Add a headless CMS to Nuxt 3 in 5 minutes

In this quick walkthrough, we will have a look at how we can use data from the Storyblok API with a Nuxt project to create a website. At the end of this article, you will have a Nuxt project which renders components filled with data from Storyblok.

Environment Setup

Requirements

To follow this tutorial make sure to meet these requirements:

• Basic understanding of Vue.js, Nuxt.js and JavaScript

• Node.js LTS version

• An account in the Storyblok App

Create a Nuxt project

Following the Nuxt 3 official installation guide, we can easily create our project using the installation tool nuxi. Use it by running the following command:

If you open your newly created project folder in your code editor of choice, you will notice that by default, Nuxt 3 uses TypeScript. However, since we would like to use simple JavaScript for this project, we can delete the tsconfig.json and rename nuxt.config.ts to nuxt.config.js.

Once you installed the dependencies by running npm install , you can launch the project by running npm run dev. Now you’ll see this screen when you open http://localhost:3000 in your browser:

Configuration of the space

You can easily configure a new space by clicking Add Space {1} after having logged in to Storyblok.

Create a new space in the Storyblok app by choosing the Create space {1} option. Pick a name for it {2}. Optionally, you can choose between different server locations for your space {3} (if you choose US, please be mindful of the required API parameter explained hereinafter).

Shortly afterward, a Storyblok space with sample content has been created for you. Let’s open the Home story by first clicking on Content {1} and then on Home {2}:

Now you’ll see the default screen and the Visual Editor:

Enabling the Visual Editor

In order to actually see your Nuxt project in the Visual Editor, we’ll have to define the default environment URL. Let’s do that by going to Settings > Visual Editor {1} and setting the Location field to https://localhost:3000/ {2}:

Now, if you go back to the Home story, you won’t see your Nuxt app there just yet. Just one more quick step to take: Open the Entry configuration {1} and set the Real path to / {2}. After having saved, you should now be seeing your Nuxt app in the Visual Editor:

Connecting Nuxt to Storyblok

First of all, let’s install our official SDK for Nuxt 3:

This SDK allows you to interact with the Storyblok API. On top of that, it also provides an ingeniously simple way to enable real-time editing! Let’s start configuring it.

Before we jump into the code, we quickly need to grab our API token from our space. Let’s do that by going to Settings > Access Tokens {1} and copying the Preview Token {2}.

Now we can use this token by adding the following configuration to the modules of nuxt.config.js :

Rendering Dynamic Components in the Nuxt App

The core idea of using Storyblok for this particular use case is the following:

• Content managers (even if it’s only yourself) can create pages (or stories) composed of different components (or blocks)

• Developers receive the page in the JSON format by using the Storyblok API and can render components accordingly (this is what we want to accomplish in our Nuxt app)

When you create a new space from scratch, Storyblok automatically creates four default components for you:

• page: Content type block

• grid: Nested block

• feature: Nested block

• teaser: Nested block

You can find all of these in the Components section of your space.

Creating the Vue Components

Let’s create the counterparts of the four components discussed above in our Nuxt app. To do that, generate the following files in a storyblok folder at the root of your project:

You may be wondering why we added those components to a storyblok subfolder. By doing that, they’re found and loaded automatically by the Storyblok Nuxt module. No need to register your components – it doesn’t get any easier!

Optional: Use TailwindCSS to style your components

You may have noticed that we’ve been using Tailwind classes in our components. In order to make these work, let’s quickly add Tailwind to our Nuxt project by running:

Next, let’s add it to the modules in nuxt.config.js:

Finally, we’ll have to create the following two files:

And that’s it! Let’s move on.

Load content using the API

Now that our components are ready, we can fetch the Home story data. You can view the JSON structure of any story by clicking the Draft JSON {1} button:

All we have to do is to create a pages/index.vue with the following code:

Having created this file, you can now delete the app.vue at the root of your project.

At this point, the components should be rendered successfully when viewing the Home story in the Visual Editor.

Real-time editing with Storyblok Bridge

The power of Storyblok relies on its fantastic real-time editing experience. Play with changing the teaser headline or re-arranging the features and see the magic happen!

Fortunately, @storyblok/nuxt makes it very easy for you. Your components have to be connected with Storyblok and listen to changes by its Visual Editor. Let's take a closer look at how this is achieved:

First, to link your Vue and Storyblok components together, @storyblok/nuxt automatically registers a v-editable directive. If you take a look at the components in your components/storyblok folder, you'll already find it there.

Second, useAsyncStoryblok loads the Storyblok Bridge under the hood by default.

If you want to learn more (or if you prefer working with the Options API), have a look at our docs on GitHub. Alternatively, you can check out the long form in our SDK demo.

Wrapping Up

Congratulations! You now have a Nuxt app with dynamic components, dynamic pages and a complete integration with Storyblok, providing a unique real-time editing experience.