How to use Acquia CMS to manage many Next.js sites
- Last updated
- 2 minute read
Goal
Use Next for Drupal to connect multiple Next.js sites to Acquia CMS
Prerequisites
- Before proceeding you should already have a working install of Acquia CMS headless.
- We highly recommend using the starter content to easily be able to work with the Next.js for Acquia CMS starter kit.
- No Drupal or PHP expertise are required for this tutorial
- You will need Node Package Manager (npm)
- You will need familiarity with Next.js and able to edit typescript files.
Overview
With the Next module in Drupal, you can connect multiple Next.js applications, built with next-drupal, to the same Drupal instance. This allows your Drupal CMS to act as a content service to many different sites. This is also known as an omnichannel architecture and can be used to:
- Distribute common or shared content across multiple experiences (e.g. Mobile, TV, Kiosk and Website).
- Reuse content across brands and geographies.
- Connect applications with different roles (e.g. published view vs preview or staging vs production).
In this tutorial, we’ll explore how to connect multiple Next.js sites to Acquia CMS using the Next.js module.
If you haven’t worked with Acquia CMS Headless before, consider reading this blog first on using the headless and next.js starter kits in Acquia CMS.
In this tutorial, we’ll connect two different Next.js for Acquia CMS starter kits to the same Acquia CMS Drupal site each with a different authentication method.
Connecting Next.js as an anonymous consumer
As of v1.3.0, the Next module in Drupal doesn’t require authentication and this is a simple way to build a Next.js site that can render public, published content from Drupal.
-
Create a Next project with the next-acms starter kit
npx create-next-app -e https://github.com/acquia/next-acms/tree/main/starters/basic-starter app1_anon
-
Edit drupal.ts
Once the app has been created, edit
lib/drupal.ts
and comment out the authentication requirements:import { DrupalClient } from 'next-drupal'; export const drupal = new DrupalClient( process.env.NEXT_PUBLIC_DRUPAL_BASE_URL, { previewSecret: process.env.DRUPAL_PREVIEW_SECRET, // auth: { // clientId: process.env.DRUPAL_CLIENT_ID, // clientSecret: process.env.DRUPAL_CLIENT_SECRET, // scope: // 'administrator developer site_builder content_administrator content_author content_editor user_administrator headless', // }, // @see https://github.com/vercel/next.js/discussions/32238 // @see https://github.com/vercel/next.js/blob/d895a50abbc8f91726daa2d7ebc22c58f58aabbb/packages/next/server/api-utils/node.ts#L504 forceIframeSameSiteCookie: process.env.NODE_ENV === 'development', }, );
-
Create a Next.js site
In Acquia CMS, create a Next.js site called
app1_anon
and export the environment variables into your Next.js app.env.local
file. -
Copy environment variables
Once the Next.js site is created inside Acquia CMS, back on the Headless Dashboard you'll be able to access pre-generated environment variables the Next.js site will need to connect to Acquia CMS.
-
Paste environment variables in .env.local
Now in your text editor, open the .env.local file (create it if it doesn't exist) and paste in the environment variables provided from Acquia CMS.
Here you can leave
DRUPAL_CLIENT_ID
andDRUPAL_CLIENT_SECRET
empty as we’re not using them for the unauthenticated access. -
Run dev server
Run
npm run dev
to see the Next.js for Acquia CMS starter kit connect to your Acquia CMS Headless instance and render the publicly accessible content.Image
Setting up Preview
Even though Next.js is talking to Drupal as an anonymous user, its still able to preview draft content for users authorised by Drupal. Heres how you can quickly set that up.
-
Edit Next.js Entity Types
From the Headless Dashboard, edit the entity type you want to expose site preview for content managers:
-
Test content preview
Now from that node edit page you can use the Preview tab to preview content through your chosen Next.js site.
Connecting Next.js as an OAuth consumer (Client Credentials)
Let's say you want to allow Next.js to submit forms (e.g. webforms) without allowing public access to also submit forms using the same API endpoints. This would be a scenario where you would want to provide your Next.js site with OAuth 2.0 Client Credentials.
-
Create a Next project with the next-acms starter kit
npx create-next-app -e https://github.com/acquia/next-acms/tree/main/starters/basic-starter app1_anon
The next-acms starter kit default authentication system is OAuth so unlike the anonymous example, no modifications to
lib/drupal.ts
are required. -
Setup OAuth Consumer
In Acquia CMS Headless, you’ll need to create
- A role that holds the permissions you which to grant the Next.js application (e.g. submit webform)
- A user to represent your Next.js application
- A consumer which contains the user you created, the roles you create as scopes and the consumer secret which becomes the
DRUPAL_CLIENT_SECRET
in the Next.js application.
You can use the Next.js starter kit in Acquia CMS to handle these steps for you
-
Add consumer
-
Generate New Secret
-
Create Next.js site in Acquia CMS
In Acquia CMS, create a Next.js site called
app2_oauth
and export the environment variables into your Next.js app.env.local
file: -
Paste environment variables in .env.local
-
Run dev server
Run
npm run dev
to see the Next.js for Acquia CMS starter kit connect to your Acquia CMS Headless instance and render accessible content and conduct actions according to the permissions configured for the role.
Conclusion
You can host multiple Next.js sites all pointed to the same Drupal CMS. This allows you to build a single content service that distributes content to multiple channels. In this tutorial we showed how we can distribute content to different frontends using different authentication mechanisms.