To get started with Netlify Connect, create and configure your first data layer.
A data layer allows you to sync and combine data from multiple sources into a single real-time graph database that you can query against with a GraphQL API. When you set up a data layer, you add connections to data sources to sync data from. You also connect sites and add webhooks to notify whenever data updates.
Here are some key terms that are useful to understand as you get started with Netlify Connect:
Data layer: contains connections to one or more data sources, a real-time graph database containing all data synced from those sources, and a single GraphQL API to access that data. It also supports connecting to sites and custom webhooks to trigger builds or send notifications as your data changes.
Data source: an external system or service that contains your data, such as a content management system (CMS). Netlify Connect has built-in support for a number of data source types and you can add support for your own custom data source with the Netlify SDK.
Connector: a component of Netlify Integrations that allows you to connect to and sync data from a custom data source to Netlify Connect. Integrations with Connectors are built using the Netlify SDK.
Type prefix: required when you want to connect one data layer to multiple data sources of the same type, such as two Contentful CMS instances. When Netlify generates the GraphQL schema for your data layer, it will add the prefix to all GraphQL types from that data source.
GraphQL API: allows web clients to query and receive data from a data layer on Netlify Connect. Each data layer has a specific GraphQL schema based on connected data sources, and you use this schema to construct queries and API requests.
GraphQL sandbox: an isolated environment in the Netlify UI that you can use to build and test queries against the data layer’s GraphQL API. Netlify creates a unique sandbox for each data layer that you create.
Connected sites: sites in your Netlify team that will automatically build and deploy when data changes. We use build hooks to trigger these builds.
Custom webhooks: external webhooks that you can connect to your data layer. Netlify will notify these webhooks when data changes.
Sync events:activities that occur in Netlify Connect when you connect a data source and when data changes. These events include Sync from all data sources, Sync from {data source type}, and Sync to database.
Team Owners and Collaborators can set up data layers for your team. This includes creating the data layer, adding data sources, connecting Netlify sites, and adding custom webhooks.
You can create more than one data layer to fit your needs. For example:
One data layer for production data and sites to use, and another for staging data and sites to use
Different data layers for different departments or products across your organization
Once you create a data layer, you can add one or more data sources to sync data from. You can select from the data sources Netlify officially supports as well as custom data sources supported through integrations built with the Netlify SDK.
The Netlify UI includes a guided flow to help you create and configure a new data layer. To get started, add a data layer.
Need to add a new data source to an existing data layer?
If you want to add a new data source, site, or custom webhook to an existing data layer, you can do this from the data layer settings page. To learn more, review our manage data layers doc.
The second step in the data layer configuration flow is to add one or more data sources to your data layer. We recommend that you add at least one data source now, but you will have the option to add more after you complete this flow.
Each supported data source type has different credentials, options, and set up instructions.
Already using the Contentful Integration on Netlify?
Netlify Connect is separate from the Contentful Integration, and we currently do not leverage that integration to sync data. To use your Contentful instance with Netlify Connect, you need to add it here as a data source.
Take the following steps on your Contentful space before you add it to your data layer:
In the Contentful web app, navigate to
Settings > API keys
, and select Add API key to create an API key and generate access tokens for the space you want to sync. Netlify will need one of these tokens to access your data.
In the Contentful web app, navigate to
Settings > CMA tokens
, and select Create personal access token to generate a Content Management API access token. Copy this token and store it in a safe place. Netlify will need this token to automatically set up a webhook in your Contentful space that will notify Netlify Connect whenever data changes in your CMS.
You’ll need to enter these tokens when you set up your Contentful data source in the Netlify UI.
(Optional) Enter a Type prefix for this data source. The prefix must start with an uppercase letter, and can only consist of alphanumeric characters and underscores.
The prefix will be added to all data types synced from this data source in the GraphQL schema and you will use it when you query the GraphQL API. For example, ContentfulPost with the prefix Marketing becomes MarketingContentfulPost in the schema.
Note that Type prefix becomes a required field when you connect more than one Contentful instance to the same data layer.
Enter the Access token for your Contentful instance. To sync published content, enter the Content Delivery API access token. To sync preview content instead, enter the Content Preview API access token.
Enter the Space ID for your Contentful instance.
Enter the Content Management API access token for your Contentful instance. Netlify will use this token to automatically set up a webhook in your Contentful space that will notify Netlify Connect whenever data changes in your CMS.
(Optional) Select the Host URL for your Contentful instance. The default is cdn.contentful.com. To use the Contentful Preview API, select preview.contentful.com.
