World is now on Opti ID! Learn more

Harinarayanan
Apr 28, 2023
  2037
(3 votes)

Content Delivery / Headless API Implementation

Hi,

I was new to the Headless (CD) implementation and learned with the help of existing resources and implemented it successfully for our requirement, so thought of sharing the implementation steps, in case anyone looking for step by step Content Delivery API implementation or Headless Implementation.

 Below are the tools/platforms I 've used for the implementation,

  1. CMS 11 
  2. React 
  3. ContentDeliveryApi.Cms 2.21.1

Step: 1

Install the below packages through the NuGet package manager.

<package id="EPiServer.ContentDeliveryApi" version="2.19.0" targetFramework="net48" />
  <package id="EPiServer.ContentDeliveryApi.Cms" version="2.21.1" targetFramework="net48" />
  <package id="EPiServer.ContentDeliveryApi.Core" version="2.21.1" targetFramework="net48" />
  <package id="EPiServer.ContentDeliveryApi.Forms" version="2.21.1" targetFramework="net48" />

Step: 2

Add the below configs into web.config, I'm not sure 100% knowledge on why this is required but either of those configs should be set to true, and the other one should be set to false, and not both of them set to true or false.

 <add key="episerver:contentdeliverysearch:maphttpattributeroutes" value="true" />
    <add key="episerver:contentdelivery:maphttpattributeroutes" value="false" />

Step: 3

Add a new Initialization module,

using EPiServer.ContentApi.Cms;
using EPiServer.ContentApi.Core.Configuration;
using EPiServer.Framework;
using EPiServer.Framework.Initialization;
using EPiServer.ServiceLocation;
using System;
using System.Linq;

namespace Alloy.Web.Admin.ContentDeliveryApi
{
    [InitializableModule]
    [ModuleDependency(typeof(ContentApiCmsInitialization))]
    public class ContentDeliveryApiInit : IConfigurableModule
    {
        public void ConfigureContainer(ServiceConfigurationContext context)
        {
            context.Services.Configure<ContentApiConfiguration>(config => {
                config.Default().SetMinimumRoles(String.Empty);
            });
        }

        public void Initialize(InitializationEngine context)
        {
            //Add initialization logic, this method is called once after CMS has been initialized
        }

        public void Uninitialize(InitializationEngine context)
        {
            //Add uninitialization logic
        }
    }
}

Once you are done with the above steps you can re-build and run your solution to verify everything okay with the solution.

If you see your solution is working fine, then you can test Content Delivery API by accessing a site content with the help of Visual Studio Code(I feel it's a very feasible tool to access Headless content), In case if you don't have a REST Client in your Visual Studio Code please install the below Extension, It's really useful during our Headless implementation to test content.

Examples:

To get site definitions:

https://localhost:44300/api/episerver/v2.0/site/

To get your page content:

https://localhost:44300/api/episerver/v2.0/content/420003

To Expand the Content Area/Content reference within Content: 

To Get Language-Specific Content: 
In this way, your content is ready to access through Content Delivery API.
Step 4:
If you above all are working as expected we can move on to the next step.
The next will be creating the Content type, ViewModel, Controller, Basic view, and React development for fetching data and rendering data.
In my case had to create all of the above from scratch, maybe your case may differ. So I like to cover those parts in another blog. 
Please feel free to add your comments, questions, thoughts, or any missing steps.
Thanks for reading. Have a good day. 
Apr 28, 2023

Comments

Manoj Kumawat
Manoj Kumawat May 2, 2023 02:23 PM

Nice! Would be a good idea to write on Search & Navigation usages with ContentSearch.Api next ?

Please login to comment.
Latest blogs
Open Optimizely CMS in a New Tab – Instantly

Speed up your Optimizely CMS workflow with this free Chrome Extension. Instantly open the live view of the page you're editing – no right click, op...

Andy Blyth | Jul 18, 2025 |

Creating Quick Actions for ContentReference Images with a Custom Dojo Module

Credit note: This article is inspired by the  edit link in dojo  module, with extra features added. We received a request from our customer to...

Manoj Kumawat | Jul 18, 2025

Password protect your Optimizely CMS content

Want to share some private content on your website with basic password protection? You can do this with an Optimizely form and Audience based...

Brian Gerby | Jul 17, 2025 |

Importing Form Submission Data into Optimizely Forms Using DdsPermanentStorage

Recently, we needed to import a large number of records from a third-party system into Optimizely Forms . The data was available in CSV format, and...

Pawan Singh | Jul 16, 2025