Unlock the Power of Gatsby and Tailwind CSS

Getting Started with Gatsby

To begin, we’ll set up a new Gatsby project using the command:

npm init gatsby

Follow the prompts to choose a name and folder for your project, and select “No” when asked about using a CMS or styling system. We’ll also choose to build and host our project for free on a cloud platform.

Configuring Tailwind CSS

Next, we’ll install Tailwind CSS and its dependencies using:

npm install tailwindcss gatsby-plugin-postcss

We’ll then create a Tailwind configuration file (tailwind.config.js) and configure it to remove unused styles in production:

module.exports = {
  mode: 'jit',
  purge: [
    './src/**/*.{js,jsx,ts,tsx}',
    './src/**/*.{html,htm}',
  ],
  theme: {
    extend: {},
  },
  variants: {},
  plugins: [],
}

Finally, we’ll enable PostCSS in our Gatsby config file (gatsby-config.js) and create a styles folder with a global.css file to house our styles:

module.exports = {
  plugins: [
    'gatsby-plugin-postcss',
  ],
}

Building Our Blog

With our project set up, we’ll create a blog-posts folder and add some sample Markdown files. We’ll then create a Layout component to house our navigation and footer, and a Header component to display our blog title and description.

Adding Blog Functionality

Next, we’ll create a BlogItem component to display each blog post, and use GraphQL to query our Markdown files and render them on our homepage. We’ll also create an AboutPage and ContactPage component to round out our blog.

Creating Dynamic Pages

To create dynamic pages for each blog post, we’ll create a templates folder and add an article.js file to serve as a template. We’ll then use Gatsby’s gatsby-node.js file to generate pages at build time using our template and the data from our Markdown files:

exports.createPages = async ({ actions, graphql }) => {
  const { createPage } = actions;
  const result = await graphql(`
    query {
      allMarkdownRemark {
        edges {
          node {
            id
            frontmatter {
              title
              slug
            }
          }
        }
      }
    }
  `);

  result.data.allMarkdownRemark.edges.forEach(edge => {
    createPage({
      path: `/blog/${edge.node.frontmatter.slug}`,
      component: require.resolve('./src/templates/article.js'),
      context: { id: edge.node.id },
    });
  });
};

The Finished Product

With our project complete, we’ll have a fast, stylish health and fitness blog that showcases the power of Gatsby and Tailwind CSS. Check out the demo to see it in action!

By following this tutorial, you’ll be well on your way to unlocking the full potential of Gatsby and Tailwind CSS. Happy building!