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When picking a software library or framework, the developer experience is usually taken into account.
When I mention “developer experience,” I’m referring to how developers actually do the work. Developers choose libraries or frameworks that are enjoyable to use.
This is one of the primary reasons why we now have the most popular libraries and frameworks. As developers, we don’t have to start from scratch when there are existing tools created to assist us with our tasks.
Frameworks are pieces of software that are created and used by developers to construct applications, and NextJS is one of them.
In this post, we’ll go over Nextjs, its key features, and how we can use it to build an application. Let’s jump right in.
What is Next.js?
Next.js is a JavaScript framework for quickly and easily constructing static webpages and React-based online applications. It allows you to design great Web apps for a variety of platforms, including Windows, Linux, and Mac.
You should be familiar with the Next.js framework if you have minimal familiarity with react and want to learn more about the react ecosystem.
Even though Next.js comes with everything you need to get started, you can select between NPM and Yarn, JavaScript and TypeScript, CSS and SCSS, static export, and serverless deployment.
Features
- Routing is done automatically – You don’t need to configure anything because any URL is mapped to the filesystem, to files in the pages folder (you have customization options, of course).
- Components of a Single File – It’s simple to add styles scoped to the component using styled-jsx, which is totally integrated and produced by the same team.
- Reloading a Hot Code – When Next.js detects a modification saved to disk, it reloads the page.
- Dynamic Components – You can dynamically load JavaScript modules and React Components.
- Static exports – Next.js allows you to export a completely static site from your app with the next export command.
- Compatibility with the Environment – Next.js integrates seamlessly with the JavaScript, Node, and React ecosystems.
- Splitting Codes Automatically – Only the libraries and JavaScript that are required are used to render pages. Instead of creating a single JavaScript file containing all of the app’s code, Next.js intelligently divides the app into many resources.
How to create a next.js application?
Installation
You can use the node npx command to install and build a Next.js project.
This will generate a folder and all the files, configurations, and other items required to run a Next.js project.
You can launch the app once it has been generated.
Pages & Routing
To handle routes with Next.js, we do not need to employ a routing framework. Routing with Next.js is a breeze to set up. When you use the create-next-app command to build a new Next.js app, the app creates a folder called ‘pages’ by default.
This ‘pages’ folder is where you maintain your routes. As a result, each reacts components file in the subdirectory will be handled as a separate route.
For example, if the folder contains those files:
- index.js
- about.js
- aricles.js
This file will be transformed automatically in three ways:
- The index page localhost/index
- The about page localhost/about
- The blog page localhost/articles
An example of an about.js page is shown below. Nothing is provided about the page, as you can see. It is simply a standard React functional component.
Routes
To make nested routes, you must first establish a subfolder. For instance: pages/articles. Create your ‘contact.js’ react component within that folder, and it will generate the page localhost/articles/contact.
If you put one file in pages/articles.js and another in pages/articles/index.js. Both reflect the same path localhost/blog. In this situation, Next.js will just render the article.js file. What about dynamic routes, in which each blog post has its own path:
- localhost/blog/first-article
- localhost/blog/-second-article
Using the brackets notation, you can define a dynamic route in Next.js. For instance: pages/article/[slug].js
Link Routes
You’ve now completed your first route. I’m guessing you’re asking how to connect pages to those routes. You’ll need ‘next/link’ to do so.
Here’s an example of a home page that includes a link to the About page:
If you wish to style the link, use the following syntax:
Redirect Routes
What if you need to force a redirect to a certain page? For instance, when a button is pressed? You can accomplish this by using ‘router.push’:
SEO
Pages in web applications require meta (head) elements in addition to data within the HTML body. This will necessitate the installation of an extra requirement named React Helmet in a React Application.
We can use the Head component from next/head in Next to easily add metadata to our webpages that will be displayed in search results and embeds:
Components
You’ll frequently need to develop components or a layout file. For instance, a component that renders the navbar. We’ve just used the pages folder thus far. What if your component isn’t meant to be a route page?
You don’t want the user to navigate to a page such as a localhost/navbar. If you place the Navbar.js component in the pages folder, that’s what will happen. What should you do in the situation?
Simply store all of your ‘not a page’ components in a separate folder. Most Next.js projects use the moniker ‘components,’ and this folder is generated in the root folder of your project.
Head component
The initial page load is rendered by Next.js on the server-side. It does this by modifying the HTML of your page. The header section is included.
The Next.js Head component is used to give header section tags such as title and meta. The Head component is used in this example of a Layout component.
Create 404 page not found
It’s feasible to make your own 404 error page. You might wish to customize the message or add your own page design. In the pages folder, create the 404.js file.
When a 404 error occurs, Next.js will automatically redirect to this page. Here’s an example of a personalized 404 page:
Data Fetching from server-side
Instead of downloading data on the client-side, Next.js allows you to conduct an initial data population, which implies sending the page with the data already populated from the server.
You have two choices for implementing server-side data fetching:
- Data should be fetched on each request.
- Only get data once throughout the construction process (static site)
Fetch data on each request
The getServerSideProps method is used to server-side render each request. This function can be included at the end of your component file. Next.js will automatically populate your component props with the getServerSideProps object if that function is present in your component file.
Fetch data at build time
The getStaticProps method is used to render server-side at build time. This function can be included at the end of your component file. This method runs the server code and sends a GET request to the server, but only once when our project is finished.
Why you should learn Next.js?
One of the reasons for this is because Next.js is built on top of React, a front-end development toolkit for creating user interfaces that are my favorite choice for designing web apps.
But it wouldn’t be enough if Next.js wasn’t good at what it did… right?
So, what exactly does it do?
We must first define a few concepts in order to comprehend it. Next.js gained popularity because it solved a problem that many web developers had with client-side web apps (in the browser). These Single-Page Applications (SPAs) had a better experience since they didn’t need the user to reload the page and allowed for more interactivity.
However, because the bulk of the material in an app like this becomes visible only when it is performed in the browser, web crawlers have a difficult time understanding the text content of such an app.
As a result, despite their popularity, many SPAs remained largely anonymous to big search engines such as Google. Next.js now includes a more robust built-in mechanism for server-side rendering (SSR) of React components.
Next.js allows developers to construct JavaScript code on the server during the build process and provide basic, indexable HTML to the user.
Pros
- Great for user-experience
- Great for SEO
- Build a super-fast static website that behaves like a dynamic
- Flexibility in building UI & UX.
- Many development advantages
- Great community support
Cons
- Websites or applications have a certain amount of time to construct or develop.
- For certain tasks, Next.js is inadequate. Developers should be able to construct dynamic routes using Node.js tools.
Conclusion
As you can see, Next.js simplifies React app development and allows you to focus on what matters most – your app logic and UI. It includes everything needed to create contemporary, frontend-rich and API-powered apps.
It’s also appropriate for content-only projects, such as blogs and business websites, due to its ability to build static HTML pages.
With the current editions, Next.js not only maintains a high level of developer experience but also gives tools for increasing visual performance and user experience, ensuring a bright future for this framework.
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