Custom Collections and Singletons in Cockpit CMS

We received a request: "We need an admin panel where a manager adds products, and cards with photos, categories, and attributes appear on the site. Without an admin panel, we'd have to write a REST API from scratch." Cockpit CMS solves this in an hour: create a "Products" collection with fields (title, price, image), link categories via collectionlink, and use a repeater for attributes. A ready JSON endpoint appears immediately — the frontend fetches data via a GET request. We've used Cockpit CMS in 50+ headless projects — this headless system gives flexibility through Collections and Singletons. In 4–8 hours we set up the structure, fields, relations, and access rights, while editors get an intuitive interface without extra code. Our experience: 5 years on the market, over 50 projects on Cockpit. Compared to building a custom admin panel from scratch, you save up to 60% time and up to 50% budget. Starting from $500 for a basic setup.

What problems do we solve with collections?

The typical pain point is manually creating an API for content management. Cockpit automatically generates REST endpoints for each collection. The second problem is the complexity of relationships between entities. In Cockpit, relations are configured via the collectionlink field type without SQL queries. The third is the need for access control. Cockpit supports roles: administrator, editor, content manager. In 80% of projects we use relations between 3–5 collections.

How to create a collection via API?

Collections can be created through the Admin UI or programmatically via the REST API. Here's an example for a "Products" collection:

$collection = [
  'name' => 'products',
  'label' => 'Products',
  'fields' => [
    ['name' => 'title', 'type' => 'text', 'required' => true, 'label' => 'Title'],
    ['name' => 'slug', 'type' => 'text', 'required' => true, 'slug' => true],
    ['name' => 'description', 'type' => 'wysiwyg', 'label' => 'Description'],
    ['name' => 'price', 'type' => 'number', 'label' => 'Price'],
    ['name' => 'image', 'type' => 'asset', 'label' => 'Photo'],
    ['name' => 'gallery', 'type' => 'gallery', 'label' => 'Gallery'],
    ['name' => 'category', 'type' => 'collectionlink', 'link' => 'categories'],
    ['name' => 'published', 'type' => 'boolean', 'default' => false],
    ['name' => 'publishedAt', 'type' => 'date'],
  ],
  'sortable' => true,
  'in_menu' => true,
];

After that, a POST request creates the collection in Cockpit. Records are immediately accessible via API or admin panel. The whole process takes 5–10 minutes. As stated in the official Cockpit CMS documentation: Cockpit GitHub Repository, the API is fully RESTful.

Field types in Cockpit

Cockpit supports 20+ field types. Here are the main ones:

You can combine fields in any order. For relations between collections we use collectionlink — it automatically pulls records from the linked collection.

How to set up relations between collections?

Relations between collections are configured via the collectionlink field type. Specify the target collection and whether multiple records can be selected. Cockpit automatically creates a searchable dropdown. For example, a product can select a category from the categories collection. This is analogous to a foreign key in relational databases but without SQL.

Collection vs Singleton: when to use which?

Singletons are convenient for settings: SEO tags, contacts, social media, banners. Example structure for a "Homepage" singleton:

{
  "fields": [
    { "name": "hero_title", "type": "text" },
    { "name": "hero_subtitle", "type": "textarea" },
    { "name": "hero_image", "type": "asset" },
    { "name": "featured_posts", "type": "collectionlink", "link": "posts", "multiple": true },
    { "name": "seo_title", "type": "text" },
    { "name": "seo_description", "type": "textarea" }
  ]
}

The editor fills in the fields, and the frontend gets a ready JSON via API. No extra logic required.

Using Repeater for content blocks

Repeater allows adding any number of repeatable blocks. For example, a "Features" block:

{
  "name": "features",
  "type": "repeater",
  "label": "Features",
  "fields": [
    { "name": "icon", "type": "asset" },
    { "name": "title", "type": "text" },
    { "name": "description", "type": "textarea" }
  ]
}

In the admin panel, the editor sees an "Add block" button — each new block pulls the same fields. This is more convenient than storing HTML in a text field. We use repeater in 90% of projects.

