Real-time Booking Application Using Event-Driven Architecture and Next.js with SQL Database

Introduction:

In this tutorial, we will be building a real-time booking application using Next.js for the frontend and SQL database for the backend. The application will allow users to book events in real-time and display the availability of those events. We will be using event-based architecture to achieve real-time updates on the booking status.

Prerequisites:

Before getting started, make sure you have the following installed on your machine:

1. Node.js
2. NPM
3. Next.js
4. SQL database (MySQL, PostgreSQL, etc.)

Setting up the backend:

1. Create a new database in your SQL database management system. You can name it whatever you like.

2. Create a table in the database to store events information. The table should have columns for event ID, event name, event date, event capacity, and booked capacity. You can use the following SQL query to create the table:

CREATE TABLE events (
  id INT PRIMARY KEY,
  name VARCHAR(255),
  date DATE,
  capacity INT,
  booked_capacity INT
);

1. Create a new folder for the backend of your application and initialize a new Node.js project by running:

npm init -y

1. Install the necessary dependencies:

npm install express sequelize mysql2

1. Create a new file called server.js in the backend folder and set up an Express server to handle API requests. Initialize Sequelize for database interactions.

2. Define routes for creating events, retrieving events, and booking events in the server.js file.

3. Connect to the SQL database using Sequelize and set up models for the events table.

Setting up the frontend:

1. Create a new folder for the frontend of your application and initialize a new Next.js project by running:

npx create-next-app .

1. Install the necessary dependencies:

npm install axios

1. Create a new file called EventList.js in the components folder of your Next.js project. This component will display a list of events with their availability.

2. Create a new file called EventBooking.js in the components folder of your Next.js project. This component will allow users to book events in real-time.

3. Create a new file called api.js in the utils folder of your Next.js project. This file will contain functions to make API requests to the backend server.

4. Connect the EventList.js and EventBooking.js components to the backend server using the API functions defined in the api.js file.

Implementing real-time updates:

1. To achieve real-time updates on event availability, we will be using event emitters and listeners in Node.js.

2. When a user books an event, emit an event with the updated booking status. Listen for this event in the EventList.js component and update the availability of the event accordingly.

3. You can use a library like Socket.io to handle real-time communication between the frontend and the backend.

Conclusion:

In this tutorial, we have built a real-time booking application using Next.js for the frontend and SQL database for the backend. We used event-based architecture to achieve real-time updates on event availability. You can further enhance the application by adding features like user authentication, event notifications, and payment processing. Happy coding!