Content Delivery API

Javascript

Readme · Migration · Advanced · TypeScript · Contributing

Introduction

JavaScript library for the Contentful Content Delivery API and Content Preview API. It helps you to easily access your content stored in Contentful with your JavaScript applications.

What is Contentful?

Contentful provides content infrastructure for digital teams to power websites, apps, and devices. Unlike a CMS, Contentful was built to integrate with the modern software stack. It offers a central hub for structured content, powerful management and delivery APIs, and a customizable web app that enable developers and content creators to ship their products faster.

Table of contents

• contentful.js - Contentful JavaScript Delivery library
  • Core Features
    • Supported browsers and Node.js versions:
  • Getting started
    • Installation
      • Using it directly in the browser:
      • Legacy browsers:
      • React Native & Server Side Rendering:
    • Your first request
    • Using this library with the Preview API
    • Authentication
  • Documentation & References
    • Configuration
    • Chained clients
    • Reference documentation
    • Tutorials & other resources
    • Troubleshooting
    • Typscript
    • Advanced Concepts
    • Migration
  • Reach out to us
    • You have questions about how to use this library?
    • You found a bug or want to propose a feature?
    • You need to share confidential information or have other questions?
  • Get involved
  • License
  • Code of Conduct

Core Features

• Content retrieval through Content Delivery API and Content Preview API.
• Synchronization
• Localization support
• Link resolution
• Built in rate limiting with recovery procedures
• Supports Environments (since v6.0.0)

Supported browsers and Node.js versions:

• Chrome
• Firefox
• Edge
• Safari
• node.js (LTS)

See list of min supported browser version here @contentful/browserslist-config

The default export is an es9 compliant module. in order to import the commonJS bundle, please use:

const contentful = require("contentful/contentful.node")

Getting started

In order to get started with the Contentful JS library you'll need not only to install it, but also to get credentials which will allow you to have access to your content in Contentful.

• Installation
• Your first request
• Using this library with the Preview API
• Authentication
• Documentation & References

Installation

npm install contentful

Using it directly in the browser:

For browsers, we recommend to download the library via npm or yarn to ensure 100% availability.

If you'd like to use a standalone built file you can use the following script tag or download it from jsDelivr, under the dist directory:

<script src='https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/npm/contentful@latest/dist/contentful.browser.min.js'></script>

Using contentful@latest will always get you the latest version, but you can also specify a specific version number.

<script src='https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/npm/contentful@9.0.1/dist/contentful.browser.min.js'></script>

The Contentful Delivery library will be accessible via the contentful global variable.

Check the releases page to know which versions are available.

Your first request

The following code snippet is the most basic one you can use to get some content from Contentful with this library:

const contentful = require("contentful");
const client = contentful.createClient({
  // This is the space ID. A space is like a project folder in Contentful terms
  space: "developer_bookshelf",
  // This is the access token for this space. Normally you get both ID and the token in the Contentful web app
  accessToken: "0b7f6x59a0"
});
// This API call will request an entry with the specified ID from the space defined at the top, using a space-specific access token.
client
  .getEntry("5PeGS2SoZGSa4GuiQsigQu")
  .then(entry => console.log(entry))
  .catch(err => console.log(err));

Check out this JSFiddle version of our Product Catalogue demo app.

Using this library with the Preview API

This library can also be used with the Preview API. In order to do so, you need to use the Preview API Access token, available on the same page where you get the Delivery API token, and specify the host of the preview API, such as:

const contentful = require("contentful");
const client = contentful.createClient({
  space: "developer_bookshelf",
  accessToken: "preview_0b7f6x59a0",
  host: "preview.contentful.com"
});

You can find all available methods of our client in our reference documentation

Authentication

To get your own content from Contentful, an app should authenticate with an OAuth bearer token.

You can create API keys using the Contentful web interface. Go to the app, open the space that you want to access (top left corner lists all the spaces), and navigate to the APIs area. Open the API Keys section and create your first token. Done.

Don't forget to also get your Space ID.

For more information, check the Contentful REST API reference on Authentication .

Documentation & References

• Configuration
• Reference documentation
• Tutorials & other resources
• Troubleshooting
• Advanced Concepts
• Migration

To help you get the most out of this library, we've prepared all available client configuration options, a reference documentation, tutorials and other examples that will help you learn and understand how to use this library.

Configuration

The createClient method supports several options you may set to achieve the expected behavior:

contentful.createClient({
  ...your config here ...
})

The configuration options belong to two categories: request config and response config.

