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Get started - Get started with Notifications using Liveblocks and Next.js

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

Quickstart

  1. Install Liveblocks

    Every package should use the same version.

    $npm install @liveblocks/client @liveblocks/react @liveblocks/react-ui

  2. Initialize the liveblocks.config.ts file

    We can use this file later to define types for our application.

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

  3. Create a Liveblocks provider

    Liveblocks Notifications uses the concept of projects, which relate to projects in your dashboard. Notifications are sent between users in the same project. To connect and receive notifications, you must add LiveblocksProvider to a client component in your app.

    app/Providers.tsx
    "use client";
    import { ReactNode } from "react";import { LiveblocksProvider } from "@liveblocks/react";
    export function Providers({ children }: { children: ReactNode }) {  return (    <LiveblocksProvider publicApiKey={""}>      {children}    </LiveblocksProvider>  );}

  4. Add the provider to your layout

    After creating your provider file, it’s time to use it. Import your room into your layout.tsx file.

    app/layout.tsx
    import { Providers } from "./Providers";
    export default function Layout({ children }) {  return (    <html>      <body>        <Providers>          {children}        </Providers>      </body>    </html>  );}

  5. Use the Liveblocks hooks and components

    Now that we’ve set up the provider, we can start using the Liveblocks hooks and components. We’ll add useInboxNotifications to get the current project’s notifications, then we’ll use InboxNotification and InboxNotificationList to render them.

    app/page.tsx
    "use client";
    import { useInboxNotifications } from "@liveblocks/react/suspense";import {  InboxNotification,  InboxNotificationList,} from "@liveblocks/react-ui";
    export default function Page() {  const { inboxNotifications } = useInboxNotifications();
      return (    <InboxNotificationList>      {inboxNotifications.map((inboxNotification) => (        <InboxNotification          key={inboxNotification.id}          inboxNotification={inboxNotification}        />      ))}    </InboxNotificationList>  );}

  6. Import default styles

    The default components come with default styles, you can import them into the root layout of your app or directly into a CSS file with @import.

    app/layout.tsx
    import "@liveblocks/react-ui/styles.css";

  7. Next: authenticate and add your users

    Notifications is set up and working now, but each user is anonymous—the next step is to authenticate each user as they connect, and attach their name and avatar to their notifications.

    Add your users to Notifications

What to read next

Congratulations! You’ve set up the foundation to start building a notifications experience for your React application.

Examples using Notifications

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