Next.js for Server-Side and Static Site Generation: Benefits and Implementation Guide

Next.js is a popular React-based framework that allows developers to build server-side rendered (SSR) and statically generated websites. It is designed to simplify the development of web applications by providing a simple and intuitive API for handling routing, data fetching, and other common web development tasks.

Here are some reasons why you might want to use Next.js for server-side and statically generated content:

Improved performance

With server-side rendering and static site generation, Next.js allows you to pre-render your web pages, making them faster to load and improving the overall performance of your site.

Better SEO

By pre-rendering your pages, search engines are able to crawl your content more easily, which can improve your search engine rankings.

Improved developer experience

Next.js provides a number of features out of the box, such as automatic code splitting, hot reloading, and CSS modules, that make it easier to build and maintain complex web applications.

Now let's dive into the theory to use Next.js for server-sided and statically generated content:

Server-side rendering (SSR)

What is SSR?

Server-side rendering (SSR) is the process of rendering a web page on the server and sending the fully rendered HTML to the client. This approach can improve the initial load time of your web pages and provide a better user experience. To implement SSR in Next.js, you can use the getServerSideProps() function. This function runs on the server and can fetch data from an API or a database, which is then passed to the component as props.

How to use SSR in Next.js?

To generate server-side rendered (SSR) code in Next.js, you could utilize the getServerSideProps() function. This function is executed on the server every time a page is requested, and it allows you to fetch data from an API or a database and pass it to the component as props.

Here's an example of how to use getServerSideProps() in a Next.js component:

typescript

import React from 'react';

function MyPage({ data }) {
  return (
    <div>
      <h1>{data.title}</h1>
      <p>{data.content}</p>
    </div>
  );
}

export async function getServerSideProps() {
  const res = await fetch('https://myapi.com/data');
  const data = await res.json();

  return {
    props: {
      data
    }
  }
}

export default MyPage;

In this example, we define a MyPage component that receives a data prop containing the title and content of the page. We use the getServerSideProps() function to fetch the data from an external API and return it as props.

When a user requests the page, Next.js will execute the getServerSideProps() function on the server and pass the fetched data as props to the MyPage component, which will be rendered on the server and sent to the client as fully rendered HTML.

By using getServerSideProps() in Next.js, you can generate server-side rendered pages with dynamic content, which can improve the performance and SEO of your website.

Static-site generation (SSG)

What is SSG?

Static site generation (SSG) is the process of generating static HTML files at build time, which are then served to the client. This approach can significantly improve the performance of your web pages and reduce the load on your server. To implement SSG in Next.js, you can use the getStaticProps() function. This function runs at build time and can fetch data from an API or a database, which is then used to generate the static HTML files.

How to use SSG?

In Next.js, you can generate static site generation (SSG) code using the getStaticProps() function. This function is executed at build time and allows you to fetch data from an API or a database and pass it to the component as props. The resulting HTML is then generated and served to the client.

Here's an example of how to use getStaticProps() in a Next.js component:

typescript

import React from 'react';

function MyPage({ data }) {
  return (
    <div>
      <h1>{data.title}</h1>
      <p>{data.content}</p>
    </div>
  );
}

export async function getStaticProps() {
  const res = await fetch('https://myapi.com/data');
  const data = await res.json();

  return {
    props: {
      data
    }
  }
}

export default MyPage;

In this example, we define a MyPage component that receives a data prop containing the title and content of the page. We use the getStaticProps() function to fetch the data from an external API and return it as props.

When you build your Next.js application, the getStaticProps() function will be executed at build time and the resulting HTML will be generated and stored as static files. When a user requests the page, the pre-generated HTML is served directly to the client, without the need to fetch data from the server.

By using getStaticProps() in Next.js, you can generate static HTML files at build time, which can significantly improve the performance and scalability of your website. Additionally, since the HTML files are pre-generated, search engines can easily crawl and index your content, which can improve your SEO.

Summary

Next.js provides several other features that can help you build fast and scalable web applications, including automatic code splitting, file-based routing, and support for CSS modules. With its intuitive API and built-in features, Next.js is an excellent choice for building server-side and statically generated content.

Frontend

Backend

Other