Next.js starter

This is a Next.js project that uses Prisma to connect to a PlanetScale database and Tailwind CSS for styling.

Prerequisites

• Node.js
• PlanetScale CLI
• Authenticate the CLI with the following command:

pscale auth login

Set up the database

Create a new database with the following command:

pscale database create <DATABASE_NAME>

A branch, main, was automatically created when you created your database, so you can use that for BRANCH_NAME in the steps below.

Set up the starter Next.js app

Clone the starter repository.

git clone https://github.com/planetscale/nextjs-starter

Install the dependencies.

npm install

Next, you'll need to create a database username and password through the CLI to connect to your application. If you'd prefer to use the dashboard for this step, you can find those instructions in the Connection Strings documentation and then come back here to finish setup.

First, create your .env file by renaming the .env.example file to .env:

mv .env.example .env

Next, using the PlanetScale CLI, create a new username and password for the branch of your database:

pscale password create <DATABASE_NAME> <BRANCH_NAME> <PASSWORD_NAME>

The PASSWORD_NAME value represents the name of the username and password being generated. You can have multiple credentials for a branch, so this gives you a way to categorize them. To manage your passwords in the dashboard, go to your database overview page, click "Settings", and then click "Passwords".

Take note of the values returned to you, as you won't be able to see this password again.

Password production-password was successfully created.
Please save the values below as they will not be shown again

  NAME                  USERNAME       ACCESS HOST URL                     ROLE               PLAIN TEXT
 --------------------- -------------- ----------------------------------- ------------------ -------------------------------------------------------
  production-password   xxxxxxxxxxxxx   xxxxxx.us-east-2.psdb.cloud   Can Read & Write   pscale_pw_xxxxxxx

You'll use these properties to construct your connection string, which will be the value for DATABASE_URL in your .env file. Update the DATABASE_URL property with your connection string in the following format:

mysql://<USERNAME>:<PLAIN_TEXT_PASSWORD>@<ACCESS_HOST_URL>/<DATABASE_NAME>?sslaccept=strict

Push the database schema to your PlanetScale database using Prisma.

npx prisma db push

Run the seed script to populate your database with Product and Category data.

npm run seed

Run the App

Run the app with following command:

npm run dev

Open your browser at localhost:3000 to see the running application.

Deploying

After you've got your application running locally, it's time to deploy it. To do so, you'll need to promote your database branch (main by default) to be the production branch (read the branching documentation for more information).

pscale branch promote <DATABASE_NAME> <BRANCH_NAME>

Now that your branch has been promoted to production, you can either use the existing password you generated earlier for running locally or create a new password. Regardless, you'll need a password in the deployment steps below.

Choose one of the following deploy buttons and make sure to update the DATABASE_URL variable during this setup process.

Deploy on Vercel

Deploy on Netlify

*Note: The Netlify.toml file in this repository includes the configuration for you to customize the DATABASE_URL property on the initial deploy.

Learn More

To learn more about PlanetScale, take a look at the following resources:

• PlanetScale quick start guide - Learn how to get started with PlanetScale.

What's next?

Learn more about how PlanetScale allows you to make non-blocking schema changes to your database tables without locking or causing downtime for production databases. If you're interested in learning how to secure your application when connecting to PlanetScale, please read Connecting to PlanetScale securely.

Need help?

Get help from PlanetScale's support team, or join our GitHub Discussion board to see how others are using PlanetScale.