Get started – Get started with Notifications using Liveblocks and React

Liveblocks is a realtime collaboration infrastructure for building performant collaborative experiences. Follow the following steps to start adding notifications to your 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. Set up the Liveblocks client

   Liveblocks uses the concept of rooms, separate virtual spaces where collaborate, and to create a realtime experience, multiple users must be connected to the same room. Set up a Liveblocks client with LiveblocksProvider.

   App.tsx

   "use client";
   import { LiveblocksProvider } from "@liveblocks/react/suspense";import { Room } from "./Room";
   export default function App() {  return (    <LiveblocksProvider publicApiKey={"pk_prod_xxxx…xxxxxxpk_prod_xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx"}>      <Room />    </LiveblocksProvider>  );}

4. 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/MyApp.tsx

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

5. Import default styles

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

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

6. 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.

• API reference
• Component reference

Examples using Notifications

• 

  Comments notifications

  Next.jsReact