Launch a Splash Page in 4 Steps

I remember from my agency days the age-old dilemma of an ‘interim fix’. You’ve scoped your app project, wireframed, designed and developed, and it’s finally time to launch. The client’s existing website needs to go dark while the new website propogates and comes to life. Did you remember the “Coming Soon” page? Some use it for weeks (others months 😂) but no matter who you are, at some point in your career you will launch a Coming Soon splash page for a client. Pre-meditated or not, it will happen.

Today I will be showing you to how to build a simple Coming Soon splash page. The splash page that I will be using is a content-ready web application from Cosmic JS. The landing page captures email addresses and ports them directly to MailChimp. It features beautiful full page rotating background images.

Once you’re done installing the app and deploying, you can edit its objects, change background images, copy, button call-to-actions, the works. If you want to move the splash page into production, you can easily slap a custom domain on the web app and deploy, then simply delete the bucket once the new site is live, or you can edit and curtail the bucket for your next client who needs an interim fix.

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.

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 “Something Big: Coming Soon” to remain concise for our example blog.

2. Install the Email Capture Landing Page Application

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 Email Capture 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 Email Capture 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.

Confirm Deploy Location and Branch

Deploy, Deploy Away

A little reassurance that you’ll soon be live and capturing leads!

4. Edit Global Objects

Now you can edit Global Objects, Files, Users, Media and more. To edit the Email Capture app’s content and email triggers, click into “Pages” and scroll down to “Metafields” to edit social links, MailChimp List URL, Call-To-Action button text and more. 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.