Building a Dynamic Page Builder with Headless CMS

Hardcoding every new landing page is a trap. It leads to duplicate code, slow deployments, and a frustrated marketing team. The "Lazy Ant" way is different: we build a Page Builder Engine once, and then we just compose.

The Concept: Content as Components

In a Headless CMS like Storyblok, don't think of a page as a "blob of text." Think of it as an array of nested blocks. Each block in the CMS corresponds to a React component in your code.

The Core Implementation

The magic happens in a dynamic dispatcher. Instead of a massive switch-case, we map CMS technical names directly to our component library.

TypeScript

// src/components/StoryblokComponent.tsx
import Hero from "./Hero";
import Grid from "./Grid";
import RichText from "./RichText";

const ComponentMap: Record<string, any> = {
  hero: Hero,
  grid: Grid,
  rich_text: RichText,
};

export default function PageBuilder({ blok }: { blok: any }) {
  const Component = ComponentMap[blok.component];
  
  if (!Component) {
    return <div className="p-4 bg-red-900/20 text-red-500">Missing: {blok.component}</div>;
  }

  return <Component blok={blok} />;
}

Why This Wins

• 🐜 Infinite Flexibility: Editors can reorder, add, or remove sections without a single line of code.

• 🐜 Atomic Updates: Fix a bug in the Hero component, and it updates across 50 different pages instantly.

• 🐜 Performance: Using Next.js Dynamic Routes ([[...slug]]), you can fetch and render the entire page structure in one go.

The "Lazy" Rule

Don't build a new component for every small visual change. Use Schema Configuration. Add a "Theme" or "Alignment" dropdown in your CMS to change the look of an existing block.

Conclusion

A Page Builder is not just a tool; it's a bridge between the rigid world of code and the fluid world of content. Build the system, then let the system build the pages.