Getting Started With Next.js and Strapi 5: beginner's guide.

In this beginner-friendly tutorial, we will build a dynamic website using Next.js 14 and Strapi 5, a headless content management system (CMS). This blog post is based on Brad Schiff's video tutorial, which can be found here.

Don't let the simplicity fool you. In this tutorial, we will cover the following topics.

• Next.js App Router
• Dynamic Routing
• Styling with Tailwind CSS
• Creating Pages
• Integrating Strapi 5 with Next.js
• Custom Components in Next.js
• Custom Components in Strapi
• Populate and Filtering in Strapi
• Populating Dynamic Zone Fields
• Rendering Dynamic Zone Fields

If you prefer to read instead of watch the video, I will walk you through the steps I took following the tutorial.

But I would recommend doing both. In my tutorial, I used TypesScript and took a different approach when rendering Strapi's dynamic zone.

As a bonus, we used Strapi's Block Editor, and I showed you how to render the text blocks and the image.

Create a new Next.js Project

Let's get started!

First, choose a directory to set up your project. I will name my project directory brad.

mkdir brad
cd brad

After changing into the directory, we will create a new Next.js app by running the following command.

npx create-next-app@latest

You can learn more about getting started with Next.js here

We will be prompted with the following options: here is what I chose.

➜  brad git:(main) ✗ npx create-next-app@latest
✔ What is your project named? … client
✔ Would you like to use TypeScript? … Yes
✔ Would you like to use ESLint? … No
✔ Would you like to use Tailwind CSS? … Yes
✔ Would you like to use `src/` directory? … Yes
✔ Would you like to use App Router? (recommended) … Yes
✔ Would you like to customize the default import alias (@/*)? … No
Creating a new Next.js app in /Users/paulbratslavsky/Desktop/work/tutorials-and-posts/brad/client.

Now that we have our project set up, we can start running the development server.

cd client
yarn dev

You can navigate to the following URL to view the app: http://localhost:3000. You should see the following screen:

Nice! We have a basic Next.js app setup and running.

Setting Up Our Next.js UI and Layout.

In this section, we will set up our Next.js UI and Layout. Once we are done, we should have something that looks like this:

Building the Header Component

To get started, we will create a new folder in the src/app directory and name it components. Inside this folder, we will create a new file and name it header.tsx. This file will contain our header component.

Inside the header.tsx file, let's start by adding the following code:

1import Link from "next/link";
2import NavLink from "./nav-link";
3
4const links = [
5  { href: "/", label: "Home" },
6  { href: "/our-team", label: "Our Team" },
7  { href: "/about-us", label: "About Us" },
8];
9
10export default function Header() {
11  return (
12    <header className="bg-white/50">
13      <nav className="container mx-auto flex justify-between items-center py-4">
14        <Link href="/">Our Cool Project</Link>
15
16        <ul className="flex gap-4">
17          {links.map((link) => (
18            <NavLink key={link.href} href={link.href}>
19              {link.label}
20            </NavLink>
21          ))}
22        </ul>
23      </nav>
24    </header>
25  );
26}

The above code renders our Header component. It creates a header element with a nav element. The nav element contains a Link component for the logo and a ul element with NavLink components for the navigation links.

We are iterating over the links array to create a NavLink component for each link. The NavLink component is a custom component that we will make in the next section. It is responsible for rendering an active link when the current path matches the href of the link.

Building the NavLink Component

Inside the components folder, we will create a new file and name it nav-link.tsx. This file will contain our NavLink component.

Let's start by adding the following code:

1"use client";
2
3import { usePathname } from "next/navigation";
4import Link from "next/link";
5import path from "path";
6
7function cn(...inputs: (string | undefined | null | false)[]) {
8  return inputs.filter(Boolean).join(" ");
9}
10
11interface NavLinkProps {
12  href: string;
13  children: React.ReactNode;
14}
15
16export default function NavLink({ href, children }: Readonly<NavLinkProps>) {
17  const pathname = usePathname();
18  const isActive = href === "/" ? pathname === "/" : pathname.startsWith(href);
19
20  return (
21    <li>
22      <Link
23        href={href}
24        className={cn(
25          isActive ? "opacity-100" : "opacity-50 hover:opacity-100"
26        )}
27      >
28        {children}
29      </Link>
30    </li>
31  );
32}

Nice! We have a NavLink component that renders a link active when the current path matches the link's href.

Building the Footer Component

We will create a new file in the components folder and name it footer.tsx. This file will contain our Footer component.

Let's start by adding the following code:

1export default function Footer() {
2  return (
3    <footer className="bg-white/50">
4      <div className="container mx-auto flex justify-center items-center py-4">
5        <div>&copy; {new Date().getFullYear()} Our Company Name</div>
6      </div>
7    </footer>
8  );
9}

Now, we have a Footer component that renders a footer with a copyright notice.

