Contentful

Connect & Ingest data from Contentful

Contentful is a headless content management system (CMS) that provides a content infrastructure for digital teams to power websites, apps, and devices. The Sling Contentful connector extracts data from the Contentful Content Delivery API (CDA), supporting content types, entries, assets, locales, and tags.

CLI Pro Required: APIs require a CLI Pro token or Platform Plan.

Setup

The following credentials are accepted:

Secrets:

• access_token (required) -> Your Contentful Content Delivery API access token

Inputs:

• space_id (required) -> Your Contentful Space ID

• environment_id (optional, defaults to master) -> The environment to query

• anchor_date (optional, defaults to 1 year ago) -> Starting date for first incremental sync (ISO 8601 format)

Getting Your API Credentials

1. Log in to Contentful

2. Navigate to Settings → API keys

3. Click Add API key (or use an existing one)

4. Copy the Space ID and Content Delivery API - access token

Important: The Content Delivery API token provides read-only access to published content. Keep your token secure and never share it publicly.

Using sling conns

Here are examples of setting a connection named CONTENTFUL. We must provide the type=api property:

sling conns set CONTENTFUL type=api spec=contentful secrets='{ access_token: your_cda_access_token }' inputs='{ space_id: your_space_id }'

Environment Variable

See here to learn more about the .env.sling file.

export CONTENTFUL='{ type: api, spec: contentful, secrets: { access_token: "your_cda_access_token" }, inputs: { space_id: "your_space_id" } }'

Sling Env File YAML

See here to learn more about the sling env.yaml file.

connections:
  CONTENTFUL:
    type: api
    spec: contentful
    secrets:
      access_token: "your_cda_access_token"
    inputs:
      space_id: "your_space_id"
      environment_id: "master"  # optional

Replication

Here's an example replication configuration to sync Contentful data to a PostgreSQL database:

source: CONTENTFUL
target: MY_POSTGRES

defaults:
  mode: full-refresh
  object: contentful.{stream_name}

streams:
  # sync all endpoints
  '*':

Incremental sync for entries and assets:

source: CONTENTFUL
target: MY_POSTGRES

defaults:
  mode: full-refresh
  object: contentful.{stream_name}

streams:
  content_types:
  entries:
    mode: incremental
    primary_key: [id]
    update_key: updated_at
  assets:
    mode: incremental
    primary_key: [id]
    update_key: updated_at
  locales:
  tags:

Endpoints

Endpoint	Description	Incremental	Depends On
content_types	All content type definitions in the space	No	—
entries	All published entries across all content types	Yes	—
assets	All published assets (images, files, media)	Yes	—
locales	All locales configured in the space	No	—
tags	All content tags in the space	No	—

To discover available endpoints:

sling conns discover CONTENTFUL

Endpoint Details

content_types — Returns all content type definitions including field schemas, display field configuration, and revision history. Useful for understanding the content model of your Contentful space.

entries — Returns all published entries across all content types with their fields, metadata, and content type association. Supports incremental sync via sys.updatedAt filtering, so subsequent runs only fetch entries modified since the last sync.

assets — Returns all published assets including file metadata (URL, dimensions, content type), title, and description. Supports incremental sync via sys.updatedAt filtering.

locales — Returns all locales configured in the space, including locale codes, fallback settings, and whether each locale is the default.

tags — Returns all content tags defined in the space, which can be used to organize and filter content.

Incremental Sync

The entries and assets endpoints support incremental sync using the sys.updatedAt filter:

• First run: Fetches all records updated within the configured lookback window (default: 1 year, configurable via anchor_date input)

• Subsequent runs: Only fetches records updated after the last sync timestamp

All other endpoints (content_types, locales, tags) run in full-refresh mode since they typically contain small amounts of configuration data.

Configuring the Lookback Window

You can customize how far back the first incremental sync reaches by setting the anchor_date input:

connections:
  CONTENTFUL:
    type: api
    spec: contentful
    secrets:
      access_token: "your_cda_access_token"
    inputs:
      space_id: "your_space_id"
      anchor_date: "2024-01-01T00:00:00Z"  # start from Jan 1, 2024

Rate Limiting

The Contentful Content Delivery API enforces rate limits:

• Free plan: 78 requests per second

• Paid plans: Higher limits

The connector automatically:

• Uses rate limiting (10 requests/second with concurrency of 3)

• Retries with exponential backoff on 429 (rate limit) responses

• Allows up to 5 retry attempts

• Continues gracefully on 404 responses

Common Use Cases

Sync All Contentful Data

source: CONTENTFUL
target: MY_POSTGRES

defaults:
  mode: full-refresh
  object: contentful.{stream_name}

streams:
  '*':

Sync Entries and Assets Incrementally

source: CONTENTFUL
target: MY_POSTGRES

defaults:
  object: contentful.{stream_name}

streams:
  content_types:
    mode: full-refresh
  entries:
    mode: incremental
    primary_key: [id]
    update_key: updated_at
  assets:
    mode: incremental
    primary_key: [id]
    update_key: updated_at

Extract Content Model Only

source: CONTENTFUL
target: MY_POSTGRES

defaults:
  mode: full-refresh
  object: contentful.{stream_name}

streams:
  content_types:
  locales:
  tags:

If you are facing issues connecting, please reach out to us at [email protected], on discord or open a Github Issue here.