Cockpit CMS is a headless content management system (CMS) developed by Agentejo in 2013. It’s a free and open-source CMS, which means you can change, copy, or modify Cockpit to meet your needs. It’s also self-hosted – we’ll take a look at the straightforward installation process below.
What is a Headless CMS?
A headless CMS is a content management system without a built-in front end. It is intended to provide a centralised location from which content can be managed and then published to one or more channels. This is what’s meant by a headless CMS’s “omnichannel” capabilities. This gives organisations the freedom to reach users and audiences on the channels they use by serving content from a central location.
Why Businesses Are Going Headless
The adoption of headless content management systems has increased in recent years. Although headless CMSs still have a high technological barrier to entry (someone has to build the front ends), it’s nevertheless an attractive option for businesses with the necessary resources, for a few reasons:
- Full control
For many organisations, it’s less work to build the frontends they need from scratch and include the appropriate branding and functionality without too much subsequent tweaking.
- Omnichannel capability
The API-first approach typically employed by headless content management systems means that content can be displayed on virtually any front end capable of supporting the necessary API communication.
- Easier security
On its own, a headless CMS has fewer moving parts (e.g. plugins and themes) than a traditional content management system, which means a smaller attack surface. The smaller the attack surface, the easier it is to ensure security.
- Better performance
Pages can load faster since the front end is rendered separate from the content. Users don’t need to wait for the page to be fully loaded to find what they are looking for.
- More scalability
A headless CMS enhances scalability by efficiently managing data requests through a single API call. This approach reduces the need for multiple direct database queries for each user request, which can significantly improve performance.
How to Install Cockpit Headless CMS
Important: If you’re a Storm Internet server customer, all you need to do to get Cockpit CMS installed on your server is to get in touch with your dedicated SupportPod. They’ll take care of the installation as well as the initial setup.
But, if you want to install it yourself…
Step 1 – Download Cockpit CMS
Cockpit Headless CMS can be downloaded from here. There are two options to choose from, one of which is the free and open-source Cockpit Core, and the other the paid Pro version which includes Pro Addons. For this tutorial, we selected the Open Source Cockpit Core download.
Step 2 – Upload & Unpack Cockpit CMS
In this tutorial, I’m using an Ubuntu 22.04 server, and using scp to upload the Cockpit CMS package. Once the package has been uploaded, just unzip it into the correct directory.
Keep in mind that it is assumed that you already have a virtual host created for the domain or IP that’ll run Cockpit CMS. From the screenshot above, you can see that I created a temporary virtual host pointing to storm.esquecreative.dev for this tutorial.
Step 3 – Installation
Installation of Cockpit CMS is pretty straightforward. The CMS does, however, come with the following requirements:
- PHP >= 8.1
- PDO with SQLite support or mongodb extension to use MongoDB as data storage
- Apache (with mod_rewrite enabled) or nginx
Required PHP Extensions
- CURL
- DOM
- Fileinfo
- GD
- JSON
- OpenSSL
- PCRE
- Zip
If all requirements are met, navigate to the domain where you installed Cockpit CMS and append /install to the domain name (e.g. www.yourcockpitsite.com/install). After successful completion of the installation process, you’ll arrive at the following page:
Click LOGIN NOW and enter the given username / password (admin / admin) combination. After successfully logging in, you should receive the following page:
Remember: Since the admin/admin username and password combination are both incredibly easy to crack, your first course of action should be to change both the username and password under the account settings.
Get more information here
If you have prior experience with a content management system, using Cockpit CMS is an uncomplicated experience. For more information on common topics such as users, assets, content, and APIs, check out the Cockpit Documentation.
Storm Internet Simplifies Headless CMS Hosting
Hosting your headless CMS with Storm Internet comes with the benefit of less tech. A dedicated SupportPod of six engineers is included with your Storm server. They handle all the technical requirements, technical routine, and technical tasks to free up your teams and help keep you focused on mission-critical tasks.
And just in case you don’t know which server product you need, we’ve got solution consultants standing by to deliver efficient solutions that’ll deliver on performance and still keep your budget intact. We’ll also keep an eye on your resource usage to ensure that your money isn’t wasted.
