Connect to OceanBase Cloud from Vercel

Vercel is a platform for front-end and full-stack developers, offering fast builds, deployments, and global distribution. Using OceanBase Cloud with Vercel lets you build and scale applications on top of a MySQL-compatible database with high availability, scalability, and strong data security and compliance.

This guide explains how to connect your OceanBase Cloud database to a Vercel project by setting an environment variable, so your deployed app can read and write OceanBase data.

Prerequisites

• You have a transactional instance or shared instance in OceanBase Cloud. If you don’t yet have one, you can start a free trial of OceanBase Cloud and see free trial rules and how to activate.
• This guide uses a shared instance. If you use a cluster instance, create a tenant first by following Create a tenant, then continue with the steps below.
• You have a MySQL-compatible tenant, a database, and an account with read and write permissions. If not, see Create an account and Create a database (MySQL only).
• You have the Project Admin or Instance Admin role so you can manage instances in the project. If not, ask your organization admin to grant the required permissions.
• You have a Vercel account. If not, see the Vercel docs to create a personal account or create a team.
• You have created or imported a project in Vercel. If you don't have an app to deploy yet, you can create a new project from a template or import an existing repo in Vercel, or use the OceanBase Next.js Vercel demo project.

Step 1: Get your database connection details

1. Log in to the OceanBase Cloud console. On the instance list, expand the target transactional instance, then under the target tenant click Connect > Get Connection String.

2. In the dialog, choose Public Network.

3. On the Connect via Public Network page, complete the following to generate a connection string:

   1. (Optional) If the tenant does not yet have a public endpoint, under Step 1: Get Public Endpoint, click Get Public Endpoint. If one already exists, skip this step. Then click Next Step.

   2. Under Step 2: Security Settings, do the following, then click Next Step:

      • Add IP Address(es) to Allowlist: Click Add, choose Allow All IP Addresses, then click OK.

      • Download Certificate: Click Download CA Certificate to download the certificate and complete verification.

   3. Under Step 3: Access Database, select the database and account you created in the prerequisites, and choose MySQL CLI as the connection method. Copy the connection string for use in the next step.

Step 2: Configure the environment variable in Vercel and deploy

1. Open the Vercel dashboard and choose Import Project > Import.

   

2. Under Let's build something new, enter the demo repository URL and click Continue.

   https://github.com/sc-source/oceanbase-nextjs-vercel-demo.git
   

   

3. On the deployment page, add the DATABASE_URL environment variable under Environment Variables:

   Field	Description
   Key	DATABASE_URL
   Value	mysql://<User>:<Password>@<Endpoint>:<Port>/<Database>

   Replace <User>, <Password>, <Endpoint>, <Port>, and <Database> with the connection details from Step 1 (or take them from the connection string you copied).
   Example: mysql://admin:YourPassword@xxx.oceanbase.cloud:3306/my_db

   Note

   When configuring during the Import flow, you can set DATABASE_URL in the wizard. For an existing project, add it under Settings > Environment Variables, then redeploy for the variable to take effect.

   

4. Deploy the project. After deployment completes, your Vercel app can use DATABASE_URL to connect to OceanBase Cloud and read or write data.