What's included in the work

• Data structure analysis — define collections, relations, and fields for your business entities (2–4 hours).
• Schema creation — configure collections, singletons, and their fields via Admin UI or API (4–8 hours).
• Access rights setup — role differentiation (administrator, editor, content manager) (1–2 hours).
• API documentation — describe endpoints for frontend or integrations (2–4 hours).
• Team training — show how to use the admin panel, add records and blocks (2–4 hours).
• Post-launch support — fix bugs, tweak fields as needed (up to 7 days).

How we work

1. Analysis — study the content structure, gather requirements.
2. Design — create an ER diagram of collections and relations.
3. Implementation — configure Cockpit, write custom fields/validators if needed.
4. Testing — check scenarios: create, edit, delete records, access rights.
5. Deployment — deploy on the server, configure backups.

Timelines: from 1 day to 2 weeks, depending on complexity. Cost is calculated individually. Get a consultation — our engineers will help estimate the project and timelines. Order Cockpit CMS setup turnkey, get a ready admin panel without extra code. We guarantee results on time. Write to us to estimate your project.

Headless CMS: Strapi, Directus, Sanity, Contentful, Drupal

Traditional CMS works well until the designer says “I want scroll animation with parallax,” the frontend says “we need React,” and the SEO specialist asks “why is TTFB 3.4 seconds?” At that point, monolithic architecture starts to hinder everyone. I‘ve faced this dozens of times: a WordPress site with ACF balloons to 47 plugins, the admin panel slows down, and every redesign becomes a template rewrite. Headless CMS separates content management from presentation. Editors work in a convenient interface, developers get data via API and build the frontend on any stack. Sounds simple. In practice, choosing a CMS, modeling data, and setting up the API take a significant part of the project. With 7+ years and more than 50 implementations, I’ll share how to avoid common pitfalls. Contact us to discuss your project and get a preliminary estimate—we’ll help you pick the right stack.

What are the key benefits of headless CMS over monolithic?

Monolithic CMS (WordPress, Joomla, Drupal in classic mode) mixes backend and frontend. Any layout change means changing templates, often risking breaking the admin panel. Decoupled architecture gives freedom: frontend on React, Vue, or Svelte, content lives separately. Result: improved load speed (LCP often drops from 4–6 s to 1–1.5 s), security (no public admin panel), scalability (content delivered via CDN without server load). Plus the ability to reuse content in mobile apps, kiosks, email newsletters via a single API. A client we recently helped saw LCP improve from 6.2 s to 1.1 s — a 5.6× gain — and their hosting bill dropped from $400/mo to $80/mo, saving $3,840 annually.

How to choose a headless CMS for your project?

No universal tool exists. The choice depends on team, content complexity, and infrastructure. Let’s break down the key options.

Strapi — open-source, self-hosted, Node.js. Suitable for teams needing data control and API customization. Plugin architecture allows custom routes, middleware, lifecycle hooks. REST and GraphQL out of the box. Deploys in about an hour — three times faster than Drupal. Weakness: versions v4 and v5 are incompatible, migration is painful. Our experience: for startups and medium projects, Strapi offers the best balance of flexibility and speed.

Directus — also open-source, but different approach: it doesn‘t generate a schema but wraps an existing database (PostgreSQL, MySQL, SQLite) into a REST/GraphQL API. If you already have a database, Directus connects without migrations. Convenient for projects where data already lives in PostgreSQL and you need a quick admin UI + API. Saves up to 30% integration time.

Sanity — cloud CMS with real-time editor. Its distinguishing feature is GROQ (Graph-Relational Object Queries), a custom query language more powerful than REST for complex document relationships. Portable Text for structured content. Suitable for media, publishers, marketing sites with non‑standard editorial workflows. Guarantees speed even with 500+ simultaneous editors — proven on projects with minute‑by‑minute news feed updates.

Contentful — enterprise cloud CMS. Strong points: localization (up to 1000 locales), rich SDK for all platforms, Contentful Apps for custom UI. Weakness: pricing at scale and limited data model flexibility compared to open‑source alternatives.

