Next.js Quickstart

This quickstart guide will show you how to use WunderGraph with Next.js and goes into a couple of details like server side rendering and TypeScript operations.

We'll use the next.js example to get started. This example is a basic Next.js application that uses WunderGraph to fetch data from the SpaceX GraphQL API .

# Init a new project
npx create-wundergraph-app my-project --example nextjs

# Move to the project directory
cd my-project

# Install dependencies
npm i

npm start

WunderGraph will now do some code generation and start the WunderNode and the Next.js dev server. A new browser window will open at http://localhost:3000 . You should see the WunderGraph & Next.js example homepage with the JSON result of the Dragons operation.

{
  "data": {
    "spacex_dragons": [
      { "name": "Dragon 1", "active": true },
      { "name": "Dragon 2", "active": true }
    ]
  },
  "isValidating": false,
  "isLoading": false
}

WunderGraph lives in the .wundergraph directory by default. This is where you can configure your WunderGraph application and write your operations.

Let's take a look at the default configuration open .wundergraph/wundergraph.config.ts.

You can see that we have a single API configured, which is the SpaceX GraphQL API .

// the name of this const will be supplied to the apis property in the configuration
const spaceX = introspect.graphql({
  apiNamespace: 'spacex',
  url: 'https://spacex-api.fly.dev/graphql/',
});

The API is introspected and added to the WunderGraph virtual graph, as you can see here:

configureWunderGraphApplication({
  // the const defined above is provided in the array of apis here
  apis: [spaceX],
  // ...
  generate: {
    codeGenerators: [
      {
        templates: [new NextJsTemplate()],
        path: '../components/generated',
      },
    ],
  },
  // ...
});

The difference between this configuration and the one in the 1-minute quickstart is the addition of the NextJsTemplate to the code generators. This will generate the typesafe client and React hooks that can be used in Next.js.

Now let's take a look at the operations.

Operations are written in the .wundergraph/operations directory. They can be written in Graphql or TypeScript. Let's check out the Dragons operation, open .wundergraph/operations/Dragons.graphql.

query Dragons {
  spacex_dragons {
    name
    active
  }
}

This simply fetches the name and active status of all the SpaceX dragons, we can run this operation in Next.js by using the generated React hooks.

Open pages/index.tsx, there you will find the following code:

const dragons = useQuery({
  operationName: 'Dragons',
});

The operation name is the name of the file in the operations directory, without the extension. The useQuery hook will return the result of the operation.

const { data, error, isLoading, isValidating } = dragons;

Let's modify the Dragons operation and add a limit parameter and return extra fields. Open .wundergraph/operations/Dragons.graphql and change it to:

query Dragons($limit: Int!) {
  spacex_dragons(limit: $limit) {
    id
    name
    active
  }
}

The WunderGraph server will automatically pick up on the changes and re-generate the types. Go back to pages/index.tsx and you will see that the Dragons operation now has a required limit input parameter.

const dragons = useQuery({
  operationName: 'Dragons',
  input: {
    limit: 1,
  },
});

Refresh the page in your browser, the result will look like this:

{
  "data": { "spacex_dragons": [{ "id": "dragon1", "name": "Dragon 1", "active": true }] },
  "isValidating": false,
  "isLoading": false
}

Next.js supports server side rendering, which means that the page is rendered on the server and then sent to the browser. This is great for SEO and performance. WunderGraph supports server side rendering as well.

Let's take a look at the pages/index.tsx file again. You will see that we are using the useQuery hook to fetch the data. This hook will fetch the data on the client side, which means that the page will be rendered on the client side.

To render the page on the server side, all we need to wrap our Page or App with withWunderGraph. This will make sure that the page is rendered on the server side, WunderGraph does all the hard work for you.

export default withWunderGraph(Home);

WunderGraph allows you to write your operation using TypeScript. TypeScript Operations are a great way to use WunderGraph as a fully featured backend framework. Let's find out how to write a TypeScript operation.

Open .wundergraph/operations/users/get.ts

import { createOperation, z } from '../../generated/wundergraph.factory';

export default createOperation.query({
  input: z.object({
    id: z.string(),
  }),
  handler: async ({ input }) => {
    return {
      id: input.id,
      name: 'Jens',
      bio: 'Founder of WunderGraph',
    };
  },
});

This operation will return a user with the given id. We simply return a plain object here, but you can also return a database model or any other data type. We're using Zod to create the input schema, this will make sure that the input is validated before it reaches the handler.

Open pages/users/index.tsx

const { data } = useQuery({
  operationName: 'users/get',
  input: {
    id: '1',
  },
});

You can call TypeScript operations just like Graphql operations, fully type safe. Note that the operation name is users/get, this is the path to the operation file, without the extension. We use filebased router for operations, similar to Next.js pages. This allows you to keep your operations organized.

Wunderbar! You've added your first Graphql API to Next.js. Next up you might want to add a database, authentication and support uploads to turn Next.js into a full stack powerhouse 😎.

• Databases
• Authentication
• File Storage

Learn more advanced topics in our guides and get comfortable with WunderGraph.

Have a look at other examples we provide, to get a better understanding of WunderGraph.

If you're not yet sure what kind of problems WunderGraph can solve for you, check out the different use cases we support, and the different features we provide. You might also be interested to learn more about the architecture of WunderGraph. If you haven't read our Manifesto yet, it's a great way to better understand what we're working on and why.

If you've got questions, please join our Discord community or contact us.