Digital agencies win work by displaying work. Gone are the days of meticulous process explanations and text-heavy “Services” content containers that drag down a portfolio website. Agencies know that they need to greet the consumer / client with a heavy dose of creative work if they stand a chance to win the SOW. We built a Digital Agency Portfolio Website that runs off the Cosmic JS GraphQL API. The website is creative container-dominant with the option to click into each for a detail view (pictured below).
In this blog I will show you how to pick up an existing codebase example to build your very own beautiful Digital Agency Website. This website example is definitely for the forward-thinking digital agency. Powered by the Cosmic JS GraphQL API, this content-ready app includes portfolio management, contact form (powered by MailGun) and a beautiful frontend by HTML5UP.net. Install, deploy and edit every part of this digital agency website from your Cosmic JS Bucket Dashboard.
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.
If you haven’t already, get started by Signing Up for Cosmic JS. Helpful resources are provided below to streamline your development operations.
1. Create a New Bucket
Your bucket’s name is the name of your website, project, client or web application that you are building. I named mine “Digital Agency” to remain concise for our example blog. Once you’ve signed up and named your bucket, you’ll be prompted to start from scratch (as seen below) or “see some apps”. If you are not served a prompt to install an app, you can always click through the prompted Object Creation Tutorial and click “Apps” on your left hand Nav Bar to see App Installation Options. For this blog I simply clicked the “Apps” Tab so that I could begin the installation process for the Cosmic JS Digital Agency Website.
App Installation Options
2. Install the Cosmic JS Digital Agency Website
Cosmic JS gives you the ability to filter between programming languages such as Node.js, PHP, React, AngularJS and more.
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.
Confirm Deploy Location and Branch
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.
App Deployment Confirmation
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.
