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Set Up Live Preview for Static-Site Generator (SSG)

Static Site Generators (SSGs) let you create static HTML websites from raw data and templates, and are often used for websites that don't need much dynamic content.

When it comes to working with Live Preview, these websites use Live Preview in the CSR (Client-side Rendering) mode. Let’s look at how to set up Live Preview for your SSG websites in detail.

Prerequisites

Follow these steps to configure Live Preview with REST for your SSG website:

  1. Set up the Website

    To enable Live Preview on your website, begin by setting up the essentials.

    1. Generate a Preview Token

      Create a preview token by navigating to Settings > Tokens > Delivery Tokens (press “alt + O” for Windows or “option key + O” for Mac).

      Note: It is recommended to use a preview token for Live Preview instead of a previously utilized, read-only management token.

      Each preview token is associated with a delivery token and shares access to the specific environment. If a delivery token doesn't exist, create one and enable the Create Preview Token toggle. For an existing delivery token, use the + Create Preview Token option and copy the generated token.

    2. Update Contentstack's Delivery SDK:

      Add the Live Preview configuration inside the Contentstack.Stack() method when configuring Contentstack’s Delivery SDK. For example, here’s a sample configuration using the JavaScript Delivery SDK:

      import Contentstack from 'contentstack'

const Stack = Contentstack.Stack({ 
  ...
  // update your configs here
  live_preview: {
    preview_token: preview_token,
    enable: true,
    host: 'rest-preview.contentstack.com' //recommended
  },
  ...
})
      Note: For the North America endpoint, set the host parameter to rest-preview.contentstack.com. For other data centers:
      • AWS EU: eu-rest-preview.contentstack.com
      • Azure NA: azure-na-rest-preview.contentstack.com
      • Azure EU: azure-eu-rest-preview.contentstack.com
      • GCP NA: gcp-na-rest-preview.contentstack.com
      • GCP EU: gcp-eu-rest-preview.contentstack.com

    3. Upgrade the Contentstack SDK to its latest version to use the new preview service. In your Contentstack.Stack() initialization, replace the management_token parameter with the preview_token, as shown below:

      Contentstack.Stack({
...,
live_preview: {
    enable: true,
    host: "rest-preview.contentstack.com",
    preview_token: "csxxxxxxxxxxxx"
  }
 })

      Additional Resource: For detailed information, refer to the Migrate to Preview Service documentation.

      Warning: Updating to the latest SDK version won’t affect your current configuration. However, you may experience limited performance improvements in Live Preview for referenced entries and certain operations unless you update both the host and token as shown above.

    4. Install and Initialize the Live Preview Utils SDK

      Use the Live Preview Utils SDK to listen for content updates and fetch real-time preview data on the client side.

      Install the SDK using one of the following methods:

      1. Via npm:

        Install the Live Preview Utils SDK package via npm by running the following command:

        npm install @contentstack/live-preview-utils

        Initialize the SDK using the init() method to set up event listeners for content updates:

        import ContentstackLivePreview from "@contentstack/live-preview-utils";

ContentstackLivePreview.init({
  enable: true,
  ssr: false,
  stackSdk: Stack,

  // Recommended: Enables Edit Tags
  editButton: { enable: true },
  stackDetails: {
    apiKey: "your api key",
    environment: "your environment value",
    branch: "your branch",
  },
  clientUrlParams: {
    protocol: "https",
    host: "app.contentstack.com", // Use region-specific host if applicable
    port: 443,
  },
});

        Note: To avoid configuration reset errors due to rerendering, place the initialization code in a separate JavaScript file.

      2. Via script:

        Add the following script tag to your HTML file to load the Live Preview Utils SDK:

        <script type='module'>
import ContentstackLivePreview from "https://esm.sh/@contentstack/[email protected]";
ContentstackLivePreview.init({
  enable: true,
  ssr: false,
  stackSdk: Stack, // Stack instance from delivery sdk,

  // Recommended: Enables Edit Tags
  editButton: { enable: true },
  stackDetails: {
    apiKey: "your api key",
    environment: "your environment value",
    branch: "your branch",
  },
  clientUrlParams: {
    protocol: "https",
    host: "app.contentstack.com", // Use region-specific host if applicable
    port: 443,
  },
});
</script>

    5. Configure Live Preview across Each Webpage

      Whenever you update an entry, the onLiveEdit() method detects the change and runs your defined logic to fetch updated data. In a React-based setup, each page typically includes a function that retrieves data and updates the component state.

      In the example below, an updateData() function handles the data fetch and state update. Pass this function to onEntryChange() inside a useEffect() hook to automatically refresh the data whenever the entry content changes.

      // Footer.js
import React from "react";
import { onLiveEdit, getEntryFromCMS } from "./contentstack-sdk.js";

const Footer = ({ entryData }) => {
    const [data, setData] = React.useState(entryData);

    const updateData = () => {
        const fetchedData = getEntryFromCMS();
        setData(fetchedData);
    };

    React.useEffect(() => {
        onLiveEdit(updateData);
    }, []);

    return <div>{data.company_name}</div>;
};

export const getStaticProps = async () => {
    const fetchedData = await getEntryFromCMS();
    return {
        props: { data: fetchedData },
    };
};

  2. Host the Website

    To host a website, you can simply use launch or any other website hosting service.

  3. Update Stack Settings

    To set up Live Preview for the entries of your stack, perform the following steps:

    1. Navigate to Settings and select Environments.
    2. Set the base URLs for different locales, and click Save.
    3. Now, navigate to Live Preview in the left navigation panel and select the Enable Live Preview checkbox.
    4. Navigate to Live Preview in the left navigation panel and select the Enable Live Preview checkbox.
    5. Set the Default Preview Environment and click Save to save the settings.

      Tip: You can also update the preview URL and environment from the preview settings available on the entry page.

    6. Enable the Display Setup Status toggle to display the configuration status. 

      You can now see the Live Preview icon within all the entries of your stack and the feature previews data from the hosted website.

  4. Live Edit tags allow editors to directly jump from the Live Preview pane to the corresponding content fields in the entry editor. Clicking the Edit button next to a content block automatically opens the relevant field. If the field refers to another entry, you’ll be redirected to that entry’s editor page.

    Additional Resource: For detailed information on how to set up Live Edit tags, please refer to our documentation on Set Up Live Edit Tags for Entries with REST.

More articles in "Set up for Static Site Generator"