How to Build Your First Next.js App: A Beginner's Guide.

Introduction

Next.js is a powerful framework built on top of React that allows for server-side rendering, static site generation, and more. In this tutorial, we'll walk through creating a simple Next.js project from scratch. By the end, you'll have a solid foundation to build more complex applications.

Keywords: Next.js tutorial, create Next.js project, React framework, Next.js beginner guide, web development with Next.js, server-side rendering, static site generation, SEO in Next.js.

Step 1: Setting Up Your Environment

Before we begin, ensure that you have Node.js installed on your machine. You can verify this by running the following command in your terminal:

node -v

Next, install the Next.js framework along with React and React DOM by running:

npx create-next-app@latest

This command will prompt you to name your project and choose a template. For this tutorial, let's keep it simple and use the default template.

? What is your project named? my-nextjs-app
? Would you like to use TypeScript? No

Once the installation is complete, navigate to your project directory:

cd my-nextjs-app

Now, let's start the development server:

npm run dev

Your Next.js application is now up and running! Open http://localhost:3000 in your browser to see it in action.

Step 2: Understanding the Folder Structure

Next.js comes with a pre-defined folder structure. Let's take a look at the most important ones:

`pages/`: This is where you define your routes. Each file in this folder represents a route in your application.
`public/`: Static files like images, fonts, and other assets go here.
`styles/`: You can add your CSS files here, though Next.js also supports CSS-in-JS.

Step 3: Creating Your First Page

Let's create a new page in our Next.js application. Inside the pages/ directory, create a new file called `about.js`:

// pages/about.js


import Head from 'next/head';


export default function About() {
  return (
    <div>
      <Head>
        <title>About Us</title>
      </Head>
      <h1>About Us</h1>
      <p>This is a simple Next.js app tutorial.</p>
    </div>
  );
}

Now, navigate to http://localhost:3000/about in your browser. You should see the "About Us" page!

Step 4: Adding Navigation

To navigate between pages, we'll add a simple header with links. Open the pages/index.js file and modify it like this:

// pages/index.js


import Link from 'next/link';
import Head from 'next/head';


export default function Home() {
  return (
    <div>
      <Head>
        <title>Home Page</title>
      </Head>
      <header>
        <nav>
          <ul>
            <li>
              <Link href="/">Home</Link>
            </li>
            <li>
              <Link href="/about">About</Link>
            </li>
          </ul>
        </nav>
      </header>
      <h1>Welcome to My Next.js App</h1>
      <p>This is a simple Next.js app tutorial.</p>
    </div>
  );
}

With this code, you now have a basic navigation system between the Home and About pages.

Step 5: Deploying Your Next.js App

Once you're happy with your app, it's time to deploy it. Next.js integrates seamlessly with platforms like Vercel and Netlify.

To deploy on Vercel, follow these steps:

Install the Vercel CLI:

npm i -g vercel

Run the following command:

vercel

Follow the prompts to deploy your app.

And that's it! Your Next.js app is now live.

Conclusion

In this tutorial, we covered the basics of setting up a Next.js project, creating pages, adding navigation, and deploying the app. This is just the beginning—Next.js has a lot more to offer, from API routes to advanced SEO techniques. Stay tuned for more tutorials!