Building the Layout Component

Let's update our layout.tsx file to include our Header and Footer components. The layout.tsx file is responsible for rendering the layout of our app. It is the root component that wraps around our entire app.

Let's start by updating the layout.tsx file with the following code:

1import type { Metadata } from "next";
2import localFont from "next/font/local";
3import "./globals.css";
4
5import Footer from "@/app/components/footer";
6import Header from "@/app/components/header";
7
8const geistSans = localFont({
9  src: "./fonts/GeistVF.woff",
10  variable: "--font-geist-sans",
11  weight: "100 900",
12});
13const geistMono = localFont({
14  src: "./fonts/GeistMonoVF.woff",
15  variable: "--font-geist-mono",
16  weight: "100 900",
17});
18
19export const metadata: Metadata = {
20  title: "Create Next App",
21  description: "Generated by create next app",
22};
23
24export default function RootLayout({
25  children,
26}: Readonly<{
27  children: React.ReactNode;
28}>) {
29  return (
30    <html lang="en">
31      <body
32        className={`${geistSans.variable} ${geistMono.variable} antialiased`}
33      >
34        <div className="bg-gray-200 min-h-screen grid grid-rows-[auto_1fr_auto]">
35          <Header />
36          <main className="container mx-auto bg-white/50 rounded-xl py-7 px-8 m-6 overflow-hidden">
37            {children}
38          </main>
39          <Footer />
40        </div>
41      </body>
42    </html>
43  );
44}

We now have a Layout component responsible for rendering our app's layout. It includes our Header and Footer components.

Create Pages Routes

In our project, we will have the following pages:

• Home
• Our Team
• About Us

Let's start by creating routes for the pages above.

Create Home Page We already have a page.tsx file in the app folder. This file is our Home page.

Let's update the page.tsx file with the following code:

1export default function Home() {
2  return (
3    <div>
4      <h1>Home Page</h1>
5    </div>
6  );
7}

Nice! We have a Home page.

Create Our Team Page Now, let's create our Our Team page. We will create a new folder in the app folder and name it our-team. We will create a new file and name it page.tsx inside this folder. This file will contain the Our Team page.

Let's start by adding the following code:

1export default function OurTeam() {
2  return (
3    <div>
4      <h1>Our Team</h1>
5    </div>
6  );
7}

Create About Us Page Finally, let's create our About Us page. We will create a new folder in the app folder and name it about-us. We will create a new file and name it page.tsx inside this folder. This file will contain our About Us page.

Let's start by adding the following code:

1export default function AboutUs() {
2  return (
3    <div>
4      <h1>About Us</h1>
5    </div>
6  );
7}

Nice, now we have all of our basic pages set up.

In the next section, we will start to set up our Strapi backend.

Getting Started with Strapi 5

Strapi is an open-source headless content management system (CMS) that allows you to create, manage, and serve content through a flexible API.

We are going to use Strapi to power the backend of our application, enabling non-developers or non-programmers to easily contribute and manage website content, such as team member profiles.

By integrating Strapi with Next.js, we can dynamically fetch and display this content on the frontend, allowing for a seamless and interactive user experience. Strapi simplifies data handling and offers a user-friendly admin interface for content management.

Install Strapi 5

We can get started by running the following command at the root of our project:

npx create-strapi-app@latest server

We will be prompted with the following options: here is what I chose.

 Strapi   v5.0.2 🚀 Let's create your new project


We can't find any auth credentials in your Strapi config.

Create a free account on Strapi Cloud and benefit from:

- ✦ Blazing-fast ✦ deployment for your projects
- ✦ Exclusive ✦ access to resources to make your project successful
- An ✦ Awesome ✦ community and full enjoyment of Strapi's ecosystem

Start your 14-day free trial now!


? Please log in or sign up.
  Login/Sign up
❯ Skip

For this tutorial, we will choose to skip the login step.

After we hit enter, we will see the following options: here is what I chose.

? Please log in or sign up. Skip
? Do you want to use the default database (sqlite) ? Yes
? Start with an example structure & data? No
? Start with Typescript? Yes
? Install dependencies with npm? Yes
? Initialize a git repository? Yes

 Strapi   Creating a new application at /Users/paulbratslavsky/Desktop/work/tutorials-and-posts/brad/server

Once everything is set up, we can start the Strapi server by running the following command:

cd server
yarn develop

We should be greeted with the following screen: create your first Strapi Admin User.

After successfully creating the user, you should be redirected to the Strapi Welcome screen.

In this tutorial, we are primarily focusing on collection types, which are essential for structuring our data in a way that is easily accessible and manageable.

Collection types in Strapi define a group of similar data entries. For instance, in our case, we will create a collection type called Team Members. This collection will allow us to manage individual profiles for each team member, including fields such as their name, description, photograph, and URL-friendly slug.

