then you will need to put the font files in/assets/fonts/
- Then define the CSS in
/styles/fonts.css
- Set the names of the font families in
/web-font-loader.js
- Uncomment the
fonts.css
CSS line innuxt.config.js
- Uncomment the
web-font-loader.client.js
plugin line innuxt.config.js
For Typekit or google fonts, please see the webfontloader documentation.
Fuxt has built in SSR friendly WordPress menus.
- Setup your menu in "Appearance > Menus" in WordPress
- Use the
<wp-menu>
component like so:<wp-menu name="Menu Name"/>
.
The theme includes and SVG as component loader. This means you can use any SVG as you would a regular component. For example:
// In script
import SvgLogoFunkhaus from "~/assets/svg/logo-funkhaus"
export default {
components: {
SvgLogoFunkhaus
}
}
// In template
<svg-logo-funkhaus class="svg" />
If you want to use an SVG in your CSS file, you can't place it in /assets/svgs/
, you should put it in /assets
like this /assets/filename.svg
and use it like this in your CSS: background-image: url("~assets/filename.svg")
.
To address the infamous 100vh on iOS bug/feature, this theme has a CSS var called --unit-100vh
that is updated from a function in /layouts/default.vue
called set100vhVar()
.
You can simply use the CSS height: var(--unit-100vh); transition: height 0.4s ease-in-out;
and it will work across all devices smoothly.
The store contains an object this.$store.state.referrer
that is populated by the last from
route object that was displayed. This is controlled by the /middleware/referrer.js
file. This is useful if you want to display a custom back button on a page.
This theme has perfect linting for Vue/GQL/JS/SCSS/CSS and HTML using Prettier and ESLint. The ruleset is the Vue style guide "Recommended" spec.
Behind the scenes, the workflow is this: Ugly code > Prettier > ESLint > Nice code!
The idea is that Prettier formats things like CSS and GQL nicely, and ESLint goes last and does everything else. This allows us to config ESLint to the Vue specs (Prettier has little config options by design). So that is what the .eslintrc.js file is for.
In your code editor, you'll want to install a Prettier plugin (VS Code or Atom), and set the "ESLint Integration" to true
and "Format on Save" to true
. The settings for "prettier-eslint” should have a toggle for "Run Prettier Last", you want that set to false
. We need ESLint to run last, this ensures the Vue Recommended specs get priority, not Prettier's specs.
The 4 devDependencies
installed in the package are "eslint", "eslint-plugin-vue", "prettier" and "prettier-eslint". The "prettier" plugin is not required as most editor plugins will use a default version they ship with, although we have more control over the version of Prettier if we include it in the package file, so we did just to be safe. It also means it would run the same server side or client side if you do that as part of CI. "prettier-eslint" is used to integrate "prettier" and "eslint" together, and get them running one after the other.
The backend theme includes a sendEmail
mutation. Simply uncomment gql_register_email_mutation
action in /functions/gql-functions.php
.
The mutation maps to the wp_mail() function, so please read that for a description of required inputs.
The mutation comes with a basic form of anti-spam protection. The input trap
must equal the same as the clientMutationId
. With GraphQL, the clientMutationId
is a unique identify and you can set it to whatever you like.
The Log Emails
plugin is handy to install, to track what emails are getting sent. You can get it here.
So for example:
mutation MyMutation {
sendEmail(
input: {
clientMutationId: "12345",
to: ["[email protected]"],
message: "Email body here",
subject: "Subject text here",
trap: "12345",
headers: ["From: [email protected]"] # Will default to WordPress@{your-domain.com}
}
) {
to
message
subject
sent
}
}
If you have ACF Pro installed, you will get a Site Options panel. In the Site Options you will be able to set Google Analytics codes.
By default page views are tracked, but you can track anything you want using this.$gtag()
in a component or page. See: https://developers.google.com/analytics/devguides/collection/gtagjs
this.gtag('event', <action>, {
'event_category': <category>,
'event_label': <label>,
'value': <value>
});
Default.vue
will do some basic width detection and set state.breakpoint
. You can customize this if needed.
This theme unpacks WordPress shortcods into Vue components. You need to register the shortcodes in your WordPress theme in the /functions/shortcods.php
file here. There are a few common ones we have built, that you can uncomment the //add_shortcode
lines to turn on.
Common shortcodes we've included:
[gallery]
that builds a grid of images. Designed to work with <responsive-image>
and FocusHaus.
[gallery ids="123,456,789" columns="2"]
[columns]
shortcode that can be used to layout elements into columns.
