Use Netlify Functions and the Twitter API v2 as a CMS for Your Gatsby Blog (opens in new tab)

(paulie.dev)

56 pointspauliescanlon5y ago21 comments

21 comments

I would just make a request to Twitter for the profile on build for the two sites. Do you expect to update your profile more frequently than your two sites? ISTM, you can just trigger manual builds when you do update your profile, instead of using a function, which is going to constantly be looking up and returning the same information.

pauliescanlonOP5y ago

Hey, and yes that would also work, as you say, for profile information that doesn't change that often it would perhaps be the better option. However, since this is a tutorial blog post it's aim was to inform readers of "one" way you can use Twitter as a CMS. There are of course many other ways to achieve this.

earthboundkid5y ago

Comments so far are negative, but not every solution needs to scale. I recently made a Netlify site where the CMS is just writing JSON out to GitHub. Yes, if GitHub goes down, it will break, but who cares? My site expects to only get a couple of weeks of editing every few years, so I don’t need something with more availability than that.

colesantiago5y ago

Not sure if using 3rd party services for a CMS is a good idea. What happens if this API or Netlify goes down?

Doesn't seem reliable.

bmelton5y ago

If the Twitter API is down, then you'll have blank spots on your page where there are supposed to be tweets.

If Netlify goes down, you won't be able to publish, but your statically rendered site should still load just fine unless you are using it to make dynamic queries on the fly (which is, I think not generally done for Gatsby, but very possible to do)

pauliescanlonOP5y ago

A fair point. Also true for any front end that relies on an API to populate its data. Hacker News for instance will use a similar approach. If they concern is that sometimes API's may go down and data won't be displayed you can of course chose not to use API's in your front end. If you're not that bothered like me, that this is just. "one" way you "could" use Twitter as a CMS for you blog.

gamedevtales5y ago

You are always relying on a 3rd party somewhere down the stack that's not a reason to dismiss a solution alone.

colesantiago5y ago

Given Twitter's track record on APIs, there is every reason to dismiss this solution.

1 more reply

ThePadawan5y ago

I can host a blog such that it only requires 2nd parties:

- My ISP

- My power company

1 more reply

pauliescanlonOP5y ago

In this post I'm going to explain how you can use Netlify Functions to access your Twitter profile data using the Twitter v2 API and display it on your Gatsby blog.

calmingsolitude5y ago

Unrelated, but I love your theme and how snappy your blog is :)

pauliescanlonOP5y ago

Lovely stuff. Thanks!

jiofih5y ago

How about “no”.

pc865y ago

How about "why not?"

fallat5y ago

Well it depends. Do you expect your writing to be accessible in 50 years?

jiofih5y ago

This is harnessing about 2 million lines of code in three different systems, to achieve what amounts to copy & paste text from their Twitter bio.

jblok5y ago

Seems like a great solution to streamline your personal online presence. If you don’t have a Twitter you could probably do the same thing with GitHub or Instagram

rammy12345y ago

For my blog , i am using Github as CMS using the github API. It simply works.

pauliescanlonOP5y ago

Yeah lovely stuff. I'm working on a similar "thing" using Octokit. I like experimenting with things that aren't supposed to be used as CMS's as CMS's

j / k navigate · click thread line to collapse

21 comments

earthboundkid5y ago

pauliescanlonOP5y ago

earthboundkid5y ago

colesantiago5y ago

Not sure if using 3rd party services for a CMS is a good idea. What happens if this API or Netlify goes down?

Doesn't seem reliable.

bmelton5y ago

If the Twitter API is down, then you'll have blank spots on your page where there are supposed to be tweets.

pauliescanlonOP5y ago

gamedevtales5y ago

You are always relying on a 3rd party somewhere down the stack that's not a reason to dismiss a solution alone.

colesantiago5y ago

Given Twitter's track record on APIs, there is every reason to dismiss this solution.

1 more reply

ThePadawan5y ago

I can host a blog such that it only requires 2nd parties:

- My ISP

- My power company

1 more reply

pauliescanlonOP5y ago

In this post I'm going to explain how you can use Netlify Functions to access your Twitter profile data using the Twitter v2 API and display it on your Gatsby blog.

calmingsolitude5y ago

Unrelated, but I love your theme and how snappy your blog is :)

pauliescanlonOP5y ago

Lovely stuff. Thanks!

jiofih5y ago

How about “no”.

pc865y ago

How about "why not?"

fallat5y ago

Well it depends. Do you expect your writing to be accessible in 50 years?

jiofih5y ago

This is harnessing about 2 million lines of code in three different systems, to achieve what amounts to copy & paste text from their Twitter bio.

jblok5y ago

Seems like a great solution to streamline your personal online presence. If you don’t have a Twitter you could probably do the same thing with GitHub or Instagram

rammy12345y ago

For my blog , i am using Github as CMS using the github API. It simply works.

pauliescanlonOP5y ago

Yeah lovely stuff. I'm working on a similar "thing" using Octokit. I like experimenting with things that aren't supposed to be used as CMS's as CMS's

j / k navigate · click thread line to collapse