The use of collection types is beneficial because it provides a structured format for data, making it straightforward to add, edit, or remove entries as needed. Each team member's data can be easily retrieved via API endpoints, enabling our frontend to dynamically display the information without hardcoding it.

Building Our First Collection Type In Strapi 5

We will create a new collection type called Team Member.

Once you click on "Continue," you will be redirected to the following screen:

Now, let's start by adding the following fields to our collection type:

Once you have added all the fields, click "Save" to save the collection type.

Now that we have our collection type, we can start adding data. Go ahead and add your first team member.

Nice! We have added our first team member.

Configuring Strapi API Permissions

Now that we have our team member data in place let's see how we can access it via the Strapi API.

But first, let's give our API appropriate permission to access our team member data.

We can do this in the Settings section of Strapi.

We will navigate to the Users & Permissions plugin. Once in the Users & Permissions plugin, we will navigate to the Roles section, select the Public role, and click on the Team Members permission.

We will check find and findOne. This will give our API the necessary permissions to fetch and display our team member data.

We should be able to request the following URL to fetch our team member data:

http://localhost:1337/api/team-members

See the following response:

1{
2  "data": [
3    {
4      "id": 2,
5      "documentId": "ybk38754pitymo4wxcn3mjct",
6      "name": "Sarah",
7      "description": "Hello I am Sarah.",
8      "slug": "sarah",
9      "createdAt": "2024-10-03T17:50:37.403Z",
10      "updatedAt": "2024-10-03T17:50:37.403Z",
11      "publishedAt": "2024-10-03T17:50:37.411Z",
12      "locale": null
13    }
14  ],
15  "meta": {
16    "pagination": {
17      "page": 1,
18      "pageSize": 25,
19      "pageCount": 1,
20      "total": 1
21    }
22  }
23}

You will notice that we are not yet seeing the photo data in the response. This is because we need to tell Strapi to include the photo field in the response using our populate and filtering flags.

This is something we will do as we start to build our frontend.

How To Fetch Data In Next.js

Now that we have our Strapi backend, let's start building our frontend. In this section, we will fetch our team member data in Next.js.

With Next.js Server Components, we can fetch data directly from our components.

Let's see how we can accomplish this within our Our Team page.

Fetch Team Members from the Strapi Backend

Let's start by updating our our-team/page.tsx file with the following code:

1async function getTeamMembers() {
2  const baseUrl = process.env.NEXT_PUBLIC_API_URL ?? "http://localhost:1337";
3  const path = "/api/team-members";
4
5  const url = new URL(path, baseUrl);
6
7  const res = await fetch(url);
8
9  if (!res.ok) throw new Error("Failed to fetch team members");
10
11  const data = await res.json();
12  console.log(data);
13
14  return data;
15}
16
17export default async function OurTeam() {
18  const teamMembers = await getTeamMembers();
19  console.log(teamMembers);
20
21  return (
22    <div>
23      <h1>Our Team</h1>
24      <pre>{JSON.stringify(teamMembers, null, 2)} </pre>
25    </div>
26  );
27}

This will fetch our team member data from our Strapi backend and display it in the browser.

Populate the photo Field

Now, let's update this to populate our photo field.

You can learn more about Strapi's Populate and Filtering here, but I will walk you through the steps here.

We will start by constructing the query object using Strapi's Query Builder that you can find here.

Here is the basic our query will look like:

Go ahead and copy the Query String URL and make a request to the following URL in your browser:

http://localhost:1337/api/team-members?populate[photo][fields][0]=alternativeText&populate[photo][fields][1]=name&populate[photo][fields][2]=url

You should see the following response:

1{
2  "data": [
3    {
4      "id": 2,
5      "documentId": "ybk38754pitymo4wxcn3mjct",
6      "name": "Sarah",
7      "description": "Hello I am Sarah.",
8      "slug": "sarah",
9      "createdAt": "2024-10-03T17:50:37.403Z",
10      "updatedAt": "2024-10-03T17:50:37.403Z",
11      "publishedAt": "2024-10-03T17:50:37.411Z",
12      "locale": null,
13      "photo": {
14        "id": 1,
15        "documentId": "e2zyo9559mmgj3tu3f4olngz",
16        "alternativeText": null,
17        "name": "computer-working.jpg",
18        "url": "/uploads/computer_working_3ec59d6554.jpg"
19      }
20    }
21  ],
22  "meta": {
23    "pagination": {
24      "page": 1,
25      "pageSize": 25,
26      "pageCount": 1,
27      "total": 1
28    }
29  }
30}

Notice how we now see the photo data in the response.

To recap, in our collection type, we added the following fields:

• name
• description
• slug
• photo

The fields name, description, and slug are all that I would call top-level fields. That is because they do not have any relationships with other entities.

Since photo relates to another entity or image, we must populate it.