[columns columns="2"]
[column]Left text[/column]
[column]Right text, or an <img> even![/column]
[/columns]
For this to work, you must also turn on [column]
shortcode, but this does not require any Vue code to work.
[svg]
That maps to an SVG from ~/assets/svgs
using the name
prop.
[svg name="arrow-icon"]
<wp-image ref=“wpImage” :image=“image” @ended=“videoEnded” @playing=“onPlaying"/>
this.$refs.wpImage.play() // Will play the video, returns a Promise if play started or didn’t (low power mode will prevent it for example)
this.$refs.wpImage.pause() // Will pause the video, no return value
this.$refs.wpImage.volume() // Will return the current volume setting
this.$refs.wpImage.volume(0.75) // Will set the current volume to 75%, returning the confirmed amount.
Note the ended and playing events too. Those include the underlying browser events if you wanted them for something.
This is how you’d use the Play event to handle it not playing (like for an intro video):
try{
this.$refs.wpImage.play()
} catch(e) {
// Didn’t play for some reason
}
To enable swipe event listeners on a given element use the function initSwipeEvents
located in utils/tools.js
.
The parameters to the initSwipeEvents
function are el the element which event listeners will be added to and deltaMin the minimum swipe distance required to fire a swipe event. The default value of deltaMin is 80.
The events emitted by this function are swipeUp
, swipeDown
, swipeRight
, swipeLeft
An example of a component:
import { initSwipeEvents } from "~/utils/tools"
<template>
<div
@swipe-right="foo"
@swipe-left="bar"
@swipe-up="foo"
@swipe-down="bar"
/>
</template>
<script>
export default {
mounted() {
// 80 is the default, you can leave it empty normally
initSwipeEvents(this.$el, 80)
}
}
</script>
We have a custom "Page URI contains" ACF filter enabled by default. It's defualts are /contact
and /featured/
but it’s easy to add custom ones you might need in functions/acf-functions.php
in the acf_location_rules_values_uri_contains()
function.
The URI
it is testing against is the page/post/custom-post-type URI, with a slash on both ends of the URI.
This is handy for ACF fields that are only needed on the homepage, or on the contact page (or any of it’s child pages).
When you use this feature, be sure to toggle on the Prevent non-developer deletion
option on the page edit screen, so that the user can’t change that URI in the future.
This is advice for Funkhaus team only.
The frontend theme repo should be name based on the URL of the site it's for, dropping any TLDs and appended with -frontend
or -backend
. So if it was for funkhaus.us
, the repo would be named funkhaus-frontend
, and the backend theme repo would be funkhaus-backend
.
All Funkhaus sites that under development and accessible to the internet need to be password protected. In Netlify admin area go to "Visitor access" and set a password on the site.
You are simply deploying a Nuxt project, so any way you can deploy Nuxt will work with this boilerplate. Below I explain how we do it at Funkhaus using Heroku.
We recommended using CloudFlare for your DNS, it's free plan is enough to do everything you need.
- Add a Site
- Connect the GitHub repo (use the Funkhaus account as the "owner", not your personal account)
- Set "Build command" to
npm run generate
- Set "Publish directory" to
dist
- Under "Advanced build settings" you'll need to define any
.env
variables that are needed. Normally this is justGQL_ENDPOINT
.- Be sure to have your API URL be
https://
otherwise Netlify will error.
- Be sure to have your API URL be
- Go to "Domain Settings" and change temporary domain to
https://{CLIENT_NAME}-funkhaus.netlify.app
orhttps://{CLIENT_NAME}-storybook-funkhaus.netlify.app
- If the site is going live, then you should connect a real domain.
- If the site is in development, go to "Visitor access" and set password on the site.
- Make sure the "Netlify Deploy" WordPress plugin is installed and configured. For new sites, leave auto-deploy turned off. Once the site is live, enable auto deploys.
- In Netlify dashboard, go to "Deploy Settings > Build & Deploy > Post Processing" and disable "Form detection". This will decrease build time by 30 seconds.
- Add a Site
- Connect the GitHub repo (use the Funkhaus account as the "owner", not your personal account)
- Set "Build command" to
npm run storybook-build
- Set "Publish directory" to
storybook-static
- Connect the GitHub repo (use the Funkhaus account as the "owner", not your personal account)
When you have your app set up, you'll want to add it to a project specific pipeline.
- Name your pipeline
{project-name}-nuxt
- Add the corresponding app to production or staging pipelines.
- Make sure you transfer ownership to Funkhaus if you're part of the team.
Follow the instructions here pipelines
If you're comfortable with the command line, install the heroku cli tools.
Otherwise you can do it all through the website Dashboard too.
- Login in to heroku
- Create an App.
