About this guide
This development guide walks you through everything you need to do to build a high-quality Next.js app integrated with Firebase Auth, Cloud Firestore, and Tailwind. Check out the tasks below to get started. To save time, you can also use our boilerplate, which gives you a complete React codebase with all of these tasks done for you. Okay, let's dive in!
Tasks
Setup your Next.js app
Create a Next.js app usingnpx create-next-app
and then run your project locally with thenpm run dev
command.Create a Firebase AuthProvider and useAuth hook
Create anAuthProvider
component that fetches the current user from Firebase Auth, subscribes to changes, stores the user in state, and then makes all this data available to child components usingContext.Provider
. Make sure to update your Next.jsApp
component so thatAuthProvider
wraps all your pages. You'll then create auseAuth
hook that reads the user withuseContext
and returns its value. This will enable any component to calluseAuth
to get the current user and re-render when it changes.Create a Protect pages with a Firebase requireAuth HOC
requireAuth
higher order component for pages that should only be viewable by authenticated users. It should call youruseAuth
hook internally to get the current user, show a loading indicator while waiting on the response, and then either render the page or redirect to/signin
depending on whether the user is authenticated.Update the Merge extra user data from Cloud Firestore
useAuth
React hook to automatically fetch extra user data from the Cloud Firestoreusers
collection and merge it into the returned user object. This makes it easy to access extra user data (think username, subscription plan, etc) without needing to manage extra queries and loading states. Make sure to return anundefined
user object while the query is pending so that the user isn't considered logged in until all data is ready.Some Firebase actions, such as password resetting and email verification, will take the user through an email flow and then have them complete the process on a page hosted by Firebase. For a better experience, you can handle this within your own app. You ll need to create a custom Firebase Create a custom Firebase email action handleremail action route that reads the
mode
andoobCode
params passed by Firebase and then display the appropriate UI (such as a form for selecting a new password). Make sure to handle success/error states with and display a message to the user.Build your authentication UI
Create an authentication UI using Tailwind elements and Firebase Auth functions. You'll want routes for user sign-up, sign-in, forgot password, and change password. Make sure you properly validate inputs and display any errors returned by Firebase Auth. You may also want to use a library, such as React Hook Form, for managing form state.Link user to analytics session
You can connect Google Analytics sessions to the current authenticated user with the User ID feature. This allows you to see what your users are doing across sessions and devices. You'll need to update youruseAuth
hook to set theuser_id
property whenever the user changes.Create Cloud Firestore query hooks
Create React hooks that wrap your Cloud Firestore queries, such asuseUser
,useItem
, anduseItemsByUser
. These hooks should subscribe to data usingonSnapshot
and return a query status of "success", "loading", or "error". The React Query library makes it especially easy to setup these hooks and have components re-render when data changes.Add Firestore rules
Be sure to specify your Firestore security rules so that your Firestore database is secure. For example, if you have ausers
collection you might ensure that the authenticated user can only update a doc ifuserDoc.uid
matches theiruid
. If you have anitems
collection you might ensure that they can only update and fetch items whereitemDoc.owner
matches theiruid
. You'll also generally want to specify an array of fields that are writeable, as you wouldn't want a user to be able to changeuserDoc.planId
without actually upgrading their plan.Build a data-driven UI
Create a data-driven UI using Tailwind elements that reads/writes data to Cloud Firestore. The specifics will depend on the type of app you're building, but we generally recommend having auseItemsByOwner
hook that fetches "items" in Cloud Firestore that are owned by the current user. You can then create a component for displaying that data in a simple list or table if more columns are needed. Finally, you'll want create a flow for creating and updating items utilizing Tailwind modal and form components.Install and configure Tailwind
Install Tailwind and add atailwind.config.js
file by following the Tailwind guide for Next.js.Ensure Tailwind link components hook into Next.js routing
Make all Tailwind link elements hook into Next.js routing by wrapping them with theLink
component fromnext/link
.Create a persistent layout
Add any components that you'd like displayed across all pages (such asNavbar
andFooter
) to your Next.jsApp
component. If you need multiple persistent layouts you can instead have each page define its own layout. In that case, create multiple layout components (such asLandingPageLayout
andAdminLayout
) and wrap the contents of each page.Build out the rest of your UI using Tailwind elements and composing them into high-level page sections, such as Finish your app UI with Tailwind
HeroSection
andAccountSettings
. Use theming and dynamic classes for styling your components and overriding default element styles.
Get the code
You can get the code for this guide with our Next.js, Firebase Auth, Cloud Firestore, and Tailwind Boilerplate. You'll get a complete Next.js codebase with Firebase Auth, Cloud Firestore, and Tailwind integration, all the tasks listed above done for you, and a responsive multi-page template. It should save you about two weeks of development time.
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