NextJS Key Features:
1. Pre-rendering pages on the server side:
- This feature eliminates the initial loading state by rendering pages on the server side.
React components load data from the API only after they have been rendered, preventing issues such as flickering loaders.
- Pre-rendering improves SEO, as search engine crawlers can access the page content.
Since React is built with JavaScript inside a <div id="root"/>, crawlers cannot read HTML. Therefore, if you have public pages with a lot of content that need to be found through search engines, NextJS is essential.
2. #File-based Routing:
- Unlike React, which lacks a built-in routing solution, NextJS provides a straightforward concept of routing, similar to basic HTML web development.
- In this approach, each `.html` file represents a page, and the filename serves as its path.
- NextJS supports features such as nested routes, catch-all routes, and dynamic routes.
- **Off-topic:** Routing involves changing screen content based on the URL without sending a request to a server, thereby preventing the default browser behavior of page reload when the URL changes (e.g., with `window.location.href = "url"`).
3. Full Stack Capabilities:
- NextJS allows for the easy addition of backend (server-side) code to your project through special pre-rendering page functions (e.g., static/serverSide Props).
- It also facilitates the creation of custom APIs with file-based endpoint addresses, where you can write backend code as needed.
- As a result, there's no need to build a standalone REST API backend project.
