Publishing a Next JS App

Valist offers a different options for uploading your Next JS application, making deployment a breeze. The following steps will guide you through the process seamlessly.

Step 1: Build your project statically

You'll first need to run next export to create an out folder instead of the normal _next folder that is served.

Make sure you have created a Next JS project:

npx create-next-app

First, you will need to add next export to your package.json:

"scripts": {
    "dev": "next dev",
    "build": "next build",
    "export": "next export",
    "start": "next start",
    "lint": "next lint"
 },

This can be done by copying and adding "export": "next export", line under the build script.

Unfortunately, Next.js server-side features like image optimization and API routes are not supported in static build environments. If you are using next/image for your images, you will need to add an images property to the nextConfig object in your next.config.js file. The value of image should be an object having a property called unoptimized set to true. For example:

next.config.js

const nextConfig={

...

images: {
      unoptimized: true,
},

...

}

Otherwise, you will see an error like the following:

Error: Image Optimization using Next.js' default loader is not compatible with `next export`.
  Possible solutions:
    - Use `next start` to run a server, which includes the Image Optimization API.
    - Configure `images.unoptimized = true` in `next.config.js` to disable the Image Optimization API.
  Read more: https://nextjs.org/docs/messages/export-image-api

You can still communicate with existing HTTP backends via the static frontend!

Then, build and run the app by running the following:

npm run build
npm run export

This will then create a folder named out in the project directory. Feel free to add the build script to the beginning of the export script for more convenience!

You can now upload this to Valist directly, you're all set!

Step 2: Publishing a Release

Now that you've built your application, you have 3 different options for publishing depending on your preferences!

To publish a Release with the web dashboard, make sure your Project Type is set to web in the settings, then click New Release on your project page.

This will show a simple upload form:

The Release Image allows you to attach an image to the release.
The Release Name works the same way as the account and project names -- it is an immutable tag that represents the version of the release and is accessible at the account/project/release the path once published.
The Display Name is simply a human-readable name as an alternative to the immutable tag.
The Description is a Markdown-compatible description for the release.

The next tab allows you to drag and drop or click to upload a folder. Here is where you will drag your out folder:

After clicking Create, you will be prompted to sign a message for the release! 🚀

Note: First, you'll need to install and set up your Valist CLI by configuring the key it uses to publish. If you haven't done this yet, visit the CLI quick start (it will take less than 5 min):

💻CLI

Publishing a web app with the Valist CLI is easy, simply run the following:

valist publish account_name/project_name/release_name out

Replace the variables with your Valist Account & Project names, and giving your release a release_name or tag. The release_name works the same way as the account and project names -- it is an immutable tag that represents the version of the release, and is accessible at the account/project/release path once published.

Replace out with the path, you wish to publish.

An example publish looks like:

valist publish acme-co/next-project/0.0.1 out

This will upload the files to IPFS and create a meta-transaction, publishing your release at the designated version:

That's it! The CLI will print a few different ways to access your application, like below:

confirming transaction 0x08279fa71dc9482b55c6b638218712e34e4892f1b4f2df7bfc607f7ac2881ec1... done
successfully published acme-co/next-project/0.0.1!
view the release at:
    https://app.valist.io/acme-co/next-project/0.0.1
    https://gateway.valist.io/ipfs/bafybeigdq74jk5523p5tdhqqq5bydthewlra5klk2guot2pj3fgbx5eakm
    ipfs://bafybeigdq74jk5523p5tdhqqq5bydthewlra5klk2guot2pj3fgbx5eakm

Now you can celebrate knowing your app is available on web3! 🚀

Optional: Publishing with a valist.yml file

The Valist CLI also reads a valist.yml file to configure the publishing.

This is typically used to configure multi-platform releases (Mac/Windows/Linux/Android), but you can also use it for web projects.

An example for a web app looks like the following:

valist.yml

account: acme-co
project: next-project
release: 0.0.1
path: out

Once the valist.yml file is saved, simply run:

valist publish

It will use these values instead of the CLI arguments, making it an easy way to keep track of the previous release!

Note: For more information about how the GitHub Action works, visit the following page. If you're familiar with the CLI, configuring the GitHub Action is very similar:

🧩GitHub Action

Building and publishing a web app with the Valist GitHub Action is easy!

You simply need:

Add the Valist Publish step to the end of your app's build process
Add a Repository Secret called VALIST_SIGNER that contains a fresh private key that has access to the Valist Project you're publishing to. For more information, visit the GitHub Action page.

Create a .github/workflows/valist.yml file like the following:

valist.yml

name: Valist Publish
on:
  push:
    branches:
      - main
jobs:
  valist-publish:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      - name: Checkout
        uses: actions/checkout@v3

      - name: Setup Node
        uses: actions/setup-node@v3
        with:
          node-version: '16'

      - name: Build and export Next.js app
        run: |
          npm install
          npm run build
          npm run export

      - run: echo "TIMESTAMP=$(date +%Y%m%d%H%M)" >> $GITHUB_ENV

      - name: Valist Publish
        uses: valist-io/valist-github-action@v2.5.6
        with:
          private-key: ${{ secrets.VALIST_SIGNER }}
          account: acme-co
          project: next-project
          release: github-action-${{ env.TIMESTAMP }}
          path: build

In this example, the Valist Publish step contains:

The private-key of the address that has access to this Valist Project.
The Valist account name.
The Valist project name.
The Valist release name. This works the same way as the account and project names -- it is an immutable tag that represents the version of the release, and is accessible at the account/project/release path once published.
The path of the folder you wish to publish. In this example, it's the static Next.js output folder.

Live Example

A working example can be found here:

Congratulations! You now have your web app building and publishing automatically to web3! 🚀

That's all you need to publish web apps with Valist!

After publishing, your application will be highly available via IPFS, using links like the following:

https://bafybeihpv3piaiybqgqcvqmgpq3dkjz55czkndkjdqjpskagml3fnczih4.ipfs.gateway.valist.io/

You can access this IPFS hash from anywhere on the IPFS network including your own node, and from common gateways like IPFS.io, dweb.link, and Cloudflare:

http://bafybeihpv3piaiybqgqcvqmgpq3dkjz55czkndkjdqjpskagml3fnczih4.ipfs.dweb.link/

Please note that IPFS gateways that don't use subdomains are not secure for accessing web applications due to sharing the same origin.

IPFS Gateways support either or both of the following formats:

Subdomain gateway mode: e.g. https://<CID>.ipfs.dweb.link/
Path gateway mode: e.g. https://ipfs.io/ipfs/<CID>/

You only want to access web apps from IPFS via the first type of gateway. This is because the browser will treat the subdomain as a different "origin" and therefore treat local storage and other security policies in a way that prevents other websites from interfering with your app.

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Last updated 1 year ago