Request configuration options

Name	Default	Description
accessToken		Required. Your CDA access token.
space		Required. Your Space ID.
environment	'master'	Set the environment that the API key has access to.
host	'cdn.contentful.com'	Set the host used to build the request URI's.
basePath	''	This path gets appended to the host to allow request urls like https://gateway.example.com/contentful/ for custom gateways/proxies.
httpAgent	undefined	Custom agent to perform HTTP requests. Find further information in the axios request config documentation.
httpsAgent	undefined	Custom agent to perform HTTPS requests. Find further information in the axios request config documentation.
adapter	undefined	Custom adapter to handle making the requests. Find further information in the axios request config documentation.
headers	{}	Additional headers to attach to the requests. We add/overwrite the following headers: Content-Type: application/vnd.contentful.management.v1+json X-Contentful-User-Agent: sdk contentful.js/1.2.3; platform node.js/1.2.3; os macOS/1.2.3 (Automatically generated)
proxy	undefined	Axios proxy configuration. See the axios request config documentation for further information about the supported values.
retryOnError	true	By default, this library is retrying requests which resulted in a 500 server error and 429 rate limit response. Set this to false to disable this behavior.
application	undefined	Application name and version e.g myApp/version.
integration	undefined	Integration name and version e.g react/version.
timeout	30000	in milliseconds - connection timeout.
retryLimit	5	Optional number of retries before failure.
logHandler	function (level, data) {}	Errors and warnings will be logged by default to the node or browser console. Pass your own log handler to intercept here and handle errors, warnings and info on your own.
requestLogger	function (config) {}	Interceptor called on every request. Takes Axios request config as an arg.
responseLogger	function (response) {}	Interceptor called on every response. Takes Axios response object as an arg.

Response configuration options

:warning: Response config options are in the process of being deprecated (v10.0.0). They still work for the sync and parseEntries methods. The getEntries and getEntry methods already use the new Chained Clients approach.

Name	Default	Description
resolveLinks	true	Turn off to disable link resolving.
removeUnresolved	false	Remove fields from response for unresolvable links.

Chained Clients

Introduced in v10.0.0.

The contentful.js library returns calls to getEntries and getEntry in six different shapes, depending on the three configurations listed below.

In order to provide type support for each configuration, we provide the possibility to chain modifiers to the Contentful client, providing the correct return types corresponding to the used modifiers.

This way, we make developing with contentful.js much more predictable and safer.

When initialising a client, you will receive an instance of the DefaultClient shape.

Chain	Modifier
none (default)	Returns entries in a single locale. Resolvable linked entries will be inlined while unresolvable links will be kept as link objects. Read more on link resolution
withAllLocales	Returns entries in all locales.
withoutLinkResolution	All linked entries will be rendered as link objects. Read more on link resolution
withoutUnresolvableLinks	If linked entries are not resolvalbe, the corresponding link objects are removed from the response.

Example

// returns entries in one locale, resolves linked entries, removing unresolvable links
const entries = await client.withoutUnresolvableLinks.getEntries()

You can also combine client chains:

// returns entries in all locales, resolves linked entries, removing unresolvable links
const entries = await client.withoutLinkResolution.withAllLocales.getEntries()

The default behaviour doesn't change, you can still do:

// returns entries in one locale, resolves linked entries, keeping unresolvable links as link object
const entries = await client.getEntries()

Reference documentation

The JS library reference documents what objects and methods are exposed by this library, what arguments they expect and what kind of data is returned.

Most methods also have examples which show you how to use them.

Tutorials & other resources

• This library is a wrapper around our Contentful Delivery REST API. Some more specific details such as search parameters and pagination are better explained on the REST API reference, and you can also get a better understanding of how the requests look under the hood.
• Check the Contentful for JavaScript page for Tutorials, Demo Apps, and more information on other ways of using JavaScript with Contentful.

Troubleshooting

• I get the error: Unable to resolve module http. Our library is supplied as node and browser version. Most non-node environments, like React Native, act like a browser. To force using of the browser version, you can require it via:

  const { createClient } = require('contentful/dist/contentful.browser.min.js')
  

• Is the library doing any caching? No, check this issue for more infos.

TypeScript

This library is 100% written in TypeScript. Type definitions are bundled. Find out more about the advantages of using this library in conjunction with TypeScript in the TYPESCRIPT.md document.

Advanced Concepts

More information about how to use the library in advanced or special ways can be found in the ADVANCED.md document.

Migration

We gathered all information related to migrating from older versions of the library in our MIGRATION.md document.

Reach out to us

You have questions about how to use this library?

• Reach out to our community forum:
• Jump into our community slack channel:

You found a bug or want to propose a feature?

• File an issue here on GitHub: . Make sure to remove any credential from your code before sharing it.

You need to share confidential information or have other questions?

• File a support ticket at our Contentful Customer Support:

Get involved

We appreciate any help on our repositories. For more details about how to contribute see our CONTRIBUTING.md document.

License

This repository is published under the MIT license.

Code of Conduct

We want to provide a safe, inclusive, welcoming, and harassment-free space and experience for all participants, regardless of gender identity and expression, sexual orientation, disability, physical appearance, socioeconomic status, body size, ethnicity, nationality, level of experience, age, religion (or lack thereof), or other identity markers.

Read our full Code of Conduct.