How to Use Prisma in Next.js

Introduction

Next.js is a popular React framework that makes it easier to build complex applications. With its server-side rendering capabilities, you can build apps that are lightning fast and SEO friendly. You can also integrate different technologies to make them work with Next.js, such as GraphQL. Prisma is an open-source GraphQL database toolkit that makes it easier to work with databases in GraphQL. In this tutorial, we will learn how to use Prisma with Next.js.

Prerequisites

Before we begin, make sure you have the following installed:

• Node.js
• Yarn
• Prisma CLI
• Docker

Step 1 - Create a Next.js Project

The first step is to create a Next.js project. To do this, open a terminal window and run the following command:

yarn create next-app my-app

This will create a project in a new directory called my-app.

Step 2 - Set up Prisma

The next step is to set up Prisma. To do this, run the following command in your terminal:

prisma init

This will create a new directory called prisma with the Prisma configuration files.

Step 3 - Connect Prisma to Your Database

Now that you have the Prisma configuration files, you can connect it to your database. For this tutorial, we will use a Postgres database, but you can use any supported database.

To connect your database, open the prisma/prisma.yml file and add the following code:

datasources:
  db:
    url: postgresql://username:password@host:port/database

Be sure to replace the username, password, host, port, and database with the correct values for your database.

Step 4 - Generate the Prisma Client

Next, you need to generate the Prisma client. To do this, run the following command in your terminal:

prisma generate

This will generate the Prisma client in the prisma/generated/prisma-client directory.

Step 5 - Connect Prisma to Next.js

Now that we have the Prisma client, we can connect it to our Next.js project. To do this, open the my-app/pages/index.js file and add the following code:

import { PrismaClient } from '../prisma/generated/prisma-client';
 
const IndexPage = () => {
  const prisma = new PrismaClient();
 
  return <div>Hello world!</div>;
};
 
export default IndexPage;

Now, you can use the prisma instance to make queries to your database in your Next.js application.

Conclusion

In this tutorial, we learned how to use Prisma with Next.js. We started by creating a Next.js project and setting up Prisma. Then, we connected Prisma to our database and generated the Prisma client. Finally, we connected Prisma to Next.js and were able to make queries to our database in our application.

For more information about using Prisma with Next.js, please refer to the official documentation (opens in a new tab).