As we did above, use Strapi's Query Builder. Where we passed the following to the query:

1{
2  populate: {
3    photo: {
4      fields: ['alternativeText', 'name', 'url']
5    }
6  },
7}

Update Our Team Page

Now, let's update our Our Team page.tsx file to display and utilize the populate logic that we learned about above.

To accomplish this, we will install a new package called qs, which will help us construct our query string.

You can install the package by running the following command:

yarn add qs
yarn add @types/qs

You can learn more about the qs package here.

Let's start by updating our getTeamMembers function to utilize the qs package.

First, we will import the qs package at the top of the file.

1import qs from "qs";

Then, we will update our getTeamMembers function to utilize the qs package.

1async function getTeamMembers() {
2  const baseUrl = process.env.NEXT_PUBLIC_API_URL ?? "http://localhost:1337";
3  const path = "/api/team-members";
4
5  const url = new URL(path, baseUrl);
6
7  url.search = qs.stringify({
8    populate: {
9      photo: {
10        fields: ["alternativeText", "name", "url"],
11      },
12    },
13  });
14
15  const res = await fetch(url);
16
17  if (!res.ok) throw new Error("Failed to fetch team members");
18
19  const data = await res.json();
20  console.log(data);
21
22  return data;
23}

The complete code for our Our Team page should now look like this:

1import qs from "qs";
2
3async function getTeamMembers() {
4  const baseUrl = process.env.NEXT_PUBLIC_API_URL ?? "http://localhost:1337";
5  const path = "/api/team-members";
6
7  const url = new URL(path, baseUrl);
8
9  url.search = qs.stringify({
10    populate: {
11      photo: {
12        fields: ["alternativeText", "name", "url"],
13      },
14    },
15  });
16
17  const res = await fetch(url);
18
19  if (!res.ok) throw new Error("Failed to fetch team members");
20
21  const data = await res.json();
22  console.log(data);
23
24  return data;
25}
26
27export default async function OurTeam() {
28  const teamMembers = await getTeamMembers();
29  console.log(teamMembers);
30
31  return (
32    <div>
33      <h1>Our Team</h1>
34      <pre>{JSON.stringify(teamMembers, null, 2)} </pre>
35    </div>
36  );
37}

In the next section, we will build our frontend to display our team members.

Building Our Team Member Card Component

In this section, we will start building the Team Member Card component, which will display a single team member's profile.

Inside our Our Team page.tsx file, we will create a new component named TeamMemberCard. This component will display a single team member profile.

Let's start by adding the following code:

1interface TeamMemberProps {
2  id: number;
3  documentId: string;
4  name: string;
5  description: string;
6  slug: string;
7  createdAt: string;
8  updatedAt: string;
9  publishedAt: string;
10  locale: string;
11  photo: {
12    id: number;
13    documentId: string;
14    alternativeText: string;
15    name: string;
16    url: string;
17  };
18}
19
20function TeamMemberCard({
21  name,
22  description,
23  photo,
24  slug,
25}: Readonly<TeamMemberProps>) {
26  const imageUrl = `${
27    process.env.NEXT_PUBLIC_API_URL ?? "http://localhost:1337"
28  }${photo.url}`;
29  return (
30    <Link
31      href={`/our-team/${slug}`}
32      className="bg-white rounded-lg shadow-md overflow-hidden"
33    >
34      <Image
35        src={imageUrl}
36        alt={photo.alternativeText || name}
37        width={500}
38        height={500}
39      />
40      <div className="p-6">
41        <h3 className="text-xl font-semibold mb-2">{name}</h3>
42        <p className="text-gray-600">{description}</p>
43      </div>
44    </Link>
45  );
46}

This component will be responsible for displaying a single team member profile.

And update our Our Team component to utilize our TeamMemberCard component.

1export default async function OurTeam() {
2  const teamMembers = await getTeamMembers();
3
4  return (
5    <div>
6      <h1 className="text-3xl font-bold mb-8">Our Team</h1>
7      <div className="grid grid-cols-1 md:grid-cols-2 lg:grid-cols-3 gap-8">
8        {teamMembers.data.map((member: TeamMemberProps) => (
9          <TeamMemberCard key={member.documentId} {...member} />
10        ))}
11      </div>
12    </div>
13  );
14}

The complete code for our Our Team page should now look like this:

