content-management-systemjekyllgithub-pagesnetlifydecap-cms

Can I use decap CMS on Github pages without hosting the site on Netlify?

I am trying to setup my jekyll site, stored on GitHub, hosted on Github-pages with a Content Management System (CMS). Currently I have to create new markdown files and push to GitHub just to add a new post. I am trying to use DecapCMS but the instructions include netlify hosting specific steps, even though it's supposed to be independent of netlify.

Describe the bug I followed the jekyll setup instructions and my site still can't use decap CMS. I followed the instructions here jekyll guide and here- GitHub backend to setup the GitHub backend.

I followed the steps to setup the identity widget I have setup the secrets and got the client ID for my project but at the section that says to:

Follow the authentication provider setup steps in the Netlify docs

It says in the netlify docs

When you complete application registration with GitHub, you need to add the Client ID and Client Secret to your Netlify site:

Problem is that the site isn't hosted on Netlify, since it's on Github pages. I assumed I wouldn't have to change the hosting provider. But the remaining steps require a Netlify site to do these steps in the Netlify UI page. Clicking the links takes me to one of my other projects hosted on Netlify so I can enter the client ID and secret.

Go to Site configuration > Access & security > OAuth Under Authentication Providers, select Install Provider. Select GitHub and enter the Client ID and Client Secret from earlier, then save.

So this is where I had to stop following the tutorial on the DecapCMS docs. I feel I'm almost there but just missing something.

I tried to look for alternatives and found the section for external OAuth, but it doesn't have a jekyll setup with Github pages [https://decapcms.org/docs/external-oauth-clients/](external OAuth)

Nevertheless I tried the serverless option and it just confused me more. If anyone knows how to use this I will be grateful for your help.

To Reproduce

Expected behavior

To be able to use Decap CMS on my Github pages website without changing hosting providers

Screenshots

This is what I see when I go to the /admin route. image

Then it fails at this step image

Applicable Versions:

CMS configuration

https://github.com/RDjarbeng/RDjarbeng/blob/main/admin/config.yml

Additional context

Site is my personal website located at:

https://rdjarbeng.github.io/RDjarbeng/ On GitHub:

https://github.com/RDjarbeng/RDjarbeng

Solution

  • If you want to be able to use the CMS from your github pages domain at mysite/admin you'll have to setup your own authenticator client.

    Currently it is not very clear how to do this in DecapCMS. An alternative is to use a similar CMS; Sveltia CMS which provides a quick way to migrate from DecapCMS and doesn't use Netlify Identify.

    Once you've migrated to Sveltia CMS, it also has a sveltia authenticator you can use with Cloudflare to setup your authentication service. Find the steps here.

    That was what worked for me to be able to use the CMS on my GitHub pages site without using Netlify. Authentication is done with GitHub.