The Two Week Migration: Part One, Adapters
Our goal was ambitious: a complete CMS migration in just two weeks. Now, for any development team, that kind of timeline raises eyebrows. But we added another layer of complexity: we wanted to achieve this without touching our frontend. It turns out, these were just the constraints we needed.
At Adapt, we use the right tool for the job. For many of our clients, that’s Contentful.
We’ve seen how powerful, flexible, fast, and built to scale it is- It’s why we became a Contentful Gold Partner.
But like the cobbler’s kids with no shoes... Our own site was still on DatoCMS. We knew we could be taking advantage of the same great features we recommend to our clients—like Content Personalization and AI Actions—but we’d been busy building those experiences for them instead.
We knew we could be taking advantage of the same great features we recommend to our clients—like Content Personalization and AI Actions—but we’d been busy building those experiences for them instead. So, we decided it was time to "walk the walk" and migrate our own site to Contentful.
Part One: Adapters
The Wins: Beyond a Functioning Frontend
A two week migration, with minimal disruption to our existing frontend, was a significant win in itself. It demonstrated our team's ability to rapidly adapt and solve complex integration challenges under pressure. However, the benefits extended beyond just a functioning website on a new CMS.
Our marketing team is particularly excited about the possibilities that Contentful unlocks. Having a unified platform for their client work and our own website streamlines their workflows and allows them to leverage Contentful's powerful content personalization features directly. They've been eager to get their hands on these tools, and this migration has finally made that a reality.
I'm incredibly proud of our development team. The constraints we faced – the tight timeline and the initial goal of minimal frontend changes – required creative problem-solving and a deep understanding of our existing codebase. We emerged from this process not only with a migrated website but also with valuable new insights into CMS migration strategies and how to best support our clients facing similar transitions. This experience has undoubtedly added new "tricks" to our toolkit.
Conclusion
Our rapid migration from DatoCMS to Contentful’s frontend in just two weeks underscores the power of strategic planning, a flexible architecture, and a pragmatic approach to problem-solving. By leveraging the adapter pattern and making smart trade-offs when necessary, we successfully transitioned our website to a platform that aligns with our expertise and opens up exciting new possibilities.
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