Get started - Get started with Liveblocks and Next.js

Liveblocks is a real-time collaboration infrastructure for building performant collaborative experiences. Follow the following steps to start adding collaboration to your Next.js /app directory application using the hooks from the @liveblocks/react package.

Quickstart

  1. Install Liveblocks

    $npm install @liveblocks/client @liveblocks/react

  2. Initialize the liveblocks.config.ts file

    $npx create-liveblocks-app@latest --init --framework react

  3. Set up the Liveblocks client

    The first step in connecting to Liveblocks is creating a client which will be responsible for communicating with the back end. You can do this by modifying createClient in your config file, and passing your public API key.

    liveblocks.config.ts
    const client = createClient({  publicApiKey: "pk_prod_xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx",});

  4. Create a Liveblocks room

    Liveblocks uses the concept of rooms, separate virtual spaces where collaborate. To create a real-time experience, multiple users must be connected to the same room. When using Next.js’ /app directory, we recommend creating your room in a Room.tsx file in the same directory as your current route.

    app/Room.tsx
    "use client";
    import { ReactNode } from "react";import { RoomProvider } from "./liveblocks.config";import { ClientSideSuspense } from "@liveblocks/react";
    export function Room({ children }: { children: ReactNode }) {  return (    <RoomProvider id="my-room" initialPresence={{}}>      <ClientSideSuspense fallback={<div>Loading…</div>}>        {() => children}      </ClientSideSuspense>    </RoomProvider>  );}

  5. Add the Liveblocks room to your page

    After creating your room file, it’s time to join it. Import your room into your page.tsx file, and place your collaborative app components inside it.

    app/page.tsx
    import { Room } from "./Room";import { CollaborativeApp } from "./CollaborativeApp";
    export default function Page() {  return (    <Room>      <CollaborativeApp />    </Room>  );}

  6. Use the Liveblocks hooks

    Now that we’re connected to a room, we can start using the Liveblocks hooks. The first we’ll add is useOthers, a hook that provides information about which other users are connected to the room.

    app/CollaborativeApp.tsx
    "use client";
    import { useOthers } from "./liveblocks.config";
    export function CollaborativeApp() {  const others = useOthers();  const userCount = others.length;  return <div>There are {userCount} other user(s) online</div>;}

  7. Next: set up authentication

    By default, Liveblocks is configured to work without an authentication endpoint where everyone automatically has access to rooms. This approach is great for prototyping and marketing pages where setting up your own security isn’t always required. If you want to limit access to a room for certain users, you’ll need to set up an authentication endpoint to enable permissions.

    Set up authentication

What to read next

Congratulations! You now have set up the foundation to start building collaborative experiences for your React application.

Examples using Next.js