Lemon CMS: A Beginner’s Guide

How to Build a Blog with Lemon CMS### Introduction

Building a blog with Lemon CMS is a straightforward way to publish content fast while keeping control over structure, design, and deployment. This guide walks through planning, setting up Lemon CMS, creating content models, designing templates, connecting a frontend, and deploying a production-ready blog.

1. Plan your blog

Decide on:

• Audience and content types (posts, authors, tags, categories).
• Required fields per post (title, slug, excerpt, body, publish date, featured image, SEO meta).
• Content workflow (drafts, reviews, publishing permissions).
• Frontend approach (static site, server-rendered, single-page app, or headless with frameworks like Next.js, Nuxt, Astro).

2. Set up Lemon CMS

1. Create an account and new project in Lemon CMS (follow their onboarding to get API keys).

2. Configure environment variables locally for API endpoints and keys:

   # Example .env LEMON_API_URL=https://api.lemoncms.example LEMON_API_KEY=your_api_key_here 

3. Install any SDKs or CLI tools Lemon provides (check current docs). Typical commands:

   npm install @lemoncms/client npx lemoncms init 

3. Design content models

Create the following collections (or types):

• Post

  • title (string)
  • slug (string, unique)
  • excerpt (rich text or string)
  • body (rich text / markdown or blocks)
  • author (relation to Author)
  • tags (list of strings or relation)
  • category (relation)
  • featured_image (media)
  • publish_date (datetime)
  • status (enum: draft, published)
  • seo_title, seo_description

• Author

  • name
  • slug
  • bio
  • avatar (media)
  • social links

• Tag

  • name
  • slug

Use structured fields so you can render previews, list queries, and support filtering/sorting. Add validation rules (required fields, max lengths) and localized fields if you need multi-language support.

4. Create and manage content

• Use Lemon’s editor to create a few sample posts and authors.
• Organize posts with tags and categories. Set publish_date and status to test drafts vs published.
• Enable scheduled publishing if needed.
• Create reusable components or blocks (callouts, code snippets, image galleries) in the CMS for consistent authoring.

5. Build the frontend

Choose a frontend framework. Example uses Next.js (React) for a server-rendered/static blog.

1. Initialize project:

   npx create-next-app@latest lemon-blog cd lemon-blog npm install axios @lemoncms/client 

2. Fetch posts from Lemon API. Example getStaticProps for index page:

   // pages/index.js import axios from 'axios'; export async function getStaticProps() { const res = await axios.get(`${process.env.LEMON_API_URL}/posts?status=published`, { headers: { Authorization: `Bearer ${process.env.LEMON_API_KEY}` } }); return { props: { posts: res.data } }; } export default function Home({ posts }) { return ( <main>   {posts.map(p => (     <article key={p.id}>       <a href={`/posts/${p.slug}`}><h2>{p.title}</h2></a>       <p>{p.excerpt}</p>     </article>   ))} </main> ); } 

3. Create dynamic routes for individual posts (getStaticPaths + getStaticProps). Render rich content using a renderer for the CMS format (Markdown or structured blocks).

4. Image handling: use next/image or equivalent and serve images from Lemon’s CDN or proxy.

5. Search and pagination: implement simple client-side search or integrate server-side search using Lemon’s query APIs.

6. SEO, performance, and accessibility

• Generate meta tags (title, description, open graph) from SEO fields.
• Use structured data (JSON-LD) for articles, authors, and breadcrumbs.
• Optimize images, enable caching and CDN, and use incremental static regeneration (ISR) where supported.
• Ensure accessible markup: semantic HTML, ARIA where necessary, keyboard navigation, and color contrast.

7. Workflow & Collaboration

• Set roles and permissions in Lemon for editors and admins.
• Use previews: set up a preview endpoint that fetches draft content for authenticated users.
• CI/CD: on content webhooks from Lemon, trigger builds on Vercel, Netlify, or your platform of choice.

8. Deploy and maintain

• Deploy frontend to a static host (Vercel/Netlify) or server host.
• Configure environment variables securely in your hosting platform.
• Monitor for broken links, performance regressions, and content errors.
• Regularly back up content (export JSON) and keep dependencies updated.

Example folder structure

• /pages
  • index.js
  • posts/[slug].js
• /components
  • PostList.js
  • PostCard.js
  • RichContentRenderer.js
• /lib
  • lemonClient.js
• /styles

Conclusion

Using Lemon CMS as a headless CMS gives you structured content, strong editing UX, and flexibility in frontend choice. With clear content models, a simple frontend that queries Lemon’s API, and deployment automation, you can build a fast, maintainable blog in days rather than weeks.