Complete guide to Next.js and Prepr personalization

Estimated duration: 15 minutes

This guide shows you how to connect Prepr to a Next.js project including styling and personalization. Customize this project to fit the requirements for your web app.

At the end of this guide, you’ll have a working website with personalization like the image below. On the left, you can see a site connected to Prepr with a home page. On the right is the same page that has been personalized for a specific target audience (Beginner bakers).

web app end result

Info

If you can't wait and want to skip ahead, clone the repository on GitHub to run the demo locally or visit our demo website to see a personalization example in action. The code referenced in this guide is a simplified subset of the Page pattern in the GitHub repo so there'll be some differences. These resources and the steps below are based on the latest version of Next.js including the App router.

You can also watch the video for step-by-step instructions that are detailed in the guide below.

This video was created using AI avatars and voices to ensure a consistent look and feel. The use of AI matches our culture of using innovative technologies.

Introduction

This is a step-by-step guide that shows you how to set up a working front-end app with personalization. By using Next for the front end you will connect to Prepr content that’s set up with personalization.

You are going to build this front end in the following steps:

Step 1 Create a new Next.js project - In this first step you'll install a working Next project.
Step 2 Create a static page - At the end of this step, you'll have a working website with static content.
Step 3 Install the Apollo client - This step allows the front end to connect to Prepr and retrieve content dynamically.
Step 4 Make the page dynamic - At the end of this step, you'll see a working app displaying the content from Prepr.
Step 5 Set up personalization - In the final step you add personalization to Prepr content and make simple updates to the front end to personalize the web app page.

Prerequisites

You need to have the following setup before you connect your Next project to Prepr.

Step 1: Create a new Next.js project

This guide is based on the latest version of Next.js. The instructions below will guide you on how to create an empty Next project for your app.

If you have an existing Next.js project then you can skip this step.

Open a terminal and execute the command below to create a new Next project called prepr-personalization.

npx create-next-app@latest prepr-personalization && npm i next@latest

Mark the options as shown in the image below to create the same project structure used in this guide.

default options

When the project is successfully created, go to the prepr-personalization folder, the root directory of the project, and run the project with the following commands in the terminal:

cd prepr-personalization

npm run dev

You should now be able to view your app on your localhost, for example, http://localhost:3000/.
Open the Next.js project with your preferred code editor.
Go to the app folder and replace the code in the page.js file with the following code to display your page.

// ./app/page.js

export default function  Home() {
  return (
    <div>
      <h1>My home page</h1>
    </div>
  );
}

Go to the layout.js file in the app folder and replace the default code with the simplified layout below.

// ./app/layout.js

import './globals.css';

export const metadata = {
  title: 'My home page',
  description: 'A simple front end project',
}

export default function RootLayout({ children }) {
  return (
    <html lang="en">
      <body>{children}</body>
    </html>
  )
}

Replace the styling in the globals.css file in the app folder to only include the Tailwind CSS directives with the following code:

/* ./app/globals.css */

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

You should now see something like the image below on your localhost.

New project

Once your Next.js project is created and working, you can create a static page with components.

Step 2: Create a static page

In this step, you'll create a static version of the page including two front-end components. Later, you'll update them to fetch the corresponding data dynamically from Prepr.

As you can see in the image below, there is a Home page content item in the demo data in Prepr. The Home page has all the elements of the page in a Stack field. The stack makes it easy for an editor to set up their page content in a flexible structure for the front end. Check out the page pattern doc for more details on how to use the Stack field.

For this project, you are going to implement this page and two components: Page header and Image and text. In this step, you'll first implement these as static components. Later in the guide, you'll retrieve the content for these components from Prepr to make them dynamic.

Home page content item

Add the components to the front end as follows:

Replace the contents of the page.js file with the following code to display the components with static data:

// ./app/page.js

// Make the components available in the code below
import PageHeader from '@/components/page-header';
import ImageAndText from '@/components/image-and-text';

export default async function Home() {
  return (
    <div>

      {/* Set data fields to static values for the Page and header and the image and text  */}
      <PageHeader
        key="1"
        text="This is static placeholder text."
        heading="My static site"
        image="https://placehold.co/1320x400?text=Page%20header%20image"
        cta_label="Get more info"
      />
      <ImageAndText
        key="2"
        image_position="right"
        image_url="https://placehold.co/150x150?text=Image%20and%20Text%20image"
        image_name="Placeholder image"
        title="Static text title"
        text="Static text body"
      />
    </div>
  );
}

In the root directory of your Next.js project create a components folder with new files called page-header.js and image-and-text.js.
Copy the code below into the page-header.js file to construct the page header.

