Angular Server-side Rendering Techniques at ng-conf 2024 Featuring Alain Chautard

Server-side rendering (SSR) is a technique used in web development to improve the performance and SEO of Angular applications by pre-rendering pages on the server before they are sent to the client’s browser. In this tutorial, we will learn how to implement server-side rendering with Angular by following the steps outlined by Alain Chautard at ng-conf 2024.

Before we dive into the details, it is important to understand the benefits of server-side rendering. The main advantage of SSR is that it allows search engines to crawl and index your pages more effectively, resulting in better SEO rankings. Additionally, pre-rendering your pages on the server can improve the initial loading time of your application, making it more user-friendly and enhancing the overall user experience.

To implement server-side rendering with Angular, we can follow the steps outlined by Alain Chautard at ng-conf 2024:

1. Install the Angular Universal package:
   The first step is to install the Angular Universal package, which provides the infrastructure and utilities needed to render Angular applications on the server. You can do this by running the following command in your terminal:

   ng add @nguniversal/express-engine

This command will install the necessary dependencies and set up the server-side rendering configuration for your Angular application.

1. Define a server-side rendering route:
   Next, you need to define a route in your Angular application that will be used for server-side rendering. This route should be a special route that triggers the server-side rendering process and returns the pre-rendered HTML content to the client’s browser.

You can define this route in your Angular application’s routing module by adding a new route with a path that corresponds to the server-side rendering route. For example:

{ path: 'ssr', component: SsrComponent }

1. Create a server-side rendering component:
   You will also need to create a new component in your Angular application that will handle the server-side rendering process. This component should contain the logic for pre-rendering the HTML content on the server.

You can create this component by running the following command in your terminal:

ng generate component Ssr

This command will generate a new component named SsrComponent in your Angular application, which you can use to implement the server-side rendering logic.

1. Implement server-side rendering logic:
   Now that you have created the server-side rendering component, you can implement the logic for pre-rendering the HTML content on the server. This logic will typically involve fetching data from your server-side API and rendering the Angular components into HTML markup.

You can implement this logic in the SsrComponent class by using Angular’s platform-server API. This API provides methods for rendering Angular components on the server and generating the pre-rendered HTML content.

1. Update the server configuration:
   Finally, you will need to update your server configuration to support server-side rendering in your Angular application. This typically involves setting up your server to serve the pre-rendered HTML content for the server-side rendering route.

You can update your server configuration by adding a middleware that handles the server-side rendering process and serves the pre-rendered HTML content to the client’s browser. This middleware should be configured to intercept requests to the server-side rendering route and trigger the server-side rendering logic.

By following these steps, you can successfully implement server-side rendering with Angular in your web application. This technique can help improve the performance and SEO of your Angular application by pre-rendering pages on the server before they are sent to the client’s browser.