When I first started building web applications, I was using vanilla HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. I was able to create some basic websites and even some simple interactive features, but as my projects grew in complexity, I found myself struggling to keep everything organized and maintainable.
That's when I discovered Next.js.
Next.js is a framework for building React-based web applications. It provides a set of features that make it easy to build scalable, high-performance web apps, such as server-side rendering, automatic code splitting, and static site generation.
One of the biggest advantages of using Next.js is that it allows you to easily organize your code. Instead of having all of your HTML, CSS, and JavaScript in a single file, you can use Next.js's file-based routing to separate your code into different pages and components.
For example, in a vanilla HTML, CSS and JS setup, you might have something like this:
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
<title>My Website</title>
</head>
<body>
<header>
<nav>
<a href="#home">Home</a>
<a href="#about">About</a>
<a href="#contact">Contact</a>
</nav>
</header>
<main>
<section id="home">
<h1>Welcome to my website!</h1>
<p>This is the home page.</p>
</section>
<section id="about">
<h1>About me</h1>
<p>I'm a web developer.</p>
</section>
<section id="contact">
<h1>Contact me</h1>
<form>
<label for="email">Email:</label>
<input type="email" id="email" required>
<label for="message">Message:</label>
<textarea id="message" required></textarea>
<input type="submit" value="Send">
</form>
</section>
</main>
<footer>
<p>Copyright © 2020 My Website</p>
</footer>
</body>
</html>
With Next.js you can break it down in different files:
- pages/
- index.js
- about.js
- contact.js
- components/
- header.js
- footer.js
And in those files you have your JSX and styles.
Another benefit of using Next.js is that it allows you to take advantage of server-side rendering (SSR). With SSR, your app's initial HTML is generated on the server, which means that the first load of your app is faster and more SEO-friendly.
Next.js also makes it easy to do static site generation (SSG). This is a great way to build fast, lightweight, and secure websites that can be hosted on a CDN. With SSG, you can pre-render your pages at build time, and then serve the static HTML to the user. This means that you don't need to run any server-side code, which can greatly reduce the cost and complexity of deploying your app.
Here's an example of how to use static site generation in Next.js:
import { getStaticProps } from 'next/static'
export const getStaticProps = async () => {
// Fetch data from an external API or database
const data = await fetchData()
// Pass the fetched data to the props
return {
props: {
data
}
}
}
const Home = ({ data }) => {
return (
<div>
<h1>Home</h1>
<ul>
{data.map(item => (
<li key={item.id}>{item.title}</li>
))}
</ul>
</div>
)
}
export default Home
Finally, one of the best things about using Next.js is its fast reloading feature 🔥. With traditional web development, you might have to wait several seconds for your changes to show up in the browser. But with Next.js, your changes are reflected almost instantly 🤯. This makes the development process much more efficient and enjoyable 😎. So, if you're tired of waiting around for your changes to compile, give Next.js a try and experience the lightning-fast reloads for yourself! 🚀
All in all, I highly recommend giving Next.js a try. Whether you're a beginner or an experienced developer, you'll find that it makes building web apps faster, easier, and more enjoyable. With Next.js you can take advantage of the benefits of React and its ecosystem, while leveraging the features that Next.js provides, such as file-based routing, server-side rendering and static site generation.
Top comments (0)