Getting Started with Next.js

Next.js is a React framework that gives you building blocks to create web applications. By framework, we mean Next.js handles the tooling and configuration needed for React, and provides additional structure, features, and optimizations for your application.

Why Next.js?

You need to consider several things when building a modern application:

• Code has to be bundled using a bundler like webpack and transformed using a compiler like Babel.
• You need to do production optimizations such as code splitting.
• You might want to statically pre-render some pages for performance and SEO. You might also want to use server-side rendering or client-side rendering.
• You might have to write some server-side code to connect your React app to your data store.

Getting Started

To start using Next.js, you need to have Node.js installed on your machine. Then, you can create a new Next.js app using the following command:

npx create-next-app@latest

This command will create a new Next.js app with the latest version of Next.js. You can also pass options to customize your setup:

npx create-next-app@latest --typescript --eslint --tailwind

Project Structure

After creating a new Next.js app, you'll have a project structure that looks like this:

my-app/
├── app/
│   ├── layout.tsx
│   ├── page.tsx
│   └── globals.css
├── public/
│   └── ...
├── components/
│   └── ...
├── node_modules/
│   └── ...
├── package.json
└── next.config.js
      

Next.js 13 introduced the new App Router built on React Server Components, which provides a new way to build applications with shared layouts, nested routing, loading states, error handling, and more.

Conclusion

Next.js is a powerful framework that simplifies React development by providing a structured approach to building web applications. Its features like server-side rendering, static site generation, and API routes make it an excellent choice for modern web development.