1import qs from "qs";
2import Image from "next/image";
3
4async function getTeamMembers() {
5  const baseUrl = process.env.NEXT_PUBLIC_API_URL ?? "http://localhost:1337";
6  const path = "/api/team-members";
7
8  const url = new URL(path, baseUrl);
9
10  url.search = qs.stringify({
11    populate: {
12      photo: {
13        fields: ["alternativeText", "name", "url"],
14      },
15    },
16  });
17
18  const res = await fetch(url);
19
20  if (!res.ok) throw new Error("Failed to fetch team members");
21
22  const data = await res.json();
23  console.log(data);
24
25  return data;
26}
27
28interface TeamMemberProps {
29  id: number;
30  documentId: string;
31  name: string;
32  description: string;
33  slug: string;
34  createdAt: string;
35  updatedAt: string;
36  publishedAt: string;
37  locale: string;
38  photo: {
39    id: number;
40    documentId: string;
41    alternativeText: string;
42    name: string;
43    url: string;
44  };
45}
46
47function TeamMemberCard({
48  name,
49  description,
50  photo,
51  slug,
52}: Readonly<TeamMemberProps>) {
53  const imageUrl = `${
54    process.env.NEXT_PUBLIC_API_URL ?? "http://localhost:1337"
55  }${photo.url}`;
56  return (
57    <Link
58      href={`/our-team/${slug}`}
59      className="bg-white rounded-lg shadow-md overflow-hidden"
60    >
61      <Image
62        src={imageUrl}
63        alt={photo.alternativeText || name}
64        width={500}
65        height={500}
66      />
67      <div className="p-6">
68        <h3 className="text-xl font-semibold mb-2">{name}</h3>
69        <p className="text-gray-600">{description}</p>
70      </div>
71    </Link>
72  );
73}
74
75export default async function OurTeam() {
76  const teamMembers = await getTeamMembers();
77
78  return (
79    <div>
80      <h1 className="text-3xl font-bold mb-8">Our Team</h1>
81      <div className="grid grid-cols-1 md:grid-cols-2 lg:grid-cols-3 gap-8">
82        {teamMembers.data.map((member: TeamMemberProps) => (
83          <TeamMemberCard key={member.documentId} {...member} />
84        ))}
85      </div>
86    </div>
87  );
88}

If we navigate to our Our Team page, we will see the following error:

To fix this error, we need to update our next.config. JMS file to include our Strapi server as a remote pattern.

1/** @type {import('next').NextConfig} */
2
3const nextConfig = {
4  images: {
5    remotePatterns: [
6      {
7        protocol: "http",
8        hostname: "localhost",
9        port: "1337",
10        pathname: "/uploads/**/*",
11      },
12    ],
13  },
14};
15
16export default nextConfig;

Now restart your development server and navigate to our Our Team page, and we should see the following:

Nice. Now that we can display our team members, let's build our Team Member Detail page. But before that, let's learn about Strapi's Components and Dynamic Zones.

Managing Content in Strapi with Components and Dynamic Zones

This section will start by learning about Strapi's Components and Dynamic Zones.

Components are reusable building blocks that can be used to build pages, and dynamic zones are special components that can be used to build pages.

Create the Testimonial Component

We will start by creating a new Testimonial component.

I will name it testimonial and create a blocks category.

Now, click the "Continue" button and add our first fields.

I am going to add the following fields:

Here is what the final fields should look like:

Create the Spoiler Component

Now let's create another component; we will name it spoiler.

I am going to add the following fields:

Here is what the final fields should look like:

Creatte RichText Component

And finally, let's create one more component; we will name it richText.

I am going to add the following field:

Here is what the final fields should look like:

Building Dynamic Zones in Strapi

Nice! Now that our components are created let's start building our dynamic zones.

Let's navigate to our Team Member collection type and click "Add another field to this type".

We will scroll down and find Dynamic Zone and add it to our collection type.

Let's name it blocks and click on Add the component to the zone.

I will add our Testimonial, Spoiler, and Rich Text components that we created earlier and click on Finish. You should see the following screen:

Don't forget to click on Save to save the dynamic zone.

Now, let's go ahead and add some data to our Team Member collection type.

Excellent; let's see how we can fetch this data in our Next.js application.

But first, let's revisit our populate logic. We already did some of this when we built our Our Team page.

However, now that we use dynamic zones, we need to update our populate logic to include our blocks field. For this, we will use the on flag.

You can learn more about Strapi's on flag here.

Here is the example query we would use to populate the above dynamic zone example:

1{
2  populate: {
3    blocks: { // asking to populate the blocks dynamic zone
4      on: { // using a detailed population strategy to explicitly define what you want
5        'blocks.related-articles': {
6          populate: {
7           'articles': {
8             populate: ['image']
9           }
10         }
11        },
12        'blocks.cta-command-line': {
13          populate: '*'
14        }
15      },
16    },
17  },
18}

We will use similar populate logic as the example above to populate our blocks dynamic zone.

Populating Our Dynamic Zone

Looking at our Team Member collection, we see that we have our blocks dynamic zone field.

Using the on flag, we can target the blocks field. We can also see that our Testimonial component has a photo field related to our Media content type. So, we will populate the fields we need using the fields flag.