(Optional) Enter the Contentful Environment to sync data from. The default is master.
(Optional) Enter a Page limit to specify the number of entries to fetch per page when syncing data from Contentful. The default is 1000.
(Optional) Select Enable Contentful Tags if your Contentful instance uses the Contentful Tags feature. Note that if you enable this option, you cannot use the content type name tags at this time.
Select Save to add this data source.
Netlify will connect to this data source and start syncing data to your data layer.
Take the following steps on your Contentstack instance before you add it to your data layer:
In your Contentstack account, navigate to
Settings > API Tokens
for your stack, and generate a delivery token for the environment you want to sync. You’ll need to enter this token when you set up your Contentstack data source in the Netlify UI, and Netlify will use this token to access your data.
To enable automatic syncing to Netlify, add your data layer webhook to your Contentstack instance:
In your Contentstack account, navigate to
Settings > Webhooks
for your stack, and select New Webhook.
Add the following webhook to the URL To Notify field. Make sure to replace the placeholder with your data layer ID.
Under When, add a Condition for each content type and event that you wish to sync. At minimum, you should configure the webhook to trigger when the Entry type is Created, Updated, and Deleted. For more information on how to configure webhook conditions, refer to the Contentstack docs.
(Optional) Enter a Type prefix for this data source. The prefix must start with an uppercase letter, and can only consist of alphanumeric characters and underscores.
The prefix will be added to all data types synced from this data source in the GraphQL schema and you will use it when you query the GraphQL API. For example, ContentstackPost with the prefix Marketing becomes MarketingContentstackPost in the schema.
Note that Type prefix becomes a required field when you connect more than one Contentstack instance to the same data layer.
Enter the API key for your stack.
Enter the read-only Delivery token for your stack environment.
Enter the stack Environment to sync data from. For example, the production environment.
(Optional) Select the Region to sync data from. The default is AWS North America.
(Optional) Enter the Branch to sync data from. The default is main.
(Optional) Select Disable required fields to make all fields in the schema optional.
(Optional) Select Enable JSON-RTE to HTML to convert JSON Rich Text Editor (RTE) responses to HTML.
Select Save to add this data source.
Netlify will connect to this data source and start syncing data to your data layer.
Once you have prepared your Drupal instance, take the following steps in the Netlify UI to add it to your data layer:
Select Add a data source.
Enter a Name for this data source.
Select Drupal as the Data source type.
(Optional) Add a Type prefix for this data source. The prefix must start with an uppercase letter, and can only consist of alphanumeric characters and underscores.
The prefix will be added to all data types synced from this data source in the GraphQL schema and you will use it when you query the GraphQL API. For example, DrupalPost with the prefix Marketing becomes MarketingDrupalPost in the schema.
Note that Type prefix becomes a required field when you connect more than one Drupal instance to the same data layer.
Enter the Drupal URL for your Drupal site, including the trailing slash.
(Optional) If your Drupal instance has basic authentication enabled, enter the HTTP Basic Auth username and HTTP Basic Auth password.
(Optional) Enter the Gatsby Image CDN placeholder style name. The default is placeholder.
(Optional) Enter the JSON:API base to use as the relative path to the JSON:API root. The default is /jsonapi.
Select Save to add this data source.
Netlify will connect to this data source and start syncing data to your data layer.
(Optional) Enter a Type prefix for this data source. The prefix must start with an uppercase letter, and can only consist of alphanumeric characters and underscores.
The prefix will be added to all data types synced from this data source in the GraphQL schema and you will use it when you query the GraphQL API. For example, PrismicPost with the prefix Marketing becomes MarketingPrismicPost in the schema.
Note that Type prefix becomes a required field when you connect more than one Prismic instance to the same data layer.
Enter the Repository name.
Enter the Custom types API token. We’ll use this token to check for and sync custom type schemas from the Custom Types API.
(Optional) Enter the Access token if you would like to sync content from the Private API or to sync preview releases from the Public API for master.
(Optional) Enter the Content language to sync only content in a specific language. The default is to sync all languages.
(Optional) Enter the Release ID if you wish to sync content from a specific release. The default is to sync the non-release build.
Select Save to add this data source.
Netlify will connect to this data source and start syncing data to your data layer.
Queries for Prismic slices must include __typename
To query Prismic slices, you need to explicitly include the __typename field in the query. For more information, refer to the Query Prismic slices section in our troubleshooting tips doc.
