How to Build a Headless WordPress Website Using React

WordPress and React are both nice when it comes to web development and they can all be used to increase efficiency and reliability in website functionality. Combining the two doubles the elite quality of websites and web applications making the websites to be more user-friendly. Front End and back-end developers will also be able to work perfectly on a website made using WordPress and React due to the flexibility brought about by combining the two software. WP and React together can help building a headless WP website. Being completely Headless, involves disconnecting the front-end completely from WordPress. If you are using completely Headless WordPress, a lot of the things that WordPress would normally do completely out of the box, will have to be done by you. The combination of WP and React can bring on many changes in your website.

But the important question is that how does WordPress Development Company combine the two? Below are the steps that can clarify all your doubts and are involved in the process, and can help you do the same for your site.

First Install WordPress on Your Computer

Installing WordPress should not be a problem because of the tutorial readily available on the WordPress official site. Choose the latest version to download on your computer to avoid any security issues. Once downloaded, you will need to create MySQL database. Read all requirements needed for WordPress installation before you try to install it on your computer. You will then be required to link your WordPress to your domain account. Run your WordPress and test if you possible. WordPress development specialists can go into details about this but for basic understanding, those are the basic steps needed to install and run a WordPress.

REST API Plugin If Using WordPress Versions Older than 4.7

As indicated earlier, early versions don’t have the latest plugins and features but for recent or latest versions, you will have all features and plugins readily available. Versions 4.7 and beyond have REST API incorporated into the system so you will not need to install it. To install REST API, Navigate to plugins, proceed to ‘Add New’’ then search ‘’WordPress REST API’’ choose version 2 and then install it. After installation, make sure you activate it so that it works straight away.

Make Functionality Test or Check

After you have installed your WordPress, you would be interested to know whether it is well-functioning or not so that you make appropriate adjustments. Postman or Terminal are the commonly used sites to test the sanity of WordPress sites and you should be able to get JSON and endpoints of all your WordPress sites. Hello World is also known to test all WordPress posts that come from latest versions of WordPress that have latest features attached to them. A sanity check is essential because you will be able to know a lot about the integrity of your WordPress sites and know where to improve.

Incorporate Plugins Needed for the Whole Process

It is a special project that needs a specific plugin on WordPress for them to be successful. The first one is Custom Post Types (CPTs) that will allow you to create excellent typical posts with special features and wonderful features. If you have little or no experience at all, consider using the WP-API only instead of WP-PHP for purposes of easy usage and excellent outcomes. The second Plugin is the Advanced Custom Fields and these are like columns for metadata. For example, if CPT was movies, ACF would be for the year of release, a number of episodes and so on. There are a lot of technicalities involved here but if you get Professional WordPress development services they will do it perfectly for you. You will then need to use the plugin ACF to REST API to make your ACF compatible with WordPress.

Post Data Import to Your WordPress

This is like uploading your real data of the post to your WordPress. To import the data to your WP site or blog, proper steps should be followed. Here is an example which will make it easy for you to understand this concept, if you were creating a post on movies, let’s take for example ‘Breaking Bad’, you will need to upload the movie to your site. If it tells you to link Author, you can make your admin the author.

Install The Create React App

First, you need to install the Node and npm on your computer. Once you have that, you can then run ‘’npm install -g create-react-app’’ and you will be ready to use React on your computer. To create your app, you will then be required to run ‘’create-react-app headless-wp’’. To start or test your app, run ‘npm start’ and you will be able to see all your app on a new web server http://localhost:3000:. Once all is set, you can then create your component.

Looking at the technical details, it is clear that you need a lot of experience and creativity for you to make the best React WordPress Websites and applications. Unless you are careful, mistakes will most likely happen which might cost the functionality of your website. To get a solution for this you should be ready to learn more about WP and React, you can learn more things like Redux, React Native, WebPack, and many more things. The another option is to contact the WordPress Development Company which has some amazingly qualified professional who can make sure every process is well followed and that you receive the best service. The app should be tested from the beginning itself, each and every functionality and efficiency on every step should be tested before it gets ready to be released for people to use. A lot of technicalities are involved which is why you need the best developers to do the work for you or you need to learn all that by yourself, which cannot be possible all the time.

Author Bio:

Harshal Shah has an impeccable experience as being a CEO of Elsner Technologies PVT. LTD: WordPress Development Company which offers multiple web development services to the global clients. Mr. Harshal also writes major informative articles and blogs on motley topics relevant to various CMS platforms. This can help the readers to know new things about web development and they can get new ideas to build & optimize a website online using various web development tools and techniques.