Directus Usage

[JLX89]

Hello All,
I've been spending the past few days taking a look around at tutorials and guides on using Directus.

Does anyone have an example of Directus usage, where you're using Directus specifically for a backend and then creating an interactive Jamstack website with full functionality?

I'm looking to try and create a fully functional website with account system, publishing posts, and allowing users to submit content. Specifically using Directus as the backend database and some sort of Jamstack for the frontend -- any suggestions and assistance would be greatly appreciated!

Thank you!

[robi]

@marcusquinn has experience here

[ruihildt]

I'm currently working on a project using Directus as backend and Vue (more specifically Quasar) as frontend.

What do you want to know?

[JLX89]

@ruihildt said in Directus Usage:

I'm currently working on a project using Directus as backend and Vue (more specifically Quasar) as frontend.

What do you want to know?

Is there some sort of static site generator or another option to to generate a site based off your directus installation? I'm looking for some sort of low-code solution using it, if possible?

Thank you@

[ruihildt]

@JLX89 Seems like you're looking for a frontend app low code solution like ToolJet which has been added to the Cloudron app wishlist.

I don't know about alternatives. Sorry not to be more helpful.

[michaelpope]

My use case is a little different than yours, so I don't have a tutorial, but Directus shouldn't be terribly hard to integrate with a JAM website.

I'm currently using it as a source for a static website using Elder.js. Elder.js isn't a JAM - it's a static site generator - but it works kinda similarly. Directus works wonderfully for it.

In most of the JAM stacks, there is a point for fetching data, and at that point (assuming your using Node.js here), you just use axios to call the endpoints that Directus exposes. When you want to create user accounts or whatnot, you make an API call to Directus.

I don't know how well Directus would stand up to a busy traffic website performance wise, but I'm pretty sure it would do a great job for a low-to-moderate traffic website. It might be a good thing to ask them on their Discord, they are very friendly.

A good way to picture Directus is that it's a nice frontend to an SQL database. So a lot of the things you'd care about with a regular database will matter with Directus. It's not going to automatically manage the accounts for you - but it's not hard to create a collection called 'Website Users' and just add a user account when someone registers on your site, and then verify it when they log in, managing the cookie or token appropriately.

This of course means it isn't 'low-code', but it isn't 'that's a ton of code' either. (As a note, if your going for posts and logins and the likes, I'd stick with JAM, and stay away from static site generators - static site generators are really built for sites that don't have live content, not that you can't fenagle your way around it, but it's not what they are built for).

If your looking for a bit more automation then that for logins... there's a few other frameworks that have built in libraries for user authentication, but the only one I remember really standing out as being 'easy' was Meteor (using their old UI framework called 'Blaze'). But Meteor is pretty different from Directus, and it's very opinionated, and usually requires a heavier server. Might not be what you are looking for.

One thing I will warn you on Directus... sometimes, major version upgrades (think 8.?.? -> 9.0.0) don't work quite as planned (at least in my experience). So if you see they are going to put out a new major version soon, it might be worth holding out until they do. Just my personal experience though.

Best of luck with your project!

[JLX89]

@michaelpope Awesome, thank you so much that gives me a good idea on how to approach it! I'm going to give that a shot and see how things turn out.