What is Drupal headless (Decoupling), why it’s needed and type of Drupal decoupling?
By Lucid Softech IT Solutions | Drupal, Drupal 8, 29 May 2019Drupal headless, Drupal decoupled is something very popular with Drupal developers. Peoples are trying to understand it, talking about it or doing it. We also get lots of queries for the same and that’s why we have decided to share key factors about this. So in this blog we are going to discuss few things which are:
a) What is Drupal headless / Drupal decoupled:
b) Why Drupal headless (decoupled) needed?
c) Types of making Drupal headless (decoupled)?
Let’s start…
a) What is Drupal headless / Drupal decoupled:
Drupal headless or Drupal decoupled both are the same thing. It’s basically a strategy from which Drupal will be used as application programming interface in admin and presentation interface will be different. So basically communication between back-end and front-end will be done via API.
Headless Drupal is totally different from normal Drupal. In headless version, customer will interact with front-end frameworks like Angular js, React jsetc, so the frontend will not be Drupal theme. But in normal Drupal the theme, front-end and back-end everything will be served by Drupal.
b) Why Drupal headless (decoupled) needed?
Drupal headless concept is launched for better user experience of front-end users. When we use headless we can adopt performance and user friendly points from frontend technologies like Angular Js, React Js, and Backbone Js etc. There are few advantages like upgrades and patches won’t affect the front-end, any back-end feature will not break the front-end features and front-end APIs can be tested separately, also performance will be improved. So there are many advantages to adopt headless Drupal. But there are some points to pay attention to as well like frontend section will be managed separately and not in Drupal backend. There is no doubt that headless Drupal has too many advantages but before moving ahead with headless Drupal you need to understand your business need, website architecture customization you need and its feasibility.
c) Types of making Drupal headless (decoupled)?
There are 2 ways to do Drupal headless / decoupled. One way is Progressive decoupling and other is full decoupling. In progressive decoupling, you can use a JavaScript framework for some particular section, blocks, pages or content in a body and on other sections Drupal administrative capabilities will remain same.
In fully headless / decoupling, front-end and back-end will be fully separated so presentation layer and CMS will be fully separated. So with this scenario Drupal will become a data provider and front-end framework will be responsible for presentation layer which will communicate with Drupal through APIs.
As per our understanding, separating your front and backend is a good option because with this it provides faster delivery time, user friendly. So you can adopt this headless Drupal as per requirement.
Besides this if you still have some questions or need help, ourDrupal experts will be happy to help you. You can just just drop us a line at contact@lucidsoftech.comand we will take a look into your question or concerns.