Master Next.js 13 by Completing This Single Project

In this tutorial, we will learn how to use Next.js 13 by building a project from scratch. Next.js is a React framework that allows you to build server-side rendered and static websites with ease. With the latest version 13, Next.js has introduced several new features and improvements that make the development process even smoother.

Before we begin, make sure you have Node.js installed on your machine. If not, you can download and install it from the official Node.js website.

Let’s start by creating a new Next.js project. Open your terminal and run the following commands:

npx create-next-app@13 my-next-project
cd my-next-project
npm run dev

This will create a new Next.js project in a folder called my-next-project and start the development server. You can now open your browser and navigate to http://localhost:3000 to see the default Next.js homepage.

Next, let’s create a new page for our project. Inside the pages directory, create a new file called index.js and add the following code:

import React from 'react';

const HomePage = () => {
  return (
    <div>
      <h1>Welcome to my Next.js 13 project!</h1>
    </div>
  );
};

export default HomePage;

Now, if you navigate to http://localhost:3000, you should see the new homepage we just created.

Next, let’s add some styles to our project using Tailwind CSS. First, install Tailwind CSS and its dependencies by running the following command in your terminal:

npm install tailwindcss@latest postcss@latest autoprefixer@latest

Next, create a new file called styles/globals.css and add the following code:

@tailwind base;
@tailwind components;
@tailwind utilities;

Now, import the globals.css file in the _app.js file located in the pages directory:

import '../styles/globals.css';

function MyApp({ Component, pageProps }) {
  return <Component {...pageProps} />;
}

export default MyApp;

Now, you can start adding Tailwind CSS styles to your components and pages.

Finally, let’s deploy our project to Vercel. First, sign up for a Vercel account if you don’t already have one. Next, link your Vercel account to your GitHub repository, where your Next.js project is hosted. Finally, run the following command in your terminal:

npm run build

This will create a production build of your project. Next, run the following command to deploy your project to Vercel:

vercel --prod

Follow the prompts to deploy your project to Vercel. Once the deployment is complete, you will receive a URL where your project is hosted.

Congratulations! You have successfully learned how to build a project with Next.js 13. Now you can continue exploring the features and capabilities of Next.js to build your own custom projects.