Build an Ecommerce App from Scratch using Medusa and Next 14: Part 01

Mark Tawanda MunyakaMark Tawanda Munyaka
4 min read

Table of contents

Introduction

In this tutorial, you will learn how to create an ecommerce website using Medusa as a commerce engine and Next 14 as the frontend framework.

This tutorial is split into a series of articles:

This tutorial is Part 01 of the series. It focuses on the set up and installation of the project.

Prerequisites

To follow along with this tutorial you must have some knowledge of HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. Knowledge of Medusa and Next/React is helpful but not necessary.

In addition, you need the following tools installed on your machine:

  • Node.js: the latest LTS version

  • PostgreSQL

  • yarn

Medusa Setup

In this step you will install and set up the Medusa Server backend.

Open up your terminal and create a project folder to contain all the source code for the entire project. Name it my-store.

mkdir my-store

Install Medusa CLI

In your terminal, inside the my-store folder run the following command to install the Medusa CLI. We will use it to install the Medusa server.

npm install @medusajs/medusa-cli -g

Create a new Medusa project

medusa new my-medusa-store

You will be asked to specify your PostgreSQL database credentials. Choose "Skip database setup".

A new directory named my-medusa-store will be created to store the server files

Configure Database

Access the PostgreSQL console to create a new user and database for the Medusa server.

sudo -u postgres psql

To create a new user named medusa_admin run this command:

CREATE USER medusa_admin WITH PASSWORD 'medusa_admin_password';

Now, create a new database named medusa_db and make medusa_admin the owner.

CREATE DATABASE medusa_db OWNER medusa_admin;

Last, grant all privileges to medusa_admin and exit the PostgreSQL console.

GRANT ALL PRIVILEGES ON DATABASE medusa_db TO medusa_admin;

exit

Add the connection string as the DATABASE_URL to your environment variables. Inside my-medusa-store create a .env file and add the following:

DATABASE_URL=postgres://medusa_admin:medusa_admin_password@localhost:5432/medusa_db

Run migrations and seed data to the database by running the following command:

medusa seed --seed-file="./data/seed.json"

Start your Medusa backend

medusa develop

The Medusa server will start running on port 9000.

Test your server:

curl localhost:9000/store/products

If it is working, you should see a list of products.

Install and Serve Medusa Admin with the Backend

This section explains how to install the admin to be served with the Medusa Backend.

Install the package

Inside my-medusa-store stop your Medusa server, CTRL + C and run the following command to install the Medusa Admin Dashboard.

npm install @medusajs/admin

Test your install by re-running your server.

medusa develop

Open up your browser and visit localhost:7001 to see the Medusa Admin Dashboard. Use the Email admin@medusa-test.com and password supersecret to log in.

Medusa Admin Dashboard

For now, that's it. Next, let's set up Next 14.

Next 14 Setup

Installation

Create a directory named my-next-store inside my-store and install the required packages to create a new Next app:

mkdir my-next-store
cd my-next-store
npm install next@latest react@latest react-dom@latest

Open your package.json file and add the following scripts:

{
  "scripts": {
    "dev": "next dev",
    "build": "next build",
    "start": "next start",
    "lint": "next lint"
  }
}

Create an app folder, then add a layout.tsx and page.tsx file.

Create a root layout inside app/layout.tsx with the required <html> and <body> tags:

export default function RootLayout({
  children,
}: {
  children: React.ReactNode
}) {
  return (
    <html lang="en">
      <body>{children}</body>
    </html>
  )
}

Finally, create a home page app/page.tsx with some initial content:

export default function Page() {
  return <h1>Hello World!</h1>
}

Run Development Server

Start the Next development server:

npm run dev

Visit http://localhost:3000 to view your application.

Next 14 Home page

That's it for the Next 14 setup as well.

Conclusion

This tutorial provided a step-by-step guide on setting up and installing Medusa as the backend commerce engine and Next.js 14 as the frontend framework. The main steps included:

  1. Installing the Medusa CLI and creating a new Medusa project with a PostgreSQL database.

  2. Configuring the database connection and seeding sample data.

  3. Starting the Medusa backend server and testing it.

  4. Installing the Medusa admin dashboard to manage the store.

  5. Creating a new Next.js 14 project with the required setup.

  6. Adding basic pages and layouts to the Next app.

  7. Running the Next.js development server to see the initial home page.

With the backend Medusa server and frontend Next.js app now set up, future parts of this tutorial will focus on integrating the two to build out the full functionality of an ecommerce website.

Resources

Author

Mark Munyaka

GitHub: @Marktawa Twitter: @McMunyaka

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Written by

Mark Tawanda Munyaka
Mark Tawanda Munyaka

I am a freelance developer and technical writer from Zimbabwe currently based in Lusaka, Zambia. I enjoy coding, reading, and outdoor sports. I love testing out new technologies (web, desktop, mobile) that can help me build cool apps. I am currently dabbling with the JAMStack ecosystem.