React Server Components: A Comprehensive Breakdown
React Server Components, introduced by Facebook in late 2020, are a game-changer for building web applications. They allow developers to offload rendering and data-fetching logic to the server, improving performance and reducing the amount of JavaScript sent to the client. In this article, we’ll take a comprehensive look at React Server Components and how they can benefit your projects.
What are React Server Components?
React Server Components are a new feature in the React library that allows developers to push some of the rendering and data-fetching logic to the server. This means that the server can take on more work, reducing the amount of JavaScript that needs to be sent to the client. This can lead to significant improvements in performance, especially for complex or dynamic web applications.
How do React Server Components work?
When a user visits a website built with React Server Components, the initial page load will include only the HTML, CSS, and minimal JavaScript needed to render the initial content. As the user interacts with the site, React Server Components are used to fetch additional data and selectively re-render parts of the page without requiring a full page refresh. This can result in a more responsive and efficient user experience.
Benefits of React Server Components
There are several benefits to using React Server Components in your web applications:
- Improved performance: By offloading rendering and data-fetching logic to the server, React Server Components can greatly improve the performance of your web application, especially for users on slow or unreliable networks.
- Reduced JavaScript sent to the client: With React Server Components, less JavaScript needs to be sent to the client, which can lead to faster page loads and reduced resource usage.
- Increased security: By moving rendering logic to the server, React Server Components can help reduce the risk of client-side attacks such as cross-site scripting (XSS).
Challenges of React Server Components
While React Server Components offer many benefits, there are also some challenges to consider:
- Complexity: Implementing React Server Components can add complexity to your codebase, especially if you are already using client-side rendering and data-fetching techniques.
- Server-side rendering limitations: React Server Components rely on server-side rendering, which may not be suitable for all web applications, particularly those with heavy client-side interactivity.
Conclusion
React Server Components are a powerful new feature in the React library that offer significant performance and security benefits for web applications. While there are some challenges to consider, the potential advantages make it worth exploring how React Server Components can be integrated into your projects. As the web development community continues to embrace this new technology, we can expect to see more examples and best practices emerge for incorporating React Server Components into modern web applications.
great video
Bro it's videos like this that remind me why I subscribed like 12 months ago
But why use React then?
Everything we need to understand all of the new and upcoming features. Thank you Theo!
Hey theo. I have a classic backend application with react as frontend and python flask as a backend.
I am not allowed to move the database and credentials to the frontend due to security .
How can i levearage this ssr and similar technologies in not Node.js backends
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20 Megs of JavaScript. OMG..
AMAZING CONTENT!!
So React can now basically do static HTML markup generation on command from the client, instead of doing it on application build. Cool. Combine that with a Redis cache and you'll have the next generation of blazingly fast Web applications.
Remember java serverfaces?, well I hate this exactly for the same reason, has nothing to do with the regression to php like code or the super shady move by Versel, the problem is trying to abstract away the server is a bad idea period.
This is the kind of content I subscribed to you for, amazing in depth explanations!
I agree "use client" was a mistake. I sent l picked up nextjs after a year away and missed the memo that it will still render on the server, and was a very frustrating time until I realised this
Although RSC greatly mitigated the performance problem in SSR, i still find route switching to be janky than a well-built SPA (PWA mode in which it has no bundle-downloading-problem right after 1st load)…not to mention the running server problem, it is basically adding performance overhead for a non-node-js backend workshop. But it makes the prototyping phase extremely fast….I like it when doing early stage exploring.
Isn't this comparable to classic technologies like PHP, JSP, ASPX, … so going back from SPA to more traditional web app development at the end?
Thank you so so much Theo! These videos are both educational and inspirational. Like you content and approach so much! Thank youand have a nice day!
dang it
RSC – welcome to functionality that almost every other framework supported at V1. 🙂
However, if you really want to convince people (and yourself), don't just guess that it's faster, prove it. Get some data. Performance tune both strategies. You'll not only see which one has better performance, but HOW much better; ie. Impact.
Also, servers have the horsepower to do the work. AND the fewer 'context' switches the better in general in any computer performance.
Here's a good analogy: My father's first job was as a waiter in a local restaurant. One of the tips you learn, if you're trained correctly, is to make as few trips from the kitchen to the customer's table as necessary. You carry straws in your apron so you have them when you bring the drinks or someone needs an extra one because one fell on the floor, and you don't have to go get one and come back so they are not waiting to drink their drink. Anything that shortens the number of trips saves time/energy/resources. Of course you don't want to load up TOO much on that server tray, that it falls on the floor on your way to the customer either. But you get the idea. KISS. Fewest number of trips. And do what you can in parallel.
"foot-smoke' – The amount of smoke rising after shooting yourself in the foot.