Exploring Next.js and Its Features

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Ever feel like you're at a buffet and can't decide between the juicy steak and the tantalizing lobster? Well, welcome to the world of JavaScript frameworks! From Angular to Vue, there's a smorgasbord of options to choose from. But today, we're putting the spotlight on a particularly delectable dish: Next.js.

What's Next.js?

Next.js is a React-based framework that makes it easy to build server-side rendered and statically generated websites. It's kind of like taking the power of React and supercharging it with some extra features that make you go "wow, I can do that?!"

Server-side Rendering

Server-side rendering (SSR) is a technique where the server generates the HTML for a page on each request. This is the opposite of client-side rendering where all the magic happens in the user's browser. Next.js makes SSR as easy as pie, even easier than baking one if you're kitchen-challenged like me.

Here's a basic example:

import { getServerSideProps } from "next";

export default function Page({ data }) {
    return <div>{data}</div>;
}

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

    return { props: { data } };
}

In this snippet, getServerSideProps is a special function that Next.js calls before rendering the Page component on the server. This function fetches some data from an API and passes it as a prop to the Page component.

Static Site Generation

Next.js also makes it a breeze to generate static sites. This is great for sites where the content doesn't change often. It's like preparing a bunch of sandwiches in advance for a picnic, instead of making them on the spot.

Here's how you can do it:

import { getStaticProps } from "next";

export default function Page({ data }) {
    return <div>{data}</div>;
}

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

    return { props: { data } };
}

Similar to getServerSideProps, getStaticProps is a special function that Next.js calls when generating the static HTML for the Page component. This function fetches some data from an API and passes it as a prop to the Page component.

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