// ./components/page-header.js 

export default function PageHeader({ text, heading, image, cta_label }) 
{
  return (
    <>
    
    {/* Set background image to the passed image variable */}
        <section
          style={{ backgroundImage: `url(${image})` }}
          className='mb-12 flex items-center h-[600px] bg-no-repeat bg-cover'
        >
          <div className='container mx-auto md:px-0'>
            <h1 className='mb-4 text-3xl font-extrabold leading-none tracking-tight text-white md:text-6xl md:text-5xl lg:text-6xl'>
              
                {/* Set heading to the matching variable */}
              {heading}
            </h1>
            <p className='mb-8 text-base font-normal text-white md:text-lg lg:text-xl'>
              
              {/* Set text to the matching variable */}
              {text}
            </p>
              <a
                href='#notify'
                className='
                  inline-flex
                  items-center
                  px-6
                  py-3.5
                  text-sm
                  font-medium
                  text-center text-white
                  rounded-lg
                  bg-violet-700
                  hover:bg-violet-800
                  focus:ring-4 focus:outline-none focus:ring-violet-300
                '
              >
                {/* Set CTA label to the matching variable */}
                {cta_label}

                <svg
                  className="w-5 h-5 ml-2 -mr-1"
                  fill="currentColor"
                  viewBox="0 0 20 20"
                  xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg"
                  >
                  <path
                      fillRule="evenodd"
                      d="M10.293 3.293a1 1 0 011.414 0l6 6a1 1 0 010 1.414l-6 6a1 1 0 01-1.414-1.414L14.586 11H3a1 1 0 110-2h11.586l-4.293-4.293a1 1 0 010-1.414z"
                      clipRule="evenodd" 
              ></path></svg>
              </a>
          </div>
        </section>
    </>
  );
}

Copy the code below into the image-and-text.js file to construct the image and text.

// ./components/image-and-text.js

export default function ImageAndText({ image_position, image_name, image_url, text, title }) {

  return (
    <div className='container mx-auto md:px-0'>
      <section className='bg-white'>
        <div
          className='items-center max-w-screen-xl gap-8 px-4 py-8 mx-auto xl:gap-16 md:grid md:grid-cols-2 sm:py-16 lg:px-6'
        >   
          {/* Set image URL to the matching variable  */}
          <img
            className= {((image_position == 'Right') ? 'order-last' : 'order-first') + ' object-cover w-full rounded-lg shadow-xl h-60 md:h-96'}
            src={image_url}
          />
          
          <div className='mt-8 md:mt-4 md:mt-0'>
            <h2
              className='mb-4 text-xl font-extrabold tracking-tight text-center text-gray-900  md:text-left md:text-4xl'>
            
              {/* Set title to the matching variable */}
              {title}

            </h2>
            <p className='font-light text-center text-gray-500  md:mb-6 md:text-left md:text-lg'>
        
              {/* Set text body to the matching variable */}
              {text}

            </p>
          </div>
        </div>
      </section>
    </div>
  );
}

You should now see something like the image below on your localhost:

Static site

Great work on getting your static web app working! Continue the following steps to make it dynamic by including data from Prepr.

Step 3: Install the Apollo client

The Apollo client is an integration tool that helps to retrieve CMS data with GraphQL. The instructions below show you how to install the Apollo client so that you can add GraphQL queries to request data from the Prepr API.

Stop the server you started in the above step (CTRL-C) and execute the following command in the terminal:

npm install @apollo/client graphql

Create a services folder in the root directory of the project. Then, create a file called apollo-client.js in this folder. Copy the following code to this file to import and initialize the Apollo client:

// ./services/apollo-client.js

import { ApolloClient, InMemoryCache } from "@apollo/client";

const client = new ApolloClient({
    uri: `https://graphql.prepr.io/${process.env.PREPR_ACCESS_TOKEN}`,
    cache: new InMemoryCache(),
});

export default client;

This client will be used to make API requests to endpoints provided by the Prepr CMS across your Next.js application.

We recommend using environment variables to store sensitive information like access tokens. To add environment variables, create a .env file in the root directory of your project and add the access token like this:

# ./.env

PREPR_ACCESS_TOKEN=<YOUR-ACCESS-TOKEN>

Replace the placeholder value <YOUR-ACCESS-TOKEN> with an access token from Prepr. Get an access token by logging into your Prepr account:

a. Go to Settings > Access tokens to view all the access tokens.

b. Copy the GraphQL Production access token to only retrieve published content items on your site.

access token

Note

Use the GraphQL Production access token to request published content items for your live app and use the GraphQL Preview token to make a preview of unpublished content items for your content editors.

Execute the following command to restart the server and to make sure that the Apollo client is installed correctly:

npm run dev

If your app runs without errors, then the setup above was done correctly. The next step is to fetch content from Prepr using the installed Apollo client.

Once the apollo client is installed successfully, you can fetch the Home page content from Prepr using GraphQL queries.

