Makeshift Next.js from Scratch (Server-Side Rendering)

Next.js is a popular React framework for building server-side rendered applications. In this article, we will explore how to create a makeshift Next.js application from scratch, complete with server-side rendering.

Getting Started

To get started with our makeshift Next.js application, we will need to first set up a new project directory and install the necessary dependencies. We can do this by running the following commands in our terminal:

    
      mkdir makeshift-nextjs
      cd makeshift-nextjs
      npm init -y
      npm install react react-dom next
    
  

Once we have our project directory set up and the necessary dependencies installed, we can create our first page in the pages directory. For example, we can create a file called index.js with the following content:

    
      import React from 'react'

      const IndexPage = () => {
        return (
          <div>
            <h1>Welcome to Makeshift Next.js!</h1>
            <p>This is a makeshift Next.js application created from scratch.</p>
          </div>
        )
      }

      export default IndexPage
    
  

Server-Side Rendering

One of the key features of Next.js is its support for server-side rendering. This means that our pages are rendered on the server and sent to the client as HTML, which can improve performance and SEO. To enable server-side rendering in our makeshift Next.js application, we can use the getServerSideProps function in our page components. For example:

    
      import React from 'react'

      const IndexPage = ({ message }) => {
        return (
          <div>
            <h1>Welcome to Makeshift Next.js!</h1>
            <p>{message}</p>
          </div>
        )
      }

      export async function getServerSideProps() {
        // Fetch data from an API or database
        const message = 'This is a message from the server!'

        return {
          props: { message }
        }
      }

      export default IndexPage
    
  

Conclusion

Creating a makeshift Next.js application from scratch with server-side rendering is a great way to learn more about how Next.js works under the hood. By following the steps outlined in this article, you can gain a better understanding of the key concepts and features of Next.js and how to leverage them to build powerful server-rendered applications.