Build, Integrate, and Publish Apps With the Developer Hub

Contentstack is excited to introduce Developer Hub, a powerful platform that allows you to build apps, create integrations for your specific business needs and publish them on Marketplace.

The Developer Hub (in Open Beta) is an app development platform that comes with Apps APIs, SDK and other tools to help you build apps with ease. Using these tools, you can develop private apps (only for your organization) and public apps (listed in the Public Marketplace for any Contentstack customers to use) such as third-party integrations, Contentstack apps and more.

Developer Hub: The Power to Build

If you are a developer, Developer Hub lets you build apps to extend the core functionalities of Contentstack and use them in your organizations or stacks. These apps can be extensions or integration solutions (packaged as apps), with any UI location of your choice. You can decide where these apps are rendered — as a field, sidebar widget, dashboard widget, RTE plugin or other location.

We have created a comprehensive guide to help you get started with building apps. We have also included tutorials for sample apps that can get you up to speed immediately.

If the Marketplace apps sound similar to extensions, it’s because they are. Apps are the future of integrating and implementing third-party solutions within your CMS. Compared to extensions, apps offer advanced functionalities as they extend all the features of your current extensions and more to provide seamless integration with your favorite third-party platforms.

You can learn more about how Marketplace apps are different from extensions, which one will suit your requirements and how to convert your existing extensions into apps.

How Can You Start Creating an App With Developer Hub?

Note: If you do not see Developer Hub in your organization, kindly contact our Support Team,

To start creating an app with Developer Hub, you need to perform the following steps:

1. Download and use our boilerplate that will set up your project from scratch using the App SDK.
2. Install Node version 12 in the app drive.
3. Next, log in to your Contentstack account and click on the “Developer Hub” icon that you see on the left navigation panel.
4. You'll see the Developer Hub landing page where you can start setting up your app. Configure the OAuth, UI locations and Webhooks.
5. Once set up, install the app in your organization or stack according to your setup.
6. Now, update the boilerplate code to suit your application’s needs and test it out.

For more information on how to create and manage your apps, see our extensive Developer Hub guide.

Contentstack Marketplace and Developer Hub: The Dual Advantage

Contentstack Marketplace is a platform that allows you to connect apps and other services and make them work for you quickly and efficiently. These applications are easy to install and have all the resources you need for every step of the development process.

Currently, Algolia, BigCommerce, Shopify, and Cloudinary are among the top integration apps that you will find in Contentstack Marketplace, with more to come soon.

With Contentstack Developer Hub, you get the ability to create your own apps, and with the right approvals, you can even get them listed in Contentstack Marketplace so others can install and use them.

For more information about this, refer to our App Submission and Approval Guidelines.

What’s next?

We will continue to improve user experiences with Developer Hub in upcoming releases. Also, we will provide app hosting abilities where users can upload their app code directly into Contentstack without having to rely on external third-party apps. We also plan to add more locations where these apps can be placed. Stay tuned!