Take the following steps on your Sanity project before you add it to your data layer:
Deploy a Sanity GraphQL API for the project. To deploy a GraphQL API on Sanity, use the Sanity CLI to run sanity graphql deploy in the Sanity Studio project folder. Learn more about deploying GraphQL APIs on Sanity.
To enable automatic syncing to Netlify Connect, add your data layer webhook to the Sanity project.
Navigate to
API > Webhooks
in your project settings. Under GROQ-powered Webhooks, select Create webhook.
Enter a name for the webhook and then add the following webhook URL to the URL field. Make sure to replace the placeholder with your data layer ID.
Once you have prepared your Sanity project, take the following steps in the Netlify UI to add it to your data layer:
Select Add a data source.
Enter a Name for this data source.
Select Sanity as the Data source type.
(Optional) Enter a Type prefix for this data source. The prefix must start with an uppercase letter, and can only consist of alphanumeric characters and underscores.
The prefix will be added to all data types synced from this data source in the GraphQL schema and you will use it when you query the GraphQL API. For example, SanityPost with the prefix Marketing becomes MarketingSanityPost in the schema.
Note that Type prefix becomes a required field when you connect more than one Sanity project to the same data layer.
Enter the Project ID for your Sanity project.
Enter the name of the Dataset to sync.
(Optional) If you deployed the Sanity GraphQL API with a tag, enter the GraphQL tag name. For example, if you used --tag experiment for the deploy, enter experiment. The default is default.
(Optional) If your dataset is private, enter the API authentication token to use for syncing data. The token must have Viewer permissions.
Select Save to add this data source.
Netlify will connect to this data source and start syncing data to your data layer.
To add a Shopify data source to Netlify Connect, first you need to set up a custom Shopify app that we can use to access Shopify’s Admin API and sync data. You will need the Admin API access token to set up your Shopify data source in Netlify Connect.
Log in to your Shopify store as the store owner and search for Apps and sales channels.
Enable custom app development. To do this, select Develop apps, then Allow custom app development. After reading the warning and information provided, select Allow custom app development.
Create a custom app. From the App development section, select Create an app. Enter an app name and developer, then select Create app.
Set admin API scopes for the app. On the custom app page, select Configure Admin API scopes. Enable the read_products, read_product_listings, and read_files scopes, and then select Save.
Install the app and get the API access token. Select the API credentials tab and select Install app under Access tokens. Follow the prompts to install the app on your Shopify store.
Next, under the Admin API access token section, select Reveal token once to access the token. Store the token in a safe place as you will need it to set up the data source connection.
Once you have created a custom Shopify app, take the following steps in the Netlify UI to add your Shopify store to your data layer:
Select Add a data source.
Enter a Name for this data source.
Select Shopify as the Data source type.
(Optional) Add a Type prefix for this data source. The prefix must start with an uppercase letter, and can only consist of alphanumeric characters and underscores.
The prefix will be added to all data types synced from this data source in the GraphQL schema and you will use it when you query the GraphQL API. For example, ShopifyProduct with the prefix Marketing becomes MarketingShopifyProduct in the schema.
Note that Type prefix becomes a required field when you connect more than one Shopify store to the same data layer.
Enter the Store URL for your Shopify store. This is the myshopify.com URL, excluding https:// and the trailing slash.
Enter the Admin API access token. This is the access token for the custom Shopify app you created in the prepare to connect your store step. The token starts with shpat_.
Select Save to add this data source.
Netlify will connect to this data source and start syncing data to your data layer.
Take the following steps on your Storyblok instance before you add it to your data layer:
In your Storyblok space, navigate to
Settings > Access Tokens
, and generate a preview access token. You’ll need to enter this token when you set up your Storyblok data source in the Netlify UI, and Netlify will use this token to access your data.
To enable automatic syncing to Netlify, add your data layer webhook to your Storyblok instance:
In your Storyblok space, navigate to
Settings > Webhooks
, and select New Webhook.
Add the following webhook to the Endpoint URL field. Make sure to replace the placeholder with your data layer ID.
(Optional) Enter a Type prefix for this data source. The prefix must start with an uppercase letter, and can only consist of alphanumeric characters and underscores.
The prefix will be added to all data types synced from this data source in the GraphQL schema and you will use it when you query the GraphQL API. For example, StoryblokPost with the prefix Marketing becomes MarketingStoryblokPost in the schema.
Note that Type prefix becomes a required field when you connect more than one Storyblok instance to the same data layer.
