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Create T3 Turbo with Clerk Authentication

About

This takes the original create-t3-turbo and adds Clerk authentication allowing you to have one auth package for both Expo and Next.js. You will notice there is no longer an auth package as it is not requried.

Clerk Dashboard Setup

For this template to work you need to enable Discord as an OAuth provider. You can find the social options under User & Authentication / Social Providers in the Clerk Dashboard

If you change any setting here outside of adding Discord, you may need to update your Expo code to handle any requirements you change.

It uses Turborepo and contains:

Code Layout

.github
  └─ workflows
        └─ CI with pnpm cache setup
.vscode
  └─ Recommended extensions and settings for VSCode users
apps
  ├─ expo
  |   ├─ Expo SDK 46
  |   ├─ React Native using React 18
  |   ├─ Tailwind using Nativewind
  |   └─ Typesafe API calls using tRPC
  └─ next.js
      ├─ Next.js 13
      ├─ React 18
      ├─ TailwindCSS
      └─ E2E Typesafe API Server & Client
packages
 ├─ api
 |   └─ tRPC v10 router definition
 └─ db
     └─ typesafe db-calls using Prisma

Quick Start

To get it running, follow the steps below:

Setup dependencies

# Install dependencies
pnpm i

# In packages/db/prisma update schema.prisma provider to use sqlite
# or use your own database provider
- provider = "postgresql"
+ provider = "sqlite"

# Configure environment variables.
# There is an `.env.example` in the root directory you can use for reference
cp .env.example .env

# Push the Prisma schema to your database
pnpm db-push

Configure Expo app

In the _app.tsx replace const clerk_frontend_api = "YOUR_CLERK_FRONTEND_API"; with your api key.

Configure Expo dev-script

Note: If you want to use a physical phone with Expo Go, just run pnpm dev and scan the QR-code.

Use iOS Simulator

  1. Make sure you have XCode and XCommand Line Tools installed as shown on expo docs.
  2. Change the dev script at apps/expo/package.json to open the iOS simulator.
+  "dev": "expo start --ios",
  1. Run pnpm dev at the project root folder.

For Android

  1. Install Android Studio tools as shown on expo docs.
  2. Change the dev script at apps/expo/package.json to open the Android emulator.
+  "dev": "expo start --android",
  1. Run pnpm dev at the project root folder.

Deployment

Next.js

Prerequisites

We do not recommend deploying a SQLite database on serverless environments since the data wouldn’t be persisted. I provisioned a quick Postgresql database on Railway, but you can of course use any other database provider. Make sure the prisma schema is updated to use the correct database.

Deploy to Vercel

Let’s deploy the Next.js application to Vercel. If you have ever deployed a Turborepo app there, the steps are quite straightforward. You can also read the official Turborepo guide on deploying to Vercel.

  1. Create a new project on Vercel, select the apps/nextjs folder as the root directory and apply the following build settings:

Vercel deployment settings

The install command filters out the expo package and saves a few second (and cache size) of dependency installation. The build command makes us build the application using Turbo.

  1. Add your DATABASE_URL, NEXT_PUBLIC_CLERK_FRONTEND_API, CLERK_API_KEY, CLERK_JWT_KEY environment variable.

  2. Done! Your app should successfully deploy. Assign your domain and use that instead of localhost for the url in the Expo app so that your Expo app can communicate with your backend when you are not in development.

Expo

Deploying your Expo application works slightly differently compared to Next.js on the web. Instead of “deploying” your app online, you need to submit production builds of your app to the app stores, like Apple App Store and Google Play. You can read the full Distributing your app, including best practices, in the Expo docs.

  1. Let’s start by setting up EAS Build, which is short for Expo Application Services. The build service helps you create builds of your app, without requiring a full native development setup. The commands below are a summary of Creating your first build.

    // Install the EAS CLI
$ pnpm add -g eas-cli

// Log in with your Expo account
$ eas login

// Configure your Expo app
$ cd apps/expo
$ eas build:configure

  2. After the initial setup, you can create your first build. You can build for Android and iOS platforms and use different eas.json build profiles to create production builds or development, or test builds. Let’s make a production build for iOS.

    $ eas build --platform ios --profile production

    If you don’t specify the --profile flag, EAS uses the production profile by default.

  3. Now that you have your first production build, you can submit this to the stores. EAS Submit can help you send the build to the stores.

    $ eas submit --platform ios --latest

    You can also combine build and submit in a single command, using eas build ... --auto-submit.

  4. Before you can get your app in the hands of your users, you’ll have to provide additional information to the app stores. This includes screenshots, app information, privacy policies, etc. While still in preview, EAS Metadata can help you with most of this information.

  5. Once everything is approved, your users can finally enjoy your app. Let’s say you spotted a small typo; you’ll have to create a new build, submit it to the stores, and wait for approval before you can resolve this issue. In these cases, you can use EAS Update to quickly send a small bugfix to your users without going through this long process. Let’s start by setting up EAS Update.

    The steps below summarize the Getting started with EAS Update guide.

    // Add the `expo-updates` library to your Expo app
$ cd apps/expo
$ pnpm expo install expo-updates

// Configure EAS Update
$ eas update:configure

  6. Before we can send out updates to your app, you have to create a new build and submit it to the app stores. For every change that includes native APIs, you have to rebuild the app and submit the update to the app stores. See steps 2 and 3.

  7. Now that everything is ready for updates, let’s create a new update for production builds. With the --auto flag, EAS Update uses your current git branch name and commit message for this update. See How EAS Update works for more information.

    $ cd apps/expo
$ eas update --auto

    Your OTA (Over The Air) updates must always follow the app store’s rules. You can’t change your app’s primary functionality without getting app store approval. But this is a fast way to update your app for minor changes and bug fixes.

  8. Done! Now that you have created your production build, submitted it to the stores, and installed EAS Update, you are ready for anything!

References

The stack originates from create-t3-app.

A blog post where I wrote how to migrate a T3 app into this.

GitHub

View Github