Here is what the populate logic will look like:

1{
2  populate: {
3    photo: {
4      fields: ['alternativeText', 'name', 'url']
5    },
6    blocks: {
7      on: {
8        'blocks.testimonial': {
9          populate: {
10            photo: {
11              fields: ['alternativeText', 'name', 'url']
12            }
13          }
14        }
15      }
16    }
17  },
18}

We can request the following URL with the above populate logic included in the query string, and we should see the following response:

http://localhost:1337/api/team-members?populate[photo][fields][0]=alternativeText&populate[photo][fields][1]=name&populate[photo][fields][2]=url&populate[blocks][on][blocks.testimonial][populate][photo][fields][0]=alternativeText&populate[blocks][on][blocks.testimonial][populate][photo][fields][1]=name&populate[blocks][on][blocks.testimonial][populate][photo][fields][2]=url

1{
2  "data": [
3    {
4      "id": 4,
5      "documentId": "ybk38754pitymo4wxcn3mjct",
6      "name": "Sarah",
7      "description": "Hello I am Sarah.",
8      "slug": "sarah",
9      "createdAt": "2024-10-03T17:50:37.403Z",
10      "updatedAt": "2024-10-03T21:17:22.740Z",
11      "publishedAt": "2024-10-03T21:17:22.751Z",
12      "locale": null,
13      "photo": {
14        "id": 1,
15        "documentId": "e2zyo9559mmgj3tu3f4olngz",
16        "alternativeText": null,
17        "name": "computer-working.jpg",
18        "url": "/uploads/computer_working_3ec59d6554.jpg"
19      },
20      "blocks": [
21        {
22          "__component": "blocks.testimonial",
23          "id": 3,
24          "authorName": "Sarah",
25          "quote": "Strapi 5 is awesome.",
26          "photo": {
27            "id": 1,
28            "documentId": "e2zyo9559mmgj3tu3f4olngz",
29            "alternativeText": null,
30            "name": "computer-working.jpg",
31            "url": "/uploads/computer_working_3ec59d6554.jpg"
32          }
33        }
34      ]
35    }
36  ],
37  "meta": {
38    "pagination": {
39      "page": 1,
40      "pageSize": 25,
41      "pageCount": 1,
42      "total": 1
43    }
44  }
45}

Nice! Notice we can see our Testimonial component data in the response.

The last item we need to solve before implementing our Team Member Detail page is to ensure we know how to fetch a single team member via the slug field.

Let's update our query from above to include the filters flag. Here is what the updated query should look like:

1{
2  populate: {
3    photo: {
4      fields: ['alternativeText', 'name', 'url']
5    },
6    blocks: {
7      on: {
8        'blocks.testimonial': {
9          populate: {
10            photo: {
11              fields: ['alternativeText', 'name', 'url']
12            }
13          }
14        },
15      }
16    }
17  },
18  filters: {
19    slug: {
20      $eq: "sarah" // This is the slug for our team member
21    }
22  }
23}

This will allow us to fetch the data for the team member we want.

And finally, let's update our query to populate the rest of our blocks in our dynamic zone.

Here is the final query we will use:

1{
2  populate: {
3    photo: {
4      fields: ['alternativeText', 'name', 'url']
5    },
6    blocks: {
7      on: {
8        'blocks.testimonial': {
9          populate: {
10            photo: {
11              fields: ['alternativeText', 'name', 'url']
12            }
13          }
14        },
15        'blocks.spoiler': {
16          populate: true
17        },
18        'blocks.rich-text': {
19          populate: true
20        }
21      }
22    }
23  },
24  filters: {
25    slug: {
26      $eq: "sarah" // This is the slug for our team member
27    }
28  }
29}

And here is the response we should see:

Notice how we now see our testimonial, spoiler, and rich-text components in the response.

Finally, let's start working out the Team Member Detail page.

Building The Team Member Detail Page

In our Next.js project, we will start by creating a new file in our app/team-member folder and naming it [slug]. Inside, let's add page.tsx.

By naming our folder [slug] it will turn our normal route into a dynamic route; you can learn more about dynamic routes here.

Let's add the following code to our [slug]/page.tsx file:

1export default function TeamMemberDetail() {
2  return (
3    <div>
4      <h1>Team Member Detail</h1>
5    </div>
6  );
7}

Now, when we click on any of the team members in our Our Team page, we should see our Team Member Detail page.

How To Get Our Slugs From The Params In Next.js

Now, let's look at how we can access our parameters to get our slug, which we can use to fetch our team member data.

In our [slug]/page.tsx component, we can access our slug by accessing the params object.

We will start by adding the following code to our component:

1export default function TeamMemberDetail({
2  params,
3}: {
4  params: { slug: string };
5}) {
6  const { slug } = params;
7
8  if (!slug) <p>No member found</p>;
9
10  return (
11    <div>
12      <h1>Team Member Detail</h1>
13      <p>{slug}</p>
14    </div>
15  );
16}

When we navigate to our Team Member Detail page, we should see our team member's name.

Before styling our page, let's start by fetching data from our team members.

Let's create a new function to fetch our team member data. We will name it getTeamMember and add it to our [slug]/page.tsx file.

