Next JS Tutorial #2: Creating Next JS Components & Next JS API Requests

Welcome to the second installment of our Next JS tutorial series. In this tutorial, we will be focusing on creating Next JS components and making API requests in a Next JS application.

Creating Next JS Components

One of the key features of Next JS is its support for creating reusable components. Components allow you to break down your UI into smaller, reusable pieces, which can then be composed to build more complex user interfaces.

To create a component in Next JS, you simply create a new .js file in the components directory of your Next JS project. For example, if you wanted to create a Button component, you would create a file named Button.js in the components directory.

Once you have created your component file, you can then use it in your Next JS application by importing it into your pages and other components using standard JavaScript import syntax.

Next JS API Requests

Next JS also provides built-in support for making API requests from your application. This allows you to fetch data from external APIs and incorporate it into your Next JS application.

To make an API request in Next JS, you can use the built-in fetch function, which is similar to the fetch function available in modern web browsers. You can use fetch to make HTTP requests to external APIs and handle the responses in your Next JS application.

Additionally, Next JS provides the getServerSideProps and getStaticProps functions, which allow you to fetch data from an API and pass it as props to your pages at build time or on each request, respectively.

Conclusion

In this tutorial, we have learned how to create components in Next JS and make API requests from our Next JS application. By using components, we can create reusable UI elements, and by making API requests, we can fetch data from external sources and incorporate it into our application.