
This tutorial will guide you through how to get started with Next.js for Drupal.

You will learn how to setup Drupal, configure preview mode and connect a Next.js site to display your content.

<Callout>

This tutorial assumes basic knowledge of Drupal and Next.js.

</Callout>

Let's get started!


Introduction


## Install Drupal

Start by creating a new Drupal site using composer.

If you have an existing Drupal site, you can skip to the next part.

```sh
composer create-project drupal/recommended-project drupal-site
```

Once this is done, you can open the site and proceed with installation.

## Add Next.js module

Run the following command to install the [Next.js](https://drupal.org/project/next) module and dependencies.

```sh
composer require drupal/next
```


Install Drupal


At the time of this writing, there are two patches we need to wire everything together.

1. Open your Drupal `composer.json` file.
2. Add the following patches under `"extra"`.

```json title=composer.json
"extra": {
		// highlight-start
    "patches": {
        "drupal/subrequests": {
            "Get same results on different request": "https://www.drupal.org/files/issues/2019-07-18/change_request_type-63049395-09.patch"
        },
        "drupal/decoupled_router": {
            "Unable to resolve path on node in other language than default": "https://www.drupal.org/files/issues/2021-05-05/3111456-34.patch"
        }
    },
		// highlight-end
}
```

3. Run the following command:

```sh
composer require cweagans/composer-patches
```

You can read more about the patches here:

1. https://www.drupal.org/project/subrequests/issues/3049395
2. https://www.drupal.org/project/decoupled_router/issues/3111456


Apply Patches


## Enable Modules

1. Visit _/admin/modules_.
2. Enable the **Next.js** and **Next.js JSON:API** modules.


Enable Modules


The Next.js module, paired with the `next-drupal` plugin, makes it easy to create [Next.js preview routes](https://nextjs.org/docs/advanced-features/preview-mode).

We use an OAuth consumer to access preview routes.

Before we can create an OAuth consumer, we need to create a new role and a user for OAuth scopes.

## Create Role

1. Visit _/admin/people/roles_.
2. Click on **+ Add role**.
3. Fill in the **Role name**. Example: _Next.js Site_.

## Assign Permissions

Next, assign the following permissions to the newly created role.

- Bypass content access control
- Issue subrequests
- View user information

<Callout>

We are assigning the _Bypass content access control_ permission to allow Next.js to access unpublished content and revisions.

You can safely skip this permission if you do not need to preview unpublished content.

</Callout>

## Create User

Add a new user at `/admin/people/create` and assign it the role we created above.


Create Role and User


## Generate keys

Generate a pair of keys to encrypt the tokens. And store them outside of your document root (`web` directory) for security.

1. Visit _/admin/config/people/simple_oauth_
2. Click **Generate keys** to generate encryption keys for tokens
3. Fill in **Directory for the keys**.
4. Click **Generate**.

You can also use `openssl` to generate keys:

```
openssl genrsa -out private.key 2048
openssl rsa -in private.key -pubout > public.key
```

## Create Consumer

1. Visit _/admin/config/services/consumer/add_
2. Fill in the following values:

- **Label**: `Next.js site`
- **User**: `Select the user we created`
- **Secret**: `Your secret`
- **Scopes**: `Select the role we created`

3. Click **Save**

_Important: note the client id (uuid) and the secret. These area going to be used as environment variables for the Next.js site._


Create Consumer


1. Visit _/admin/config/services/next_
2. Click **Add Next.js site**
3. Fill in the following values:

- **Label**: `Blog`
- **Base URL**: `http://localhost:3000`
- **Preview URL**: `http://localhost:3000/api/preview`
- **Preview Secret**: `preview-secret-here`

4. Click **Save**

<Img
  src="/images/next-drupal-add-site.jpg"
  width="600"
  height="390"
  layout="responsive"
  mb="10"
/>

You have created your first Next.js site.


Create Next.js Site


To display content on the Next.js site, we need to configure path aliases and preview mode for the content types.

## Configure Path Aliases

The `next-drupal` plugin uses paths to resolve resources for `getStaticProps`. To make this work, we need to configure path aliases for our content types.

Let's add a pattern for the **Article** content type.

1. Visit _/admin/config/search/path/patterns/add_.
2. Fill in the following values:

- **Pattern type**: `Content`
- **Path pattern**: `blog/[node:title]`
- **Content type**: `Article`
- **Label**: `Article`

3. Click **Save**

<Img
  src="/images/next-drupal-pathauto.jpg"
  width="600"
  height="390"
  layout="responsive"
  mb="10"
/>

## Configure Preview

To enable content preview inside Drupal, we need to configure a site resolver for the **Article** content type.

<Callout>

A _site resolver_ tells Drupal how to resolve the preview URL for an entity.

</Callout>

1. Visit _/admin/config/services/next/entity-types_
2. Click **Configure entity type**
3. Select **Article** from the the entity type list
4. Select **Site selector** as the **Site resolver**
5. Select **Blog** under **Next.js sites**
6. Click **Save**

<Img
  src="/images/next-drupal-entity-type.jpg"
  width="600"
  height="390"
  layout="responsive"
  mb="10"
/>

Done. You have completed the Drupal configuration.


Configure Content Types


Now that we have completed the Drupal configuration, we can create our Next.js project.

We are going to use the [basic starter](https://github.com/chapter-three/next-drupal/tree/master/starters/basic-starter).

## Create Project

Run the following command to create a new Next.js project:

```sh
npx create-next-app -e https://github.com/chapter-three/next-drupal-basic-starter
```

## Connect Drupal

To connect the Next.js project to Drupal, we use [environment variables](https://nextjs.org/docs/basic-features/environment-variables).

1. Copy `.env.example` to `.env.local`.
2. On the **Drupal site**, visit _/admin/config/services/next_.
3. Click **Environment variables**.
4. Copy and paste the values into the `.env.local` file created above.

_Remember to fill in the `DRUPAL_CLIENT_ID` and the `DRUPAL_CLIENT_SECRET`._

## Start Development Server

To start the Next.js development server, run `npm run dev` or `yarn dev`. This starts the development server on `http://localhost:3000`.

Visit [http://localhost:3000](http://localhost:3000) to view the site.


Create Next.js project


You can now ready for create content.

Add a new article on your Drupal site and refresh your Next.js site to see the published article.

If preview mode has been configured correctly, you should also see an iframe preview when you visit the article in the Drupal admin.

<Callout>

👉 **Hint:** Since we're not using the Drupal front end theme, set **Claro** as the default theme for a cleaner preview UI.

</Callout>


Create Content


Congratulations. You have successfully install, configure and connect a Next.js site to Drupal. 🎉

## What's Next?

Take a look at the [documentation](/docs) to learn more about:

1. [Data Fetching](/docs/data-fetching)
2. [Menus](/docs/data-fetching/menus)
3. [Authentication](/docs/authentication)
4. [Webforms](/docs/guides/webform)

## Need help?

We understand there's more than a few steps to properly configure Next.js for Drupal.

It is built this way for flexibility.

With the current setup, you can easily configure one Drupal backend and serve multiple Next.js sites (content hub).

You maintain control on which content is pushed to which sites and how.

If you need help, feel free to create an issue on [GitHub](https://github.com/chapter-three/next-drupal).

You can also reach out on [Twitter](https://twitter.com/shadcn).


Community

Getting Started

Data Fetching

Authentication

Guides

Reference

Hooks

Drupal

Create Content