Here is what the code should look like:

1import qs from "qs";
2
3async function getTeamMember(slug: string) {
4  const baseUrl = process.env.NEXT_PUBLIC_API_URL ?? "http://localhost:1337";
5  const path = "/api/team-members";
6
7  const url = new URL(path, baseUrl);
8
9  url.search = qs.stringify({
10    populate: {
11      photo: {
12        fields: ["alternativeText", "name", "url"],
13      },
14      blocks: {
15        on: {
16          "blocks.testimonial": {
17            populate: {
18              photo: {
19                fields: ["alternativeText", "name", "url"],
20              },
21            },
22          },
23          "blocks.spoiler": {
24            populate: true,
25          },
26          "blocks.rich-text": {
27            populate: true,
28          },
29        },
30      },
31    },
32    filters: {
33      slug: {
34        $eq: slug, // This is the slug for our team member
35      },
36    },
37  });
38
39  const res = await fetch(url);
40
41  if (!res.ok) throw new Error("Failed to fetch team members");
42
43  const data = await res.json();
44  const teamMember = data?.data[0];
45  console.dir(teamMember, { depth: null });
46  return teamMember;
47}
48
49export default async function TeamMemberDetail({
50  params,
51}: {
52  params: { slug: string };
53}) {
54  const { slug } = params;
55
56  if (!slug) <p>No member found</p>;
57
58  const teamMember = await getTeamMember(slug);
59
60  return (
61    <div>
62      <h1>Team Member Detail</h1>
63      <p>{slug}</p>
64      <pre>{JSON.stringify(teamMember, null, 2)}</pre>
65    </div>
66  );
67}

In the code above, we use the getTeamMember function to fetch data for our team members. We pass in our slug as an argument to the function, and then return the team member data to our component.

Notice how we pass our search query to url.search based on the populate logic we created earlier.

We also use the pre tag to display our team member data in a readable format.

Let's add basic styling to our Team Member Detail page.

We will add the following code to our [slug]/page.tsx file:

1import qs from "qs";
2
3import { BlockRenderer, TeamPageBlock } from "@/app/components/blocks";
4
5async function getTeamMember(slug: string) {
6  const baseUrl = process.env.NEXT_PUBLIC_API_URL ?? "http://localhost:1337";
7  const path = "/api/team-members";
8
9  const url = new URL(path, baseUrl);
10
11  url.search = qs.stringify({
12    populate: {
13      photo: {
14        fields: ["alternativeText", "name", "url"],
15      },
16      blocks: {
17        on: {
18          "blocks.testimonial": {
19            populate: {
20              photo: {
21                fields: ["alternativeText", "name", "url"],
22              },
23            },
24          },
25          "blocks.spoiler": {
26            populate: true,
27          },
28          "blocks.rich-text": {
29            populate: true,
30          },
31        },
32      },
33    },
34    filters: {
35      slug: {
36        $eq: slug, // This is the slug for our team member
37      },
38    },
39  });
40
41  const res = await fetch(url);
42
43  if (!res.ok) throw new Error("Failed to fetch team members");
44
45  const data = await res.json();
46  const teamMember = data?.data[0];
47  console.dir(teamMember, { depth: null });
48  return teamMember;
49}
50
51interface UserProfile {
52  id: number;
53  documentId: string;
54  name: string;
55  description: string;
56  slug: string;
57  createdAt: string;
58  updatedAt: string;
59  publishedAt: string;
60  locale: string | null;
61  photo: {
62    id: number;
63    alternativeText: string;
64    name: string;
65    url: string;
66  };
67  blocks: TeamPageBlock[];
68}
69
70export default async function TeamMemberDetail({
71  params,
72}: {
73  params: { slug: string };
74}) {
75  const { slug } = params;
76
77  if (!slug) return <p>No member found</p>;
78
79  const teamMember = (await getTeamMember(slug)) as UserProfile;
80
81  return (
82    <div>
83      {teamMember.blocks.map((block: TeamPageBlock) => (
84        <BlockRenderer key={block.id} block={block} />
85      ))}
86    </div>
87  );
88}

Create Other Blocks

For the above code to work, we must create our new BlockRenderer component and all the other components we use on our Team Member Detail page.

Let's do that now.

Let's create a new folder in our app/components folder and name it blocks; let's create a new file and name it index.tsx.

