Fullstack Example with Next.js (GraphQL API)

This example shows how to implement a fullstack app in TypeScript with Next.js using React, Apollo Client (frontend), Nexus Schema and Prisma Client (backend). It uses a SQLite database file with some initial dummy data which you can find at ./prisma/dev.db.

How to use

1. Download example & install dependencies

Clone this repository:

git clone git@github.com:prisma/prisma-examples.git --depth=1

Install npm dependencies:

cd prisma-examples/typescript/graphql-nextjs
npm install

Note that this also generates Prisma Client JS into node_modules/@prisma/client via a postinstall hook of the @prisma/client package from your package.json.

2. Start the app

npm run dev

The app is now running, navigate to http://localhost:3000/ in your browser to explore its UI.

Expand for a tour through the UI of the app

Blog (located in ./pages/index.tsx

Signup (located in ./pages/signup.tsx)

Create post (draft) (located in ./pages/create.tsx)

Drafts (located in ./pages/drafts.tsx)

View post (located in ./pages/p/[id].tsx) (delete or publish here)

Using the GraphQL API

You can also access the GraphQL API of the API server directly. It is running on the same host machine and port and can be accessed via the /api route (in this case that is localhost:3000/api).

Below are a number of operations that you can send to the API.

Retrieve all published posts and their authors

query {
  feed {
    id
    title
    content
    published
    author {
      id
      name
      email
    }
  }
}

See more API operations

Create a new user

mutation {
  signupUser(
    data: {
      name: "Sarah"
      email: "sarah@prisma.io"
    }
  ) {
    id
  }
}

Create a new draft

mutation {
  createDraft(
    title: "Join the Prisma Slack"
    content: "https://slack.prisma.io"
    authorEmail: "alice@prisma.io"
  ) {
    id
    published
  }
}

Publish an existing draft

mutation {
  publish(id: __POST_ID__) {
    id
    published
  }
}

Note: You need to replace the __POST_ID__-placeholder with an actual id from a Post item. You can find one e.g. using the filterPosts-query.

Search for posts with a specific title or content

{
  filterPosts(searchString: "graphql") {
    id
    title
    content
    published
    author {
      id
      name
      email
    }
  }
}

Retrieve a single post

{
  post(where: { id: __POST_ID__ }) {
    id
    title
    content
    published
    author {
      id
      name
      email
    }
  }
}

Note: You need to replace the __POST_ID__-placeholder with an actual id from a Post item. You can find one e.g. using the filterPosts-query.

Delete a post

mutation {
  deleteOnePost(where: {id: __POST_ID__})
  {
    id
  }
}

Note: You need to replace the __POST_ID__-placeholder with an actual id from a Post item. You can find one e.g. using the filterPosts-query.

Evolving the app

Evolving the application typically requires five subsequent steps:

1. Migrating the database schema using SQL
2. Updating your Prisma schema by introspecting the database with prisma introspect
3. Generating Prisma Client to match the new database schema with prisma generate
4. Using the updated Prisma Client in your application code and extending the GraphQL API
5. Building new UI features in React

For the following example scenario, assume you want to add a "profile" feature to the app where users can create a profile and write a short bio about themselves.

1. Change your database schema using SQL

The first step would be to add a new table, e.g. called Profile, to the database. In SQLite, you can do so by running the following SQL statement:

CREATE TABLE "Profile" (
  "id" INTEGER NOT NULL PRIMARY KEY AUTOINCREMENT,
  "bio" TEXT,
  "user" INTEGER NOT NULL UNIQUE REFERENCES "User"(id) ON DELETE SET NULL
);

To run the SQL statement against the database, you can use the sqlite3 CLI in your terminal, e.g.:

sqlite3 dev.db \
'CREATE TABLE "Profile" (
  "id" INTEGER NOT NULL PRIMARY KEY AUTOINCREMENT,
  "bio" TEXT,
  "user" INTEGER NOT NULL UNIQUE REFERENCES "User"(id) ON DELETE SET NULL
);'

Note that we're adding a unique constraint to the foreign key on user, this means we're expressing a 1:1 relationship between User and Profile, i.e.: "one user has one profile".

While your database now is already aware of the new table, you're not yet able to perform any operations against it using Prisma Client. The next two steps will update the Prisma Client API to include operations against the new Profile table.

2. Introspect your database

The Prisma schema is the foundation for the generated Prisma Client API. Therefore, you first need to make sure the new Profile table is represented in it as well. The easiest way to do so is by introspecting your database:

npx prisma introspect

Note: You're using npx to run Prisma 2 CLI that's listed as a development dependency in package.json. Alternatively, you can install the CLI globally using npm install -g @prisma/cli. When using Yarn, you can run: yarn prisma dev.

The introspect command updates your schema.prisma file. It now includes the Profile model and its 1:1 relation to User:

model Post {
  author    User?
  content   String?
  id        Int     @id
  published Boolean @default(false)
  title     String
}

model User {
  email   String   @unique
  id      Int      @id
  name    String?
  post    Post[]
  profile Profile?
}

model Profile {
  bio  String?
  id   Int     @default(autoincrement()) @id
  user Int     @unique
  User User    @relation(fields: [user], references: [id])
}

3. Generate Prisma Client

With the updated Prisma schema, you can now also update the Prisma Client API with the following command:

npx prisma generate

This command updated the Prisma Client API in node_modules/@prisma/client.

4. Use the updated Prisma Client in your application code

You can now use your PrismaClient instance to perform operations against the new Profile table. Those operations can be used to implement queries and mutations in the GraphQL API.

Option A: Expose Profile operations via nexus-prisma

With the nexus-prisma package, you can expose the new Profile model in the API like so:

// ... as before

const User = objectType({
  name: 'User',
  definition(t) {
    t.model.id()
    t.model.name()
    t.model.email()
    t.model.posts({
      pagination: false,
    })
+   t.model.profile()
  },
})

// ... as before

+const Profile = objectType({
+  name: 'Profile',
+  definition(t) {
+    t.model.id()
+    t.model.bio()
+    t.model.user()
+  },
+})

// ... as before

export const schema = makeSchema({
+  types: [Query, Mutation, Post, User, Profile],
  // ... as before
}

Option B: Use the PrismaClient instance directly

As the Prisma Client API was updated, you can now also invoke "raw" operations via prisma.profile directly.

Create a new profile for an existing user

const profile = await prisma.profile.create({
  data: {
    bio: "Hello World",
    user: {
      connect: { email: "alice@prisma.io" },
    },
  },
});

Create a new user with a new profile

const user = await prisma.user.create({
  data: {
    email: "john@prisma.io",
    name: "John",
    profile: {
      create: {
        bio: "Hello World",
      },
    },
  },
});

Update the profile of an existing user

const userWithUpdatedProfile = await prisma.user.update({
  where: { email: "alice@prisma.io" },
  data: {
    profile: {
      update: {
        bio: "Hello Friends",
      },
    },
  },
});

5. Build new UI features in React

Once you have added a new query or mutation to the API, you can start building a new UI component in React. It could e.g. be called profile.tsx and would be located in the pages directory.

In the application code, you can access the new operations via Apollo Client and populate the UI with the data you receive from the API calls.

Next steps

• Check out the Prisma docs
• Share your feedback in the prisma2 channel on the Prisma Slack
• Create issues and ask questions on GitHub