A statically generated blog example using Next.js and Sanity

This example showcases Next.js's Static Generation feature using Sanity as the data source.

You'll get:

• Next.js deployed with the Sanity Vercel Integration.
• Sanity Studio running on localhost and deployed in the cloud.
• Sub-second as-you-type previews in Next.js
• On-demand revalidation of pages with GROQ powered webhooks

Demo

https://next-blog-sanity.vercel.app

Related examples

• AgilityCMS
• Builder.io
• ButterCMS
• Contentful
• Cosmic
• DatoCMS
• DotCMS
• Drupal
• Enterspeed
• Ghost
• GraphCMS
• Kontent
• Prepr
• Prismic
• Sanity
• Sitefinity
• Storyblok
• TakeShape
• Umbraco heartcore
• Webiny
• Blog Starter
• WordPress

Configuration

• Step 1. Set up the environment
• Step 2. Run Next.js locally in development mode
• Step 3. Populate content
• Step 4. Deploy to production & use Preview Mode from anywhere
  • If you didn't Deploy with Vercel earlier do so now
  • Configure CORS for production
  • Add the preview secret environment variable
  • How to test locally that the secret is setup correctly
  • How to start Preview Mode for Next.js in production from a local Studio
  • If you regret sending a preview link to someone
• Step 5. Deploy your Studio and publish from anywhere
• Step 6. Setup Revalidation Webhook
  • Testing the Webhook
• Next steps

Step 1. Set up the environment

Use the Deploy Button below, you'll deploy the example using Vercel as well as connect it to your Sanity dataset using the Sanity Vercel Integration.

Clone the repository that Vercel created for you and from the root directory of your local checkout. Then link your clone to Vercel:

npx vercel link

Download the environment variables needed to connect Next.js and Studio to your Sanity project:

npx vercel env pull

Step 2. Run Next.js locally in development mode

npm install && npm run dev

yarn install && yarn dev

Your blog should be up and running on http://localhost:3000! If it doesn't work, post on GitHub discussions.

Note: This also installs dependencies for Sanity Studio as a post-install step.

Step 4. Populate content

In another terminal start up the studio:

npm run studio:dev

Your studio should be up and running on http://localhost:3333!

Create content

Create content in Sanity Studio and live preview it in Next.js, side-by-side, by opening these URLs:

• http://localhost:3333
• http://localhost:3000/api/preview

We're all set to do some content creation!

• Click on the "Create new document" button top left and select Post

• Type some dummy data for the Title

• Generate a Slug

• Set the Date

• Select a Cover Image from Unsplash.

• Let's create an Author inline, click Create new.

• Give the Author a Name.

• After selecting a Picture of a face from Unsplash, set a hotspot to ensure pixel-perfect cropping.

• Create a couple more Posts and watch how the layout adapt to more content.

Important: For each post record, you need to click Publish after saving for it to be visible outside Preview Mode.

To exit Preview Mode, you can click on "Click here to exit preview mode" at the top.

Step 4. Deploy to production & use Preview Mode from anywhere

If you didn't Deploy with Vercel earlier do so now

To deploy your local project to Vercel, push it to GitHub/GitLab/Bitbucket and import to Vercel.

Important: When you import your project on Vercel, make sure to click on Environment Variables and set them to match your .env.local file.

After it's deployed link your local code to the Vercel project:

npx vercel link

Configure CORS for production

Add your production url to the list over CORS origins.

No worries, it's easy to find out. Go to your Vercel Dashboard and click on your project:

In the screenshot above the production url is https://cms-sanity.vercel.app.

npm --prefix studio run cors:add -- [your production url] --credentials

Add the preview secret environment variable

It's required to set a secret that makes Preview Mode activation links unique. Otherwise anyone could see your unpublished content by just opening [your production url]/api/preview. Run this and it'll prompt you for a value:

npx vercel env add SANITY_STUDIO_PREVIEW_SECRET

The secret can be any combination of random words and letters as long as it's URL safe. You can generate one in your DevTools console using copy(Math.random().toString(36).substr(2, 10)) if you don't feel like inventing one.