Step 4: Make the page dynamic

Now that your Apollo client is installed and connected to Prepr, fetch the page content from Prepr.

Add a GraphQL query

First, create a query to get the content from Prepr as follows:

Create a queries folder in the root directory of your project and create a file named get-page-by-slug.js.
Add the following query to this file to retrieve a page by its slug:

// ./queries/get-page-by-slug.js

import { gql } from '@apollo/client';

export const GetPageBySlug = gql`
  query ($slug: String) {
    Page(slug: $slug) {
      _id
      title
      _slug

      # Retrieve the stack and two components: 
      # Page Header and Image and Text 
      stack {
        __typename
        ... on PageHeader  {
          heading
          cta_url
          cta_label
          image {
            url(width: 1600)
          }
          _id
          text
        }
        ... on ImageAndText {
          image {
            url(width: 800)
          }
          text
          title
          image_position
          _id
        }
      }
    }
  }
`;

Tip

You can create and test GraphQL queries using the Apollo explorer from Prepr. Open the API Explorer from the Article content item or the access token that you copied previously.

Test the query by updating the page.js file in the app folder. In this code, execute the query and print the query results to the console as follows:

// ./app/page.js

import PageHeader from '@/components/page-header';
import ImageAndText from '@/components/image-and-text';

// Make the apollo client and query available in the code
import client from '@/services/apollo-client';
import { GetPageBySlug } from '@/queries/get-page-by-slug';


export const revalidate = 0;

// The getData function executes the query and returns the query response

async function getData() {
  const { data } = await client.query({
    query: GetPageBySlug,
    variables: {
      slug: "home",
    },
    fetchPolicy: 'network-only'
  });

  return data;
}

export default async function Home() {

  // Call the function to execute the query and output the response to the console
  const data = await getData();
  console.log(JSON.stringify(data.Page, undefined, 2));

  return (
    <div>
      <PageHeader
        key="1"
        text="This is static placeholder text."
        heading="My static site"
        image="https://placehold.co/1320x400?text=Page%20header%20image"
        cta_label="Get more info"
      />
      <ImageAndText
        key="2"
        image_position="right"
        image_url="https://placehold.co/150x150?text=Image%20and%20Text%20image"
        image_name="Placeholder image"
        title="Static text title"
        text="Static text body"
      />
    </div>
  );
}

If you’re using preloaded demo data in your Prepr environment as mentioned above in the Prerequisites section, you should have one home page with the slug home. The query will retrieve the id, title, slug, and a stack containing a page header and two image and text blocks with their own fields.

When you check the console in your terminal, the response to the query looks something like this:

query results in console

Now that the query has been created and retrieves the data successfully, fetch the specific page content from the query results.

Fetch page content

To view the Prepr content in the web app, you need to fetch the page elements. As mentioned previously, the page has elements in a Stack field. You'll fetch two components, Page header and Image and Text in the stack.

Fetch and set the data for each of the components to build the page by updating the Home function in the page.js as follows:

// ./app/page.js

import PageHeader from '@/components/page-header';
import ImageAndText from '@/components/image-and-text';
import client from '@/services/apollo-client';
import { GetPageBySlug } from '@/queries/get-page-by-slug';

export const revalidate = 0;

async function getData() {
  const { data } = await client.query({
    query: GetPageBySlug,
    variables: {
      slug: "home",
    },
    fetchPolicy: 'network-only',
  });

  return data;
}

export default async function Home() {

  const data = await getData();
  console.log(JSON.stringify(data.Page, undefined, 2));

  //Assign the page to a variable
  const page = data.Page;

  // Map the individual fields from the retrieved Stack to each component
  const stackFields = page.stack.map((element, index) => {
    if (element.__typename === 'PageHeader') {

      //  Set and return the Page header values to the fetched data
      return (
        <PageHeader
          key={index}
          text={element.text}
          heading={element.heading}
          image={element.image[0]?.url}
          cta_label={element.cta_label}
        />
      );
    } else if (element.__typename === 'ImageAndText') {

      //  Set and return the Image and text values to the fetched data
      return (
        <ImageAndText
          key={index}
          image_position={element.image_position}
          image_url={element.image[0]?.url}
          image_name={element.image[0].name}
          title={element.title}
          text={element.text}
        />
      );
    }   
  });

  //Return all the mapped stack fields
  return stackFields;
}

Now when you view the website on your localhost, you'll see something like the image below:

Dynamic home page

Congratulations! You have successfully connected your web app to Prepr. Go to your Home page content item in Prepr and make some content updates to see the effects on your web app immediately. For example, reorder the page header and the image and text blocks.

Step 5: Set up personalization

Now that you have a working web app with styling and content from Prepr, add personalization. For this project, assume the scenario below for the baking community web app.

