Build a Website With Qwik City and the Directus JavaScript SDK

This guide shows you how to build a website with Qwik City and Directus as a Headless CMS.

Qwik City is a popular JavaScript framework based on Qwik. In this tutorial, you will learn how to build a website using Directus as a Headless CMS. You will store, retrieve, and use global metadata such as the site title, create new pages dynamically based on Directus items, and build a blog.

Before You Start

You will need:

• To install Node.js and a code editor on your computer.
• To sign up for a Directus Cloud account.
• Some knowledge of Vue.js and Nuxt.

Create a new Directus Cloud project - any tier and configuration is suitable for this tutorial.

Open your terminal and run the following commands to create a new Qwik City project and the Directus JavaScript SDK:

mkdir my-website
npm create qwik@latest

Answer the pre-install prompts as follows:

• Where would you like to create your new project? - ./my-website
• Select a starter - Empty App (Qwik City + Qwik)
• Would you like to install npm dependencies? - Yes

Once finished, navigate into the new directory, install the dependencies, and install the Directus JavaScript SDK:

cd my-website
npm install
npm install @directus/sdk

Open my-website in your code editor and type npm start in your terminal to start the Qwik City development server and open http://localhost:5173 in your browser.

Create a Helper for the SDK

To share a single instance of the Directus JavaScript SDK between multiple pages in this project, create a single helper file that can be imported later. Create a new directory called lib and a new file called directus.js inside of it.

import { createDirectus, rest } from '@directus/sdk';

const directus = createDirectus('https://directus.example.com').with(rest());

export default directus;

Ensure your Project URL is correct when initializing the Directus JavaScript SDK.

Using Global Metadata and Settings

In your Directus project, navigate to Settings -> Data Model and create a new collection called global. Under the Singleton option, select 'Treat as a single object', as this collection will have just a single entry containing global website metadata.

Create two text input fields - one with the key of title and one description.

Navigate to the content module and enter the global collection. Collections will generally display a list of items, but as a singleton, it will launch directly into the one-item form. Enter information in the title and description field and hit save.

By default, new collections are not accessible to the public. Navigate to Settings -> Access Control -> Public and give Read access to the Global collection.

Inside of the src directory, open up the routes/index.tsx file. Replace the contents with the following:

import { component$ } from "@builder.io/qwik";
import { routeLoader$ } from "@builder.io/qwik-city";

import directus from '../../lib/directus';
import { readItems } from '@directus/sdk';

export const useGetGlobals = routeLoader$(async () => {
  return directus.request(readItems("global"));
});

export default component$(() => {
  const global = useGetGlobals().value;
  return (
    <>
      <h1>{global.title}</h1>
      <p>{global.description}</p>
    </>
  );
});

Type npm start in your terminal to start the Qwik City development server and open http://localhost:5173 in your browser. You should see data from your Directus Global collection in your page.

Creating Pages With Directus

Create a new collection called pages - make the Primary ID Field a "Manually Entered String" called slug, which will correlate with the URL for the page. For example about will later correlate to the page localhost:3000/about.

Create a text input field called title and a WYSIWYG input field called content. In Access Control, give the Public role read access to the new collection. Create 3 items in the new collection - here's some sample data.

Inside of routes, create a new folder called [slug]. Add index.tsx inside slug. This is a dynamic route, so a single file can be used for all of the top-level pages.

import { component$ } from "@builder.io/qwik";
import { routeLoader$ } from "@builder.io/qwik-city";

import directus from '../../../lib/directus';
import { readItem } from '@directus/sdk';

export const useGetPages = routeLoader$(async ({ params, status }) => {
    try {
  const page = await directus.request(readItem('pages', params.slug));
  return page;
    } catch (error) {
        status(404);
    }
});

export default component$(() => {
  const page = useGetPages().value;
  return (
    <>
        <h1>{page.title}</h1>
		<div dangerouslySetInnerHTML={page.content}></div>
    </>
  );
});

Go to http://localhost:3000/about, replacing about with any of your item slugs. Using the Directus JavaScript SDK, the single item with that slug is retrieved, and the page should show your data. readItem() allows you to specify the Primary ID Field.

Note that we check if a returned value exists, and return a 404 if not. Please also note that dangerouslySetInnerHTML should only be used for trusted content.

Creating Blog Posts With Directus

Create a new collection called authors with a single text input field called name. Create one or more authors.

