31 March 2023

Headless is more than just a buzzword. It's a definite trend in content management. People ask about headless Wagtail frequently, so here are a few things you should know.

Your mini-guide to Headless Wagtail

There's a different tech stack: With traditional Wagtail, all your eggs will be in the same nest because the code is all on one server. With headless Wagtail, you'll need multiple containers or servers to run the backend and frontend parts of your Wagtail website.

API skills are crucial: Building and supporting a headless Wagtail site requires strong API building skills. If you've never built an API before, you should read up on REST and GraphQL first to help you determine which API technology you would like to work with. Here are two resources to start with:

• Python and REST APIs: Interacting With Web Services
• How to Get Started with GraphQL and NodeJS
  

Not everything works the same: A headless Wagtail site requires some extra setup to provide content creators with the same experience as traditional Wagtail. For example, content previews will need some additional configuration.

Sometimes headless-ready is better: Headless Wagtail projects often need more time and resources. Even traditional Wagtail projects can be made "headless-ready" by thinking proactively about how projects can be built in API-friendly ways. For some projects, it's better to start with traditional Wagtail and add headless elements over time. Here are two articles that can help you decide which is best:

• Do you need Headless Wagtail? A guide for decisionmakers
• Headless vs. Traditional Wagtail

More resources for headless Wagtail

• Are we headless yet?
• Wagtail on Jamstack
• Wagtail architecture options, or should I go headless?
• Wagtail as a headless CMS for JavaScript frontends
  

🚨 Security patches on the way 🚨

Wagtail 4.1.4 and 4.2.2 will be released on Monday 3rd April, around 11:00 UTC. These will fix a security defect with severity "moderate", along with several other bugfixes already logged in the 4.1.4 release notes.

New Developer Relations subteam

Are you interested in being an ambassador for Wagtail? Do you love helping others learn Wagtail? Then come join our new Developer Relations subteam. This team is a great option for contributors who don't code or who are learning to code and want to build up their Wagtail knowledge while getting some valuable experience. Some possible projects include:

• Maintaining ready-to-use Wagtail tutorials or workshops
• A “Pitch Wagtail to your boss” slide deck 
• A developer experience survey

Click HERE to read our blog on how to join

Latest chirps

• Unpoly Django: Wagtail community member Serafeim has released a demo of an Unpoly and Django integration. If you're exploring server-side rendering apps, then definitely give this demo a look.

Package Updates

• wagtail-trash
  

Until next time, thank you for reading! If you have a news item to contribute or a package release to report, please reach out to us through our Slack community or email us.

Need help with Wagtail? Find it here.