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

Configuration

Step 1. Set up the environment
Step 2. Configure CORS for localhost
Step 3. Run Next.js locally in development mode
Step 4. Populate content
Step 5. Deploy to production & use Preview Mode from anywhere
Step 6. Deploy your Studio and publish from anywhere
Step 7. 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

You can also set up manually

Bootstrap the example
Connect to a Sanity project
Set up environment variables

If using the integration isn't an option. Or maybe you want to work locally first and deploy to Vercel later. Whatever the reason this guide shows you how to setup manually.

Bootstrap the example

Execute create-next-app with npm, Yarn, or pnpm:

npx create-next-app --example cms-sanity cms-sanity-app

yarn create next-app --example cms-sanity cms-sanity-app

pnpm create next-app --example cms-sanity cms-sanity-app

Connect to a Sanity project

Run this to select from your existing Sanity projects, or create a new one:

(cd studio && npx @sanity/cli init)

The CLI will update sanity.json with the project ID and dataset name.

Set up environment variables

Copy the .env.local.example file in this directory to .env.local (which will be ignored by Git):

cp .env.local.example .env.local

Then set these variables in .env.local:

NEXT_PUBLIC_SANITY_PROJECT_ID should be the projectId value from sanity.json.
NEXT_PUBLIC_SANITY_DATASET should be the dataset value from sanity.json.
SANITY_API_READ_TOKEN create an API token with read-only permissions:
- Run this to open your project settings or go to https://manage.sanity.io/ and open your project:
```
(cd studio && npx @sanity/cli manage)
```
- Go to API and the Tokens section at the bottom, launch its Add API token button.
- Name it SANITY_API_READ_TOKEN, set Permissions to Viewer.
- Hit Save and you can copy/paste the token.

Your .env.local file should look like this:

NEXT_PUBLIC_SANITY_PROJECT_ID=...
NEXT_PUBLIC_SANITY_DATASET=...
SANITY_API_READ_TOKEN=...

Step 2. Configure CORS for localhost

Needed for live previewing unpublished/draft content.

npm --prefix studio run cors:add -- http://localhost:3000 --credentials

Step 3. 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.

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

View screenshot ✨

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

View screenshot ✨
Set the Date
Select a Cover Image from Unsplash.

View screenshot ✨
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.

View screenshot ✨
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 5. 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.

Don't remember the production url? 🤔

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 6. 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 7. 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