A user comes across a campaign for beginner bakers in a social post. They click on the link in the post and get directed to your page. The URL link from this post includes a special UTM tag that identifies the specific campaign. Your web app uses the UTM tag to display the personalized page with the promotion details for the beginner baker.

Start by setting up the personalization in Prepr.

You want to show a different version of the page header when a beginner baker visits the page. The setup for personalization in Prepr is made up of two parts. First you need to create customer segments and then add the personalized content for that segment. If you are using the preloaded demo data then you already have some customer segments defined like in the image below.

Preloaded customer segments

For this example, use the Beginner bakers segment. For more details, check out the Customer segments doc.

Go to your Home page content item in Prepr and add personalization as follows:

Go to the page header in the stack and click on the icon on the page header to add the personalization.
Duplicate the page header. The original page header will automatically be used as the fallback content and linked to All other users.
Update the image and text for the Beginner bakers page header.
Click the Select audience button and choose the Beginner bakers segment for this header and save the page.

add personalization

Now that the personalization is ready in the content, add some code to your front end.

Get the segment Id from the UTM tag

To fetch the personalized page, get the UTM tag from the URL. In this example, the UTM tag matches the segment Id for Beginner bakers.

Update the page.js file with the following code to get the UTM campaign value and to fetch the personalized content.

// ./app/page.js

import PageHeader from '@/components/page-header';
import ImageAndText from '@/components/image-and-text';
import client from '@/services/apollo-client';
import { GetPageBySlug } from '@/queries/get-page-by-slug';

export const revalidate = 0;

// Pass the segment to the function
async function getData(segment) {
  
  const { data } = await client.query({
    query: GetPageBySlug,
    variables: {
      slug: "home",
        
        // Pass the segment value to the query making sure it's not undefined 
        segment: segment || ' ',
    },
    fetchPolicy: 'network-only'
  });

  return data;
}

export default async function Home({searchParams}) 
{
  // Get the utm campaign from the  URL parameters and map it to a segment variable
  const {utm_campaign: segment} = searchParams;

  // Pass the segment to the function that executes the query
  const data = await getData(segment);
  const page = data.Page;
  console.log(JSON.stringify(data.Page, undefined, 2));
  
  const stackFields = page.stack.map((element, index) => {
    if (element.__typename === 'PageHeader') {
      return (
        <PageHeader
          key={index}
          text={element.text}
          heading={element.heading}
          image={element.image[0]?.url}
          cta_label={element.cta_label}
        />
      );
    } else if (element.__typename === 'ImageAndText') {
      return (
        <ImageAndText
          key={index}
          image_position={element.image_position}
          image_url={element.image[0]?.url}
          image_name={element.image[0].name}
          title={element.title}
          text={element.text}
        />
      );
    }   
  });
  return stackFields;
}

Once that's done, update the query with the segment ID that you just defined.

Update the query

The current page query returns a page that is not personalized. So, you need to set a segment parameter in the query to get the personalized page. In this example, this value has to match the segment Id for Beginner bakers.

Update the query in the get-page-by-slug.js with this parameter and additional personalization fields as follows:

// ./queries/get-page-by-slug.js

import { gql } from '@apollo/client';

export const GetPageBySlug = gql`

# Add variable for the segment
  query ($slug: String, $segment: String!) {
    Page(slug: $slug) {
      _id
      title
      _slug

      # Retrieve a variant based on the provided segment
      stack (personalize_for_segments: [$segment]) {
        __typename
        ... on PageHeader  {
          heading
          cta_url
          cta_label
          image {
            url(width: 1600)
          }
          _id
          text

          # Retrieve system fields with personalization info
          # The _context fields hold info about the personalization:
          #  - "kind" shows that this component includes personalization
          #  - "group_id" is a unique Id to identify a specific personalized grouping for multiple personalized components
          #  - "segments" is the segment that the variant is applicable to.
          #  - "countries" is filled if the variant is applicable to specific countries.
          _context {
            kind
            group_id
            segments
            countries
          }
        }
        ... on ImageAndText {
          image {
            url(width: 800)
          }
          text
          title
          image_position
          _id
        }
      }
    }
  }
`;

Now that the query has been updated to include personalized content, you can view the query results.

View in the browser

When you view the site as is, you should still see the page without personalized content. Check the console in your terminal for the updated results.

personalized query results

Add the UTM tag to the URL, for example: http://localhost:3000/?utm_campaign=beginner-bakers

Now you can see the personalized content such as in the image below.

Personalized page end result

All done

Congratulations! You have a working Next.js web app connected to Prepr including personalization. This is a very simple example. You can personalize more elements like call-to-actions, featured articles and more. Also you can create dynamic segments based on what visitors do in your app. The options are limitless.

Next steps

To learn more on how to expand your project, check out the following resources: