Manual install

Create Next.js project with App Router and TypeScript

npx create-next-app my-app --ts --app --src-dir

pnpm dlx create-next-app my-app --ts --app --src-dir

yarn dlx create-next-app my-app --ts --app --src-dir

bun x create-next-app my-app --ts --app --src-dir

cd my-app

src dir is optional but recommended, as it keeps the root directory clean.

Install “vovk” and “vovk-client”

npm i vovk vovk-client

pnpm add vovk vovk-client

yarn add vovk vovk-client

bun add vovk vovk-client

Create an empty config file (optional)

Create vovk.config.mjs at the root of the project with the following content:

// @ts-check
/** @type {import('vovk').VovkConfig} */
const vovkConfig = {};
 
export default vovkConfig;

Install validation library and enable client validation

For Zod validation on server-side and Ajv on client-side you can install the following packages:

npm i vovk-zod vovk-ajv

pnpm add vovk-zod vovk-ajv

yarn add vovk-zod vovk-ajv

bun add vovk-zod vovk-ajv

Modify validateOnClient import at your config file to enable client-side validation:

// @ts-check
/** @type {import('vovk').VovkConfig} */
const vovkConfig = {
  generatorConfig: {
    imports: {
      validateOnClient: 'vovk-ajv',
    },
  },
};
 
export default vovkConfig;

Read more about validation.

Update “dev” and create “prebuild” NPM scripts

There are two ways to run Vovk.ts and Next.js server concurrently: explicitly and implicitly. The explicit way is to install concurrently package and run both scripts with it, this requires PORT variable to be set. The implicit way is to make Vovk.ts CLI to run Next.js server by itself. At this case vovk-cli will assign the port automatically.

The prebuild script will run vovk generate before next build in order to generate the client library before building the Next.js app.

npm i -D concurrently

pnpm add -D concurrently

yarn add --dev concurrently

bun add --dev concurrently

"scripts": {
    "build": "next build",    
    "dev": "PORT=3000 concurrently 'vovk dev' 'next dev' --kill-others",
    "prebuild": "vovk generate"
}

"scripts": {
    "dev": "npx vovk dev --next-dev",
    "build": "npx vovk generate && next build"
}

Enable decorators

In your tsconfig.json set "experimentalDecorators" to true.

{
  "compilerOptions": {
    "experimentalDecorators": true
    // ...
  }
}

Create controller

Create HelloController.ts at /src/modules/hello/ with same-named static class.

import { get, prefix } from 'vovk';
 
@prefix('greetings') // prefix is optional
export default class HelloController {
  @get('greeting')
  static getHello() {
    return { greeting: 'Hello, World!' };
  }
}

Create root segment

Create the root segment /src/app/api/[[…vovk]]/route.ts where [[…vovk]] is a folder name indicating what Next.js documentation calls “Optional Catch-all Segment”  (the slug can be any valid slug, such as [[…mySlug]]).

At the code below HelloRPC indicates the name of the generated RPC module and HelloController is the controller module created above.

import { initSegment } from 'vovk';
import HelloController from '../modules/hello/HelloController';
 
const controllers = { HelloRPC: HelloController };
 
// export types that are inferred by the client
export type Controllers = typeof controllers;
 
// export Next.js route handlers
export const { GET, POST, PUT, DELETE } = initSegment({ controllers });

Run “vovk dev”

Run npm run dev to start Vovk.ts and Next.js concurrently.

npm run dev

pnpm run dev

yarn dev

bun run dev

Navigate to http://localhost:3000/api/greetings/greeting  to see the result.

Create a React component

Now the client is generated you can safely import your client library from vovk-client.

'use client';
import { useState } from 'react';
import { HelloRPC } from 'vovk-client';
import type { VovkReturnType } from 'vovk';
 
export default function MyComponent() {
  const [serverResponse, setServerResponse] = useState<VovkReturnType<typeof HelloController.getHello>>();
 
  return (
    <>
      <button
        onClick={async () => {
          const response = await HelloController.getHello();
          setServerResponse(response);
        }}
      >
        Get Greeting from Server
      </button>
      <div>{serverResponse?.greeting}</div>
    </>
  );
}

Open http://localhost:3000  and see the result.