You should see something like this in your terminal afterwards:

$ npx vercel env add SANITY_STUDIO_PREVIEW_SECRET
Vercel CLI 27.3.7
? What’s the value of SANITY_STUDIO_PREVIEW_SECRET? 2whpu1jefs
? Add SANITY_STUDIO_PREVIEW_SECRET to which Environments (select multiple)? Production, Preview, Development
✅  Added Environment Variable SANITY_STUDIO_PREVIEW_SECRET to Project cms-sanity [1s]

Redeploy production to apply the secret to the preview api:

npx vercel --prod

After it deploys it should now start preview mode if you launch [your production url]/api/preview?secret=[your preview secret]. You can send that preview url to people you want to show the content you're working on before you publish it.

How to test locally that the secret is setup correctly

In order to test that the secret will prevent unauthorized people from activating preview mode, start by updating the local .env with the secret you just made:

npx vercel env pull

Restart your Next.js and Studio processes so the secret is applied:

npm run dev

npm run studio:dev

And now you'll get an error if [secret] is incorrect when you try to open https://localhost:3000/api/preview?secret=[secret].

How to start Preview Mode for Next.js in production from a local Studio

Run this to make the Studio open previews at [your production url]/api/preview instead of http://localhost:3000/api/preview

SANITY_STUDIO_PREVIEW_URL=[your production url] npm run studio:dev

If you regret sending a preview link to someone

Revoke their access by creating a new secret:

npx vercel env rm SANITY_STUDIO_PREVIEW_SECRET
npx vercel env add SANITY_STUDIO_PREVIEW_SECRET
npx vercel --prod

Step 5. Deploy your Studio and publish from anywhere

Live previewing content is fun, but collaborating on content in real-time is next-level:

SANITY_STUDIO_PREVIEW_URL=[your production url] npm run studio:deploy

If it's successful you should see something like this in your terminal:

SANITY_STUDIO_PREVIEW_URL="https://cms-sanity.vercel.app" npm run studio:deploy
? Studio hostname (<value>.sanity.studio): cms-sanity

Including the following environment variables as part of the JavaScript bundle:
- SANITY_STUDIO_PREVIEW_URL
- SANITY_STUDIO_PREVIEW_SECRET
- SANITY_STUDIO_API_PROJECT_ID
- SANITY_STUDIO_API_DATASET

✔ Deploying to Sanity.Studio

Success! Studio deployed to https://cms-sanity.sanity.studio/

This snippet is stripped from verbose information, you'll see a lot of extra stuff in your terminal.

Step 6. Setup Revalidation Webhook

Using GROQ Webhooks Next.js can rebuild pages that have changed content. It rebuilds so fast it can almost compete with Preview Mode.

Create a secret and give it a value the same way you did for SANITY_STUDIO_PREVIEW_SECRET in Step 4. It's used to verify that webhook payloads came from Sanity infra, and set it as the value for SANITY_REVALIDATE_SECRET:

npx vercel env add SANITY_REVALIDATE_SECRET

You should see something like this in your terminal afterwards:

$ npx vercel env add SANITY_REVALIDATE_SECRET
Vercel CLI 27.3.7
? What’s the value of SANITY_REVALIDATE_SECRET? jwh3nr85ft
? Add SANITY_REVALIDATE_SECRET to which Environments (select multiple)? Production, Preview, Development
✅  Added Environment Variable SANITY_REVALIDATE_SECRET to Project cms-sanity [1s]

Apply the secret to production:

npx vercel --prod

Wormhole into the manager by running:

(cd studio && npx sanity hook create)

• Name it "On-demand Revalidation".
• Set the URL to[your production url]/api/revalidate, for example: https://cms-sanity.vercel.app/api/revalidate
• Set the Trigger on field to Create Update Delete
• Set the Filter to _type == "post" || _type == "author"
• Set the Secret to the same value you gave SANITY_REVALIDATE_SECRET earlier.
• Hit Save!

Testing the Webhook

• Open the Deployment function log. (Vercel Dashboard > Deployment > Functions and filter by api/revalidate)
• Edit a Post in your Sanity Studio and publish.
• The log should start showing calls.
• And the published changes show up on the site after you reload.

Next steps

• Mount your preview inside the Sanity Studio for comfortable side-by-side editing
• Join the Sanity community