MERN-stack-CMS is a free and open-source content management system (CMS) based on React, Node.js, Express and MongoDB.

Installation

To use MERN-stack-CMS, you must first checkout this repository, or download the .ZIP file and extract its contents, and proceed to the following server and client-side installations:

Installing back-end with Node.js, Express and MongoDB

The "server" directory contains the source code for your app's backend Express server.

• First, you must have a mongod running version 3.2.x of MongoDB or above. (Recommended provider to have your own domain and VPS/dedicated server that can be customized to have Node.js and MongoDB for hosting a MEAN/MERN stack application like React CMS.)
• In the "server" directory, run npm install to install its dependencies.
• Open /server/config.js, read the property descriptions carefully and set them properly according to the configuration of your server.
• /sites.json contains your multisite information, modify and import it as your database collection named 'sites' by running: mongoimport --drop -d reactcms -c sites sites.json or mongoimport -h <hostname><:port> -d reactcms -c sites -u <username> -p <password> --file sites.json
• In the "server" directory, run npm start or nodemon to run the Express app which starts your server that can be locally access at: http://localhost:3001
• Make sure to test your RESTful API server locally to easily diagnose if there's any problem!

Installing front-end React application

The "client" directory contains the source code for your React app.

• Open /client/src/config.js and configure it for your app.
• In the "client" directory, run npm install to install its dependencies.
• In the "client" directory, run npm start to start your MERN-stack-CMS app.

How to register the first administrator?

You need to manually modify the created user's data in the database 'users' collection. Here are a few guidelines about it:

• Register the account that you'll going to convert as administrator.
• A user data document contains these properties:

{
  email: CREATED_USER_EMAIL
  username: CREATED_USER_NAME,
  hash: CREATED_USER_HASH,
  role: 'subscriber',
  ...
}

• You just need to $set its role from 'subscriber' to 'admin' like the following:

{
  email: CREATED_USER_EMAIL
  username: CREATED_USER_NAME,
  hash: CREATED_USER_HASH,
  role: 'admin',
  ...
}

• Here are terminal commands that you may need to run if you're hosting your mongod on your local server:

mongo
use reactcms
db.users.updateOne({ username: 'CREATED_USER_NAME' },{ $set: { role: 'admin' } })

• If the modified account is currently signed in, sign out and re-sign in it.

Those are the things that you need, you may now post a blog using your administrator account.