How I Built an Event Microsite in 4 Steps

In this blog I will show you how I picked up an existing codebase (content-ready application) and curtailed it into my very own Event Microsite. The microsite is for an upcoming Marketer of the Year Gala my American Marketing Association Chapter is hosting in May, so we know that it is just a seasonal deployment and can be easily backed up, deleted or transitioned into a skin for a new event.

This slick event microsite is built using Node.js on the server and Bootstrap on the frontend. It is fully responsive down to mobile, includes a contact form and a gallery section powered by Photoswipe.

I’ll be using Cosmic JS for this example app. Cosmic JS is an API-first CMS that makes managing and building websites and applications faster and more intuitive. By decoupling content from code, Cosmic JS empowers developer flexibility while ensuring content editors can plan and deploy content as it best suits them. We’ll be using Cosmic JS to install our example app, deploy and make content updates moving forward from the cloud-based Content Management Platform.

Full Disclosure: I’ve used the Cosmic JS Photography App as a content-ready app to deploy and edit for my Event. My reasoning for doing so was the large photo arrays that each page within the content-ready app supports without me having to do any heavy lifting or editing. I deleted the gallery section for my new application and simply duplicated a tertiary page so that my sitemap was to my liking.

If you haven’t already, get started by Signing Up for Cosmic JS. Helpful resources are provided below to streamline your development operations.

Photography App Page

Photography App Demo

Photography App Codebase on GitHub

1. Create a New Bucket

Your bucket’s name is the name of your website, project, client or web application that you are building.

2. Install the Photography App

Once you’ve signed up and named your bucket, you’ll be prompted to start from scratch or “see some apps”. For this blog I simply clicked the right button to “see some apps” so that I could begin the installation process for the Cosmic JS Photography App.

App Installation Options

Cosmic JS gives you the ability to filter between programming languages such as Node.js, PHP, React, AngularJS and more.

Simply click “Install” underneath the Photography Website icon to get started, or visit the Cosmic JS Apps Page.

3. Deploy to Web

I clicked “Deploy to Web”. I can then edit Objects while my web application is deploying. You will receive an email confirming the deployment of your web application. If you encounter any issues during deployment, you may be routed to the Cosmic JS Troubleshooting Page.

Deploy Branch Confirmation Modal

I’m drawing from a repo, my branch is clarified and I have a deployed location that matches my slug / bucket name that I made in Step 1.

4. Edit Global Objects

Editing is a dream come true in the Cosmic JS Dashboard. To read more about how Cosmic JS was built with editing content in mind, read Building With the Content Editor in Mind.

The main chapter website is a WordPress website whose domain info is with GoDaddy. We wanted to be able to have the event microsite function as a subdomain of the main website, so with just the GoDaddy domain registrar login info, we are able to upgrade the bucket to include custom domains, create a subdomain and have the deployed bucket live at our desired URL: www.moy.dfwama.com.

This microsite also has the ability to liaise other APIs and applications. For instance, submissions for awards categories are housed with Submittable, yet I’m able to copy and paste all of the Submittable microsite into the Cosmic JS Content Editor to provide linkable categories for our microsite. Each category naturally defaulted into clicking into a category detail page, which I thought was nifty. Check out Submission Categories.

Before (Content-Ready Application)

After (In-Production Event Microsite)

It’s as easy as signing up, creating a new bucket, installing the web application(s), edit objects and deploy! I get my confirmation email to access my web application and also see my options for bucket upgrades like custom domains, one-click SSL, webhooks and localization.

Cosmic JS is an API-first cloud-based content management platform that makes it easy to manage applications and content. If you have questions about the Cosmic JS API, please reach out to the founders on Twitter or Slack.

Carson Gibbons is the Co-Founder & CMO of Cosmic JS, an API-first Cloud-based Content Management Platform that decouples content from code, allowing devs to build slick apps and websites in any programming language they want.