Unlock the Power of Next.js with Google Cloud Run
Next.js is a popular React framework that offers a comprehensive full-stack solution, making it a favorite among developers. In this tutorial, we’ll explore how to deploy a server-side rendered (SSR) Next.js application on Google Cloud Run with just a few clicks.
What Makes Next.js Special?
Next.js is built on top of the widely-used React library, allowing developers to create websites with ease. It offers a range of features, including TypeScript support, Static Site Generation (SSG) or Server-Side Rendering (SSR), SEO-friendliness, and impressive image optimization out of the box. These features have made Next.js a beloved framework in the frontend development community.
The Benefits of Server-Side Rendering
Server-Side Rendering (SSR) offers several advantages, including static URLs and SEO-friendliness, making it ideal for applications with frequently changing data or dynamic content. Additionally, SSR ensures that content is always dynamic, as the HTML is rendered on each request.
Google Cloud Run: The Ultimate Hosting Solution
Google Cloud Run is a fully-managed service that allows you to run containers in a serverless fashion. With Cloud Run, you can deploy and scale to hundreds of containers without writing a single line of YAML or understanding Kubernetes and Knative. Plus, it’s free!
Getting Started with Next.js and Google Cloud Run
Before we dive into the code, make sure you have the following prerequisites:
- Node.js with NPM and NPX installed on your local machine
- Working knowledge of Git and GitHub
- Working knowledge of Next.js
- Working knowledge of Docker and Docker Compose
- A Google Cloud Platform (GCP) account
Building a Next.js Example Application
We’ll use the API-routes example from the Next.js GitHub repository, which includes APIs to list Star Wars characters and their features. We’ll then Dockerize the application to make it easier to deploy to Google Cloud Run.
Dockerizing the Next.js Example App
We’ll create a multi-stage Docker file to Dockerize the Next.js API example app. The first stage will run npm ci to get all the npm packages, while the second stage will run npm run build to build the Next.js application. The final stage will copy the application and its dependencies from the previous builder stage and run it with NODE_ENV as production.
Preparing for Google Cloud Run
To deploy the code to Google Cloud Run, we’ll use the Cloud Run Button. We’ll create a new app.json file to tell Cloud Run to listen at port 3000 and open the application for public access.
Pushing the Code to GitHub
We’ll push the code to GitHub to make it easier to deploy the application. Then, we’ll click the big blue button that says Run on Google Cloud to deploy our app.
Deploying to Google Cloud Run
The Docker build takes a few minutes, but our Next.js application is deployed to Google Cloud Run with just a few clicks. We’ll get a URL ending in run.app to our service, and we can access our demo Next.js app working on Google Cloud Run.
Next Steps
This is a quick and easy way to get started with Next.js on Google Cloud Run for a side project. For team projects, explore Google Cloud Build, Google Container Registry, and how these services can be used together to create a robust CI/CD pipeline for Google Cloud Run.
Debugging Next.js Apps with LogRocket
Debugging Next.js applications can be challenging, especially when users experience issues that are difficult to reproduce. Try LogRocket, a DVR for web and mobile apps that records everything that happens on your Next.js app. With LogRocket, you can monitor and track state, automatically surface JavaScript errors, and track slow network requests and component load time.