Node.js CMS

ButterCMS is an API-based CMS that integrates with Node.js. Use ButterCMS for your Node.js apps to add CMS-powered blogs, dynamic pages, and more. Butter plays well with all view-layers including React, Angular, Jade, and Vue.

Table of Contents

• Introduction
• Setup content fields
• Integrate your app

Introduction

Learn how to create dynamic pages using Butter.

Creating dynamic pages with Butter is a two-step process:

1) Setup custom content fields in Butter
2) Integrate the fields into your application

This guide uses the Express framework and EJS templates but Butter integrates with any Node.js server and templating engines like Jade, Mustache, and React. If you need help after reading this, contact us via email, livechat, or book a time with to pair with one of our developers.

Setup content fields

Let's suppose we want to be able to create pages for retail-chain locations using ButterCMS and we're starting out with a basic static page template for a single location:

app.js:

var express = require('express');
var butter = require('buttercms')('');

var app = express()

app.set('view engine', 'ejs');

// Routes
app.get('/locations/:slug', function() {
  res.render('location')
});

views/location.ejs:

<h1>Widget Store - Chicago</h1>
<img src="/images/chicago.jpg">
<p>Our Chicago location is located at 566 Wacker Drive.</p>

Enabling new pages to be created with Butter is a two-step process:

1. Setup custom content fields in Butter
2. Integrate the fields into your application

To setup custom content fields, first sign in to the Butter dashboard.

Create a new workspace or click on an existing one. Workspaces let you organize content fields in a friendly way for content editors and have no effect on development or the API. For example, a real-estate website might have a workspace called "Properties" and another called "About Page".

Once you're in a workspace click the button to create a new content field. Choose the "Collection" type and name the field "Location Pages":

On the next screen, we'll setup the properties for each page in the collection.

Now go back to the work space and create a location:

Integrating your app

To create these pages in our app, we create a dynamic route that fetches content for the page by using a URL parameter. Here's what the code looks like:

app.js:

var express = require('express');
var butter = require('buttercms')('');

var app = express()

app.set('view engine', 'ejs');

// Routes
app.get('/locations/:slug', function() {
  butter.content.retrieve(['location_pages[slug='+params.slug+']').then(function(resp) {
    var content = resp.data.data;

    // location_pages is a collection so we access the first and only item
    var location = content.location_pages[0];

    res.render('faq', {
      location: location
    })
  });
});

views/location.ejs:

<h1>Widget Store - <%= location.name %></h1>
<img src="<%= location.feature_image %>">
<p><%= location.description %></p>

That's it! If you browse to /locations/chicago, you'll see the content we just entered into Butter.

If you need help after reading this, contact us via email, livechat, or book a time with to pair with one of our developers.