- To set up different environments (staging / production) follow the instructions here
- Name it
{project-name}-production
- After beta you will create
{project-name}-staging
- Make sure you transfer ownership to Funkhaus if you're part of the team.
- For your Heroku app, go to "Deploy" and connect it to the GitHub repo.
- Generally it's best to not enable automatic deploy, and to use the "Manual deploy" button at the bottom.
- For production apps, we should always deploy form
master
branch.
- For your Heroku app, go to "Settings" and define all your
Config Vars
.- Follow the instructions here to set up your required Nuxt config vars.
- Be sure to add the same config vars that are in you
.env
file too.
- Prep Nuxt to go live.
- Disable Basic Auth on servers
.env
file or settings panel. - Set the environment endpoints to be the new domain names. Probably
https://api.your-site.com/graphql
. - If you're using Shopify,
https://shop.your-site.com/api/{version number here}/graphql.json
. You may want to use a.env
for these, it helps when dealing with staging setups. - Be sure to turn off Privacy mode in Flywheel.
- Disable Basic Auth on servers
- In Heroku, add your custom domain name to the App. See here. Note the "DNS Target" Heroku gives you, it should be some funny names and a random string like
space-balls-12345drewish.herokudns.com
. - Turn on SSL in Heroku using the "Automated Certificate Management" (this only works if you're hosting on a paid Heroku plan, which Funkhaus has).
- In CloudFlare, click "+ Add Site" (top left of screen).
- When it asks for DNS entries, you'll want to set two CNAME's pointing to the "DNS Target" shown in Heroku (mentioned in Step 1).
- One CNAME for
www
and one CNAME set to@
, which CloudFlare will then auto apply "CNAME Flattening", which is good. See here for more. - Add an A-RECORD for your API backend, which is the WordPress install hosted on Flywheel. Generally you want this to be
api.your-site.com
.
- Setting up
www.
and force SSL redirects in CloudFlare. You want two rules:- Click 'Page Rules'.
- Click 'Add a rule'.
- Match the URL to
*www.your-site.com/*
.- Select 'Forwarding URL' from the dropdown menu.
- Choose '301 - Permanent Redirect'.
- Set the redirect URL to
https://your-site.com/$2
.
- Match the URL to
https://your-site.com/*
- Select 'Forwarding URL' from the dropdown menu.
- Choose '301 - Permanent Redirect'.
- Set the redirect URL to
https://your-site.com/$1
.
- In Flywheel, add a new primary domain, this should match the CloudFlare entry you set above, probably
api.your-site.com
. When adding the domain ensure that the "Also add www" checkbox is not selected.- Setup the free SSL on Flywheel, and then make sure "Force SSL" is turned on under Advanced.
- Be sure to turn off Privacy mode in Flywheel.
- At this point, you will probably want to redirect your nameservers to point to CloudFlare. Probably these are close to
homer.ns.cloudflare.com
andmarge.ns.cloudflare.com
. - Confirm that CloudFlare's SSL mode is set to 'Flexible' under 'SSL/TLS' tab. You need to do this, as it conflicts with the auto SSL setup on Flywheel.
- If the site uses Shopify, you'll need to "Add an existing domain". Probably this will be
shop.your-site.com
.- In CloudFlare set a CNAME for
shop.your-site.com
to point toshops.myshopify.com
. - You do not need to setup an A-RECORD if you only want the shop to be on a sub-domain.
- In CloudFlare set a CNAME for
- Login to Heroku, and on the "Deploy" tab on the production app, click the "Manual Deploy" button!
Boilerplate improvements:
- Document the included WordPress components
- Document the fuxt-backend theme auto-installs
- Perhaps add this for better SEO: https://developers.google.com/search/docs/guides/intro-structured-data or https://www.npmjs.com/package/nuxt-jsonld
- Make the backend URL be protocol agnostic, this requires fixing wp-link and maybe wp-menu-item?
- Get SCSS functions for type settings working: funkhaus/fuxt#1
- Maybe at some point, update Google Tracking with this. Waiting on it to get better: https://github.com/nuxt-community/gtm-module
- Get this working (and playing nicely with Prettier). Should have --fix set to true. https://github.com/nuxt-community/stylelint-module
- Audit packages. Do we still need core-js and node-fetch?
- Update to work with new Nuxt auto component importer
- Get 404 page and Drafts/Previews working with Netlify: https://nuxtjs.org/api/configuration-generate/
- I think the move is to have /preview route that imports the needed page component? Something like this: https://forum.vuejs.org/t/getting-component-name-giving-a-route/51271
- Document how new IP geolocation plugin works. Include example for organizing around regions.