Static Next.js

In this example we will be deploying a simple "Hello World" example with Next.js static export

Getting started with Next.js

• Create a pages folder with an index.js file with the following code:

import Link from 'next/link'
import Header from '../components/header'

export default () => (
  <main>
    <Header />
    <section>
      <Link href="/about">
        <a>Go to About Me</a>
      </Link>
    </section>
  </main>
)

• Now lets create an about.js file inside the pages folder with the following code:

import { Component } from 'react'
import Link from 'next/link'
import Header from '../components/header'

class AboutPage extends Component {
  render() {
    return (
      <main>
        <Header />
        <section>
          <Link href="/">
            <a>Go to Home</a>
          </Link>
        </section>
      </main>
    )
  }
}

export default AboutPage

• As you might noticed we have a component that is share by both index.js and about.js files, lets create that one now. Create a folder named components with a file named header.js on it and add the following code:

export default () => (
  <header>
    <h1>Next.js Example</h1>
  </header>
)

• Finally in order for Next.js to be deployed we could either have a next.config.js or a package.json, for this example we are just going to create a next.config.js with the following code:

module.exports = {}

Deploy a Static version to Now

First we need to create a now.json configuration file to instruct Now how to build the project.

For this example we will be using our newest version Now 2.0.

By adding the version key to the now.json file, we can specify which Now Platform version to use.

We also need to define each builders we would like to use. Builders are modules that take a deployment's source and return an output, consisting of either static files or dynamic Lambdas.

In this case we are going to use @now/static-build to build and deploy our Next.js application selecting the package.json as our entry point. We will also define a name for our project (optional).

{
    "version": 2,
    "name": "nextjs",
    "builds": [
        { "src": "package.json", "use": "@now/static-build" }
    ]
}

Visit our documentation for more information on the now.json configuration file.

We also need to include a script in package.json named "now-build" that specifies what command Now will run on the server to "build" your application. Also notice that we are using next export -o dist to export all the files generated by next to the dist folder which Now identifies as the static folder.

{
  "scripts": {
    ...
    "now-build": "next build && next export -o dist"
  }
}

We are now ready to deploy the app.

$ now