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Introducing Visual Editing, for Vercel and DatoCMS Enterprise customers

Posted on June 22nd, 2023 by Stefano Verna

We are excited to introduce an innovative feature for Vercel and DatoCMS Enterprise customers: Visual Editing. With Visual Editing, you now have the power to click on any content element within a Vercel preview deployment, and seamlessly navigate to the corresponding location in DatoCMS for effortless updates. All without making any change to your front-end code.

To modify any piece of content, whether it's an image or rich text, simply click "Open in DatoCMS" within your Vercel build, and DatoCMS will open directly to the document containing the field you wish to modify.

Rethinking Content Editing Workflows in the Composable Era

In the pursuit of enhanced content personalization, localization, and consistent delivery across various channels, headless CMSs and the composable architecture have gained unprecedented popularity. However, this shift has often come at the expense of the visual editing capabilities inherent in traditional monolithic CMSs.

In collaboration with Vercel, DatoCMS has developed a streamlined workflow that empowers editors to make content changes without requiring an extensive understanding of where that content resides within DatoCMS.

Effortlessly Update Content with Just a Click

Visual Editing empowers teams to start from the context where content is presented, and quickly grasp its purpose and usage with a single click. By enabling edit mode in a Vercel preview deployment, every content element becomes a portal that guides authors directly to the corresponding location in DatoCMS for editing.

With Visual Editing enabled, you can efficiently navigate to specific content without needing to know its exact location within DatoCMS.

Save Time with the "Change Once, Change Everywhere" Approach

DatoCMS's composable content solution allows teams to establish a single source of truth for content that seamlessly flows into various parts of your web experience and beyond. Visual Editing establishes a direct link between your front-end presentation and the corresponding content authored within DatoCMS.

Once in DatoCMS, you can effortlessly identify how content is utilized across different sections of your web experience and make global updates, offering immense time savings and increasing content ROI.

No Front-End Changes Required

Visual Editing was designed to provide a quick start, without the need to redesign your content architecture. While it operates based on your front-end code, there is no requirement to insert data on every page component to instruct Vercel on which content within DatoCMS should be opened.

We have streamlined the implementation process to eliminate the need for any modifications to your front-end code, apart from adding two additional headers to your existing GraphQL requests.

Based on feedback from our beta testers, the entire implementation process has taken less than an hour.

Enable Visual Editing on your DatoCMS Enterprise project

Visual Editing is now available for Vercel and DatoCMS Enterprise customers. You can learn more about the technical details of this feature and its activation in our documentation page.

Existing DatoCMS enterprise customers, or customers interested in upgrading to an Enterprise plan can contact our sales team for more information.

As we strive to enhance and refine the Visual Editing experience, we eagerly await your feedback and look forward to partnering with you to shape the future of content management workflows.