Build a Next.js app for chat: Adding Sendbird UIKit to a Next.js app

Chat functionality is an integral part of many modern web applications. Whether it’s a customer support chat, a real-time messaging feature, or a social networking platform, having a robust and user-friendly chat system is essential. In this article, we will explore how to build a Next.js app with chat functionality using Sendbird UIKit.

What is Sendbird UIKit?

Sendbird is a powerful and flexible chat API and messaging SDK platform that enables developers to integrate chat into their applications quickly and easily. Sendbird UIKit is a pre-built user interface kit that provides a set of customizable UI components for messaging, chatting, and social networking. It allows developers to focus on building the core features of their app while leveraging the pre-built UI for chat functionality.

Building a Next.js app for chat

Next.js is a popular React framework for building server-rendered and static websites. It provides a great development experience with features like server-side rendering, static site generation, and automatic code splitting. To add chat functionality to a Next.js app, we can leverage the power of Sendbird and its UIKit to create a seamless and intuitive chat experience for our users.

Setting up a Next.js app

Before integrating Sendbird UIKit into our Next.js app, we need to set up a basic Next.js project. We can do this by using the create-next-app package, which provides a quick and easy way to scaffold a new Next.js app.

“`html

Welcome to our Next.js chat app!

“`

Integrating Sendbird UIKit into the app

Once we have our Next.js app set up, we can integrate Sendbird UIKit into it by adding the necessary dependencies and initializing the Sendbird client. We can then use the pre-built components provided by Sendbird UIKit to create the chat interface within our app.

“`html

Welcome to our Next.js chat app!

const sb = new SendBird({ appId: ‘YOUR_APP_ID’ });
const user = sb.createCurrentUserInfo(‘USER_ID’, ‘USER_NICKNAME’);
const UIKit = new SendBirdUIKit({ appId: ‘YOUR_APP_ID’ });
UIKit.create({ el: document.getElementById(‘chatContainer’) });

“`

Conclusion

Adding Sendbird UIKit to a Next.js app is a straightforward process that enables developers to quickly build a chat interface for their web applications. By leveraging the pre-built UI components provided by Sendbird, developers can focus on creating the core features of their app while delivering a seamless and intuitive chat experience to their users. With Sendbird and Next.js, building a chat-enabled app has never been easier.