Enable This Development Feature When Using Next.js

If you are using Next.js, you may come across a development feature called "Fast Refresh" which provides a better developer experience by automatically refreshing the web page when changes are made to the code, without losing the current state of the application. In this tutorial, I will explain how to enable Fast Refresh in your Next.js project.

Fast Refresh is a development feature that is included in Next.js by default, but it may not always be enabled for all projects. To ensure that Fast Refresh is enabled, follow the steps below:

1. Make sure you have the latest version of Next.js installed in your project. You can check the version of Next.js by running the following command in your terminal:

npm list next

This will show you the current version of Next.js that is installed in your project.

1. If you are not using the latest version of Next.js, you can update it by running the following command in your terminal:

npm install next@latest

This will update Next.js to the latest version.

1. Next, open the next.config.js file in the root directory of your project. If the file does not exist, you can create it by running the following command in your terminal:

touch next.config.js

1. Add the following code to the next.config.js file to enable Fast Refresh:

module.exports = {
  experimental: {
    reactRefresh: true,
  },
}

The experimental key is used to enable experimental features in Next.js, and reactRefresh: true enables Fast Refresh for your project.

1. Save the next.config.js file and restart your Next.js development server by running the following command in your terminal:

npm run dev

After following these steps, Fast Refresh should now be enabled in your Next.js project. You can test it by making changes to your code and seeing the changes being reflected in the browser without reloading the page.

In conclusion, enabling Fast Refresh in your Next.js project can greatly improve your development workflow by providing instant feedback when making changes to your code. By following the steps outlined in this tutorial, you can easily enable Fast Refresh and take advantage of this helpful feature in your Next.js project.