Enter the Preview access token for your space.
Enter the content Version to sync — either draft or published.
(Optional) Select Include links to enable the ability to query links using allStoryblokLinkEntry.
(Optional) Enter a Timeout value. This is the time in milliseconds before requests to Storyblok will time out. The default is 3000.
Select Save to add this data source.
Netlify will connect to this data source and start syncing data to your data layer.
Take the following steps on your WordPress instance before you add it to your data layer:
Install and activate the WPGraphQL WordPress plugin.
Install and activate the WPGatsby WordPress plugin.
Add the following webhook to your WPGatsby plugin settings to enable automatic syncing to Netlify Connect. Make sure to replace the placeholder with your data layer ID.
(Optional) Add a Type prefix for this data source. The prefix must start with an uppercase letter, and can only consist of alphanumeric characters and underscores.
The prefix will be added to all data types synced from this data source in the GraphQL schema and you will use it when you query the GraphQL API. For example, WpPost with the prefix Marketing becomes MarketingWpPost in the schema.
Note that Type prefix becomes a required field when you connect more than one WordPress instance to the same data layer.
Enter the full WPGraphQL API URL for your WordPress instance. For example, https://your-wordpress.xyz/graphql.
(Optional) Enter a Timeout value. This is the time in milliseconds before requests to WordPress will time out. The default is 3000.
(Optional) Enter a Per page value to specify the number of nodes to fetch per page when syncing data from WordPress. The default is 100.
(Optional) If your WordPress instance has basic authentication enabled, enter the HTTP Basic Auth username and HTTP Basic Auth password.
Select Save to add this data source.
Netlify will connect to this data source and start syncing data to your data layer.
To use a custom data source, an integration must already exist for it
If an integration doesn’t already exist for your custom data source type, create one with the Netlify SDK and develop a Connectors component that includes the data model and logic for syncing data from your custom data source. Once you publish the integration, you can start using it in Netlify Connect.
To enable automatic syncing to Netlify, you need to manually add a webhook to your custom data source instance. The exact instructions vary for each system but you need to do the following:
Log in to your data source and navigate to the webhook settings.
Follow the prompts to create a new webhook and add the following to the URL field. Make sure to replace the placeholder with your data layer ID.
If the options are available, select the data types and events that should trigger the webhook. We suggest including any create, edit, and delete events for all content types that you wish to store in your data layer.
Under Data source type, select the integration that you enabled.
Fill in the configuration fields with the values for your data source instance. For example, you may need to provide the API key for your CMS instance.
Select Save to add this data source.
Netlify will connect to this data source and start syncing data to your data layer.
In the meantime, you can connect another source or select Continue to move to the next step in the data layer configuration flow.
The third step in the data layer configuration flow is to set up connections to sites on Netlify that should automatically build and deploy when data changes in this data layer.
We recommend that you connect any sites that use static site generation (SSG), cached server-side rendering (SSR), or edge functions with caching to ensure they always have access to the latest data. If your site uses server-side rendering (SSR) without caching or you plan to query the GraphQL API during runtime using functions or edge functions without caching, you don’t have to connect your site. Learn more about how to access data.
For Netlify to automatically build and deploy your site when data changes, your site must be linked to a Git repository to enable continuous deployment, and it must have active builds.
To connect a site to this data layer:
Select Search by site name or domain and start entering the name or domain of the site you want to connect.
When the site appears in the results list, select the site. The connected site will appear in the Connected sites list.
Once you connect a site, the build hooks for the site will include a Netlify Connect - Data layer build hook with the data layer ID as the value. This provides a convenient way on the site level to check whether a site is connected to a data layer.
Repeat the above steps to connect as many sites as needed. Once you’re done, select Continue to move to the last step.
The final step in the flow allows you to add custom webhooks to notify external services whenever data changes in your data layer. For example, you may want to add a webhook to notify a Slack channel when your data layer updates.
To add a custom webhook:
Select Add a custom webhook.
Enter a Name for this webhook.
Enter the URL for this webhook.
Select Create custom webhook.
Repeat these steps to add as many custom webhooks as needed.
Once you’re done, select Finish data layer configuration to complete the set up process.
Once you finish the configuration flow for a new data layer, you can review sync events as Netlify completes the initial data sync from your connected sources.
After the sync events are successful, you need to generate an authentication token for the GraphQL API. Once you do that, you can access the data with the GraphQL sandbox or through the GraphQL API in your app.
If the sync events are not successful, review our troubleshooting tips for support.