Then, create a new collection called posts - make the Primary ID Field a "Manually Entered String" called slug, which will correlate with the URL for the page. For example hello-world will later correlate to the page localhost:3000/blog/hello-world.

Create the following fields in your posts data model:

• a text input field called title
• a WYSIWYG input field called content
• an image relational field called image
• a datetime selection field called publish_date - set the type to 'date'
• a many-to-one relational field called author with the related collection set to authors
• In Access Control, give the Public role read access to the authors, posts, and directus_files collections.

Create 3 items in the posts collection - here's some sample data.

Create Blog Post Listing

Inside of the routes directory, create a new subdirectory called blog and a new file called index.tsx inside of it.

import { component$ } from "@builder.io/qwik";
import { routeLoader$ } from "@builder.io/qwik-city";

import directus from '../../../lib/directus';
import { readItems } from '@directus/sdk';

export const useGetPosts = routeLoader$(async () => {
  return directus.request(
    readItems("posts", {
        fields: ['slug', 'title', 'publish_date', { author: ['name'] }],
		sort: ['-publish_date'],
    })
    );
});

export default component$(() => {
  const posts = useGetPosts().value;
  return (
    <div>
      <h1>Blog</h1>
    </div>
  );
});

This query will retrieve the first 100 items (default), sorted by publish date (descending order, which is latest first). It will only return the specific fields we request - slug, title, publish_date, and the name from the related author item.

Update the returned HTML:

<div>
		<h1>Blog</h1>
		<ul>
			{posts.map((post) => {
				return (
					<li key={post.slug}>
						<h2>
						<a href={`/blog/${post.slug}`}>
							{post.title}
						</a>
						</h2>
						<span>
							{post.publish_date} &bull; {post.author.name}
						</span>
					</li>
				);
			})}
		</ul>
	</div>

Visit http://localhost:3000/blog and you should now see a blog post listing, with latest items first.

Create Blog Post Pages

Each blog post links to a page that does not yet exist. In the routes/blog directory, create a new directory called [slug], and within it a index.tsx file:

import { component$ } from "@builder.io/qwik";
import { routeLoader$ } from "@builder.io/qwik-city";

import directus from '../../../../lib/directus';
import { readItem } from '@directus/sdk';

export const useGetPost = routeLoader$(async ({ params, status }) => {
	try {
		const post = await directus.request(
			readItem('posts', params.slug, {
				fields: ['*', { image: ['filename_disk'], author: ['name'] }],
			})
		);

		return post;
	} catch(error) {
		status(404);
	}
});

export default component$(() => {
	const post = useGetPost().value;
	return (
		<>
			<img src={`${directus.url}assets/${post.image.filename_disk}?width=600`} alt="" />
			<h1>{post.title}</h1>
			<div dangerouslySetInnerHTML={post.content}></div>
		</>
	);
});

Some key notes about this code snippet.

• In the <img> tag, directus.url is the value provided when creating the Directus helper.
• The width attribute demonstrates Directus' built-in image transformations.
• Once again, dangerouslySetInnerHTML should only be used if all content is trusted.

Click on any of the blog post links, and it will take you to a blog post page complete with a header image.

Add Navigation

While not strictly Directus-related, there are now several pages that aren't linked to each other. Open the file routes/layout.tsx to add a navigation above the main content. Don't forget to use your specific page slugs. Replace the existing code with this:

import { component$, Slot } from "@builder.io/qwik";
import { Link } from '@builder.io/qwik-city';

export default component$(() => {
  return (
    <>
        <nav>
          <Link href="/">Home</Link>{' | '}
          <Link href="/about">About</Link>{' | '}
          <Link href="/conduct">Code of Conduct</Link>{' | '}
          <Link href="/privacy">Privacy Policy</Link>{' | '}
          <Link href="/blog">Blog</Link>
        </nav>
        <main><Slot /></main>
    </>
  );
});

Next Steps

Through this guide, you have set up a Qwik City project, created a Directus helper, and used it to query data. You have used a singleton collection for global metadata, dynamically created pages, as well as blog listing and post pages.

If you want to change what is user-accessible, consider setting up more restrictive roles and accessing only valid data at build-time.

If you want to build more complex dynamic pages made out of reusable components, check out our recipe on doing just this.

If you want to see the code for this project, you can find it on GitHub.