Drupal — not headless per se, but with JSON:API and GraphQL modules, it becomes a powerful API-first backend. Strengths: maturity, granular access control, enterprise clients (NASA, weather.com). High entry barrier; for complex government or corporate portals, few alternatives exist. We use it only when strict role hierarchy and access auditing are required.

Consequences of poor content modeling

Content modeling is critical. Mistakes at this stage are costly. A typical problem: a body field of type rich text for everything. Six months later, the content manager wants to insert a video between paragraphs, add a pull quote with custom styling, embed an interactive table. Rich text can‘t handle that. Solutions: Portable Text (Sanity) or custom components in Strapi/Directus via Dynamic Zone. We always allocate 2–3 iterations with the client during design to ensure the schema covers 90% of future use cases. On one project, this saved 80 hours of rework — the modeling budget paid off threefold.

How we build projects on headless CMS

Frontend for headless CMS almost always uses Next.js (App Router) or Nuxt. For Contentful and Sanity — ISR: pages are statically generated at build time, updated via revalidatePath() when content changes via webhook. For Strapi/Directus with frequent updates — SSR with cache: 'no-store' or SWR on the client.

Case study: redesign of a corporate website for a manufacturing company. Previous site: WordPress with ACF, 200+ pages, 4 languages. Problems: TTFB 3.8 s, editors complained about slow admin. Migrated to Strapi (self-hosted, PostgreSQL), Next.js App Router. Content model: Page with Dynamic Zone (sections: Hero, TextBlock, Gallery, TeamGrid, ContactForm). Localization via Strapi i18n plugin + next-intl on frontend. Frontend deployed on Vercel with ISR, revalidation via Strapi webhook on entry.publish. According to the client: TTFB dropped from 3.8 s to 180 ms (static with CDN) — a 21× improvement. Editors got a clean interface without 47 plugins. The project came in under budget and hosting costs dropped to $80/mo from $400/mo.

Implementation process broken into stages:

1. Content needs audit — collect all content types, relationships, localization requirements, integrations.
2. Data schema design — create models, fields, validation, access roles. Document in Swagger/OpenAPI.
3. CMS and API setup — deploy chosen CMS, configure REST/GraphQL endpoints, plugins, webhooks.
4. Frontend development — connect Next.js/Nuxt, configure ISR/SSR, section components, routing.
5. Content migration (if legacy) — automated loading via API or scripts.
6. Testing — check API endpoints, regression, load testing, Core Web Vitals.
7. Deployment — configure CDN, SSL, CI/CD, monitoring.

How long does implementation take?

The standard path includes all stages. Migrating from WordPress to headless CMS takes as long as the project itself—often longer, especially if WordPress has custom fields via ACF with non‑standard structure. Our typical timelines:

Cost is calculated individually after a brief. Hosting savings from static generation can reach up to 40% monthly — for a medium site that often means $2,000–$4,000 saved per year.

Non‑obvious considerations when choosing a headless CMS

• Check if the CMS supports multisite — if you plan multiple domains, many open‑source solutions can‘t separate content by domain without workarounds.
• Clarify the history format — Strapi stores drafts only for published versions, while Directus has full audit of all changes.
• Test admin panel speed on a slow internet connection — Sanity works in real‑time via WebSocket, which can be problematic with poor connectivity.
• Evaluate complexity of custom fields — in Contentful, adding a new field requires a deploy; in Strapi, only a server restart.
• Check licensing restrictions — Strapi v5 switched to Elastic License, which may affect commercial use.

What is included

• Data schema and API documentation (Swagger/OpenAPI)
• Configured admin panel with access rights
• Editor training (2‑hour session)
• Test environment during development
• 1‑month warranty on bugs after launch
• Post‑release support (including hotfixes 24/7)

Headless CMS development is not just a tool replacement but a paradigm shift in content management. We help make this transition without downtime or data loss. Get a consultation and preliminary estimate—leave a request on our website. Order headless CMS implementation with guaranteed results.