Now, let's create the following components in our blocks folder:

1. spoiler-block.tsx
2. testimonial-block.tsx
3. rich-text-block.tsx

Spoiler Block

Here is what the spoiler-block.tsx file should look like:

1"use client";
2
3import { useState } from "react";
4
5export interface SpoilerBlock {
6  __component: "blocks.spoiler";
7  id: number;
8  title: string;
9  content: string;
10}
11
12export function SpoilerBlock({ block }: { block: SpoilerBlock }) {
13  const [isExpanded, setIsExpanded] = useState(false);
14
15  return (
16    <div className="w-full mb-4 rounded-lg overflow-hidden shadow-md transition-all duration-300 ease-in-out">
17      <button
18        className={`w-full flex justify-between items-center p-4 bg-gray-100 hover:bg-gray-200 transition-colors duration-300 ease-in-out ${
19          isExpanded ? "bg-gray-200" : ""
20        }`}
21        onClick={() => setIsExpanded(!isExpanded)}
22        aria-expanded={isExpanded}
23      >
24        <span className="text-lg font-semibold text-gray-800">
25          {block.title}
26        </span>
27        <span
28          className={`text-2xl text-gray-600 transition-transform duration-300 ease-in-out ${
29            isExpanded ? "transform rotate-180" : ""
30          }`}
31        >
32          {isExpanded ? "−" : "+"}
33        </span>
34      </button>
35      <div
36        className={`overflow-hidden transition-all duration-300 ease-in-out ${
37          isExpanded ? "max-h-[1000px]" : "max-h-0"
38        }`}
39        aria-hidden={!isExpanded}
40      >
41        <div className="p-4 bg-white text-gray-700 leading-relaxed">
42          {block.content}
43        </div>
44      </div>
45    </div>
46  );
47}

Testimonial Block

Here is what the testimonial-block.tsx file should look like:

1import Image from "next/image";
2
3export interface TestimonialBlock {
4  __component: "blocks.testimonial";
5  id: number;
6  authorName: string;
7  quote: string;
8  photo: {
9    id: number;
10    documentId: string;
11    alternativeText: string | null;
12    name: string;
13    url: string;
14  };
15}
16
17export function TestimonialBlock({ block }: { block: TestimonialBlock }) {
18  const imageUrl = `${
19    process.env.NEXT_PUBLIC_API_URL ?? "http://localhost:1337"
20  }${block?.photo?.url}`;
21
22  return (
23    <figure className="relative bg-gray-100 rounded-lg border border-gray-200 overflow-hidden my-6">
24      <div className="grid grid-cols-1 md:grid-cols-3">
25        <div className="relative h-64 md:h-full col-span-1">
26          <Image
27            src={imageUrl}
28            alt={block.photo.alternativeText || block.authorName}
29            layout="fill"
30            objectFit="cover"
31            className="w-full h-full object-center"
32          />
33        </div>
34        <div className="p-8 col-span-2 flex flex-col justify-center">
35          <blockquote className="relative">
36            <svg
37              className="absolute top-0 left-0 transform -translate-x-6 -translate-y-8 h-16 w-16 text-gray-300 opacity-50"
38              fill="currentColor"
39              viewBox="0 0 32 32"
40              aria-hidden="true"
41            >
42              <path d="M9.352 4C4.456 7.456 1 13.12 1 19.36c0 5.088 3.072 8.064 6.624 8.064 3.36 0 5.856-2.688 5.856-5.856 0-3.168-2.208-5.472-5.088-5.472-.576 0-1.344.096-1.536.192.48-3.264 3.552-7.104 6.624-9.024L9.352 4zm16.512 0c-4.8 3.456-8.256 9.12-8.256 15.36 0 5.088 3.072 8.064 6.624 8.064 3.264 0 5.856-2.688 5.856-5.856 0-3.168-2.304-5.472-5.184-5.472-.576 0-1.248.096-1.44.192.48-3.264 3.456-7.104 6.528-9.024L25.864 4z" />
43            </svg>
44            <p className="relative text-xl font-medium text-gray-900 mb-4">
45              {block.quote}
46            </p>
47          </blockquote>
48          <figcaption className="font-semibold text-indigo-600 mt-2">
49            {block.authorName}
50          </figcaption>
51        </div>
52      </div>
53    </figure>
54  );
55}

Rich Text Block

Here is what the rich-text-block.tsx file should look like:

1"use client";
2import {
3  BlocksRenderer,
4  type BlocksContent,
5} from "@strapi/blocks-react-renderer";
6import Image from "next/image";
7
8export interface RichTextBlock {
9  __component: "blocks.rich-text";
10  id: number;
11  content: BlocksContent;
12}
13
14// This renderer is using Strapi's Rich Text renderer.
15// https://github.com/strapi/blocks-react-renderer
16
17export function RichTextBlock({ block }: { block: RichTextBlock }) {
18  return (
19    <div className="richtext">
20      <BlocksRenderer
21        content={block.content}
22        blocks={{
23          image: ({ image }) => {
24            console.log("image", image);
25            if (!image) return null;
26            return (
27              <div className="my-4 flex justify-center">
28                <Image
29                  src={image.url}
30                  width={image.width || 800}
31                  height={image.height || 600}
32                  alt={image.alternativeText || ""}
33                  className="rounded-lg shadow-md h-[300px] w-full object-cover"
34                />
35              </div>
36            );
37          },
38        }}
39      />
40    </div>
41  );
42}