Understanding NextJS Rendering

Understanding NextJS Rendering

What is Rendering?

Rendering is the process of converting code into a usable and visual format of a user interface, also known as a web page. NextJS supports both client-side rendering and server-side rendering, each with its own use cases.

Client Components in NextJS

By default, all components in NextJS are server-side components. To make a component a client component, you need to use the useClient directive within the component itself. Client components are web pages that are pre-rendered on the server during the build time and directly served to the user's web browser when they request it. Once a client component is rendered on the browser, subsequent requests to that specific page will not go to the server again. This makes client components faster and more efficient.

Server Components in NextJS

By default, NextJS components are server-side components unless you use the useClient directive. There are three different ways to create server-side components in NextJS: static rendering, dynamic rendering, and streaming rendering.

Static Rendering

Static rendering is useful for pages with mostly static content and minimal dynamic content. An example of a static rendering use case is a blog website where the blog posts do not change frequently once they are created. Static rendering generates the page during the build time and serves it directly to the browser. Subsequent requests to the page will be rendered on the browser without going to the server again.

Dynamic Rendering

Dynamic rendering is used when there is dynamic content attached to a server-side component. It is similar to static rendering but includes dynamic elements. For example, in a Gmail login page, the user’s name is dynamically displayed based on who is logged in. Dynamic rendering pre-renders the page on the server and adds the dynamic content. The page is then served to the browser, and any user-specific content is displayed accordingly.

Streaming Rendering

Streaming rendering allows the server to send a stream of HTML and JavaScript processed content to the browser. This is useful for web pages where you want to display portions of the page at a time, without loading the entire content upfront. An example is the Gmail email list, where only a certain number of emails are initially displayed, and more are loaded as the user navigates through the page.

Advantages of Rendering Types

Static Rendering:

• Pre-rendered on the server for faster load time
• Best performance and user experience

Dynamic Rendering:

• Pre-rendered on the server with dynamic content
• Faster load time compared to client-side rendering

Streaming Rendering:

• Allows displaying portions of the page at a time
• Improves performance by not loading all content upfront

Conclusion

NextJS provides different rendering options to cater to various use cases. Understanding the differences between client-side rendering, static rendering, dynamic rendering, and streaming rendering will help you choose the most suitable rendering type for your web application.

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