Static site generators
We love static sites generators that support secure, simple and reliable pages. Unlike dynamic sites, these website hosting generators use server-side rendering that consist of pre-built HTML pages. The plugins integrate with Contentful while withstanding high web server traffic and little upkeep. Check out the guides on four of our favorite web applications: Middleman, Jekyll, Gatsby and Metalsmith. Each web app include beginner examples in the GitHub repositories to help you get started on your project.
Middleman
The static website generator Middleman is a command-line tool that uses Ruby and Ruby Gems. It’s one of the most-used static tools for large companies. This plugin will help you manage your workflow with Contentful content
Jekyll
Jekyll is a Ruby based static site generator. It’s simple and blog-aware, a great option for small projects and personal web pages. This plugin pulls content from Contentful.
Gatsby
Gatsby is a static site generator based on React. Gatsby and Contentful work together well—you can install the Gatsby app, which lets you see updates. Gatsby also has a package that enables Contentful to be a data source for a Gatsby project.
Metalsmith
Metalsmith is a JavaScript based static-site generator, and this open source plugin fetches and renders cache data from Contentful.
Tutorials
Automated rebuild and deployment with CircleCI and Webhooks
This tutorial shows you how to setup scripting and automatically deploy static sites using Jekyll or Middleman with CircleCI.
Other tools
While the below web development tools are not officially supported by our static site content management system, they can help extend the functionality of Contentful
Roots
Roots is a JavaScript based static site generator. It does not have an extensive ecosystem, but it’s great if you are using Node.js-based front-end tools. This plugin helps you manage content (including, layout, fonts, etc.) from Contentful without dependencies.
Textalk
Textalk is a simple static site generator, a command-line interface (CLI) tool to generate a dynamic website from static web page templates and real-time data in a Contentful single-page space.
AWS Lambda
Here’s an example of Amazon web services (AWS) Lambda markdown functions that render static pages from the entities feteched from the Contentful Delievery API.