NextJS starter kit

This repository is a basic starter kit for bootstrapping an internal tool based on the NextJS framework as the main building block.

The goal is to propose a cohesive experience for developing full stack apps, whatever the term really means these days. NextJS is nice for frontend with potential server rendering, but the server story is a bit lacking, and wiring everything up can take an infinite amount of time.

It features:

• NextJS and ExpressJS for application development
• Sequelize for Postgres communication
• Tailwind CSS for styles along with PostCSS, autoprefixer and cssnano
• ESLint and Prettier for code linting
• nodemon and watch modes for code reloading during development
• recipes for building a Docker image and ultimately deploy the app

TODO:

• add something for nice / easy testing
• add scaffolding capabilities à-la-Rails
• add Kubernetes deployment option
• build or integrate basic components for tables, list filtering, forms
• evaluate how apps starting with it could upgrade later

Install

nvm use
yarn install

Develop

First use the correct version of NPM via NVM (optional but recommended):

nvm use

Run the server locally:

yarn dev

Build / run in production

yarn build

export DB_HOST=db.example.com
export DB_USERNAME=a_username
export DB_DATABASE=a_database
sequelize db:migrate
yarn start

Build / run a docker image

Build:

docker build -t a_tag -f misc/Dockerfile .

Run:

docker run --rm \
  -p 3000:3000 \
  -e DB_HOST=db.example.com \
  -e DB_USERNAME=a_username \
  -e DB_DATABASE=a_database \
   a_tag

FAQ

Do you really need a FAQ?

Of course, people want to know!

Why not component X, framework Y, deploy method Z?

This starter kit is opinionated and brings to the table (well my table), what's critically missing in the JS ecosystem as I practice it for a few years: cohesion. Most choices are inspired by mainstream components we already use at work in one form or another.

If you want to propose something, feel free to do it via an issue with a tiny rationale. Note that I have 0 interest in the latest hype from last week: while I put a bit of love in this repository, the end goal is to escape the madness of gluing technologies together every 3 commits, and actually spend more time on building nice web applications.