NetlifyCMS: a quick way to setup a static blog with a web admin interface

I need to quickly set up a blog to help share some neighbourly information.

NetlifyCMS is my friend.

  • Go to https://www.netlifycms.org/

  • Click “Get Started”

  • Choose to start with a Hugo Site Starter (since that’s what I’m familiar with); also available are Gatsby, Middleman and Preact.

  • Click “Deploy to Netlify” (where I already have an account)

  • Provide access to my Gitlab account

  • A few minutes later, I have a deployed barebones site, with the content stored under version control in Gitlab.

  • In Netlify, setup the custom domain I already own. Turn off proxying at CloudFlare so I can get the automatic HTTPS certificate that Netlify provides.

  • In Gitlab, move the newly created repo to my group of netlify sites

  • On local machine:

    • clone the Gitlab repo
    • create themes directory; cd themes; git clone ; git add .
    • move Netlify starter site into tmp place (don’t delete, you’ll need the admin directory from it)
    • copy my theme’s exampleSite in its place
    • copy the site/static/admin directory from the original
    • git push
  • Create static/admin/index.html

  • Start adding posts…

Troubleshooting

  • If you try to log in to /admin, and keep being redirected back to the login page, you haven’t set up the admin/index.html with identity correctly.