As the world of web app development is evolving rapidly, developers need to stay updated with the latest technologies to build more efficient and faster web applications. One such technology that has been making waves in the industry is Next.js. It is a powerful React framework that allows developers to build server-side rendered (SSR) and static web applications with ease.
What is Next Js?
Next.js is a React-based, open-source JavaScript framework for building user-friendly, high-performance web applications. It’s designed to make the development process easier and faster, allowing developers to quickly create and deploy web applications that are optimized for both server-side and client-side rendering.
Next JS vs React – Which JavaScript Framework to Use?
What’s new embedded in Next.JS 13?
Recently, Next.js released its latest version, Next.js 13.2, which brings along several new features and improvements. The new release of next.js, as introduced on 10 March 2023, is version 13.2 of Next.js.
Many quality-of-life improvements are included in the Next.js 13.2 release, particularly for the app router that was released in Next js version 13. Also, there are a number of new features, like progressive ISR caching, custom route request handlers, and support for Markdown in server components. The Next.js team appears to place a high priority on building performance, and this update speeds up project configuration load times while reducing memory usage.
Next.JS 13.2 provides limitless possibilities when it comes to developing ambitious and complex applications for teams. It eliminates the restrictions of previous versions by removing the need for costly, always-on infrastructure and manual provisioning. Furthermore, it eliminates the need for two sets of runtime APIs, using only web standard APIs in the browser. It has a multi-region origin, allowing for better performance and scalability.
The Next.js team has improved Next.JS 13.2 to take advantage of the dynamic capabilities without the need for costly infrastructure and manual provisioning. With this upgrade, teams can build scalable and powerful applications without limits. With improved performance and scalability, users can experience an even better experience than ever before.
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Latest Features and New Updates in Next.js 13
In the interest of maintaining stability, Next.js 13.2 significantly enhances the App Router with features like Route Handlers, MDX for Server Components, Type-Safe Links, and more.
In order to prepare for stability, Next.js 13.2 includes significant updates to the App Router (app):
- Built-in SEO Support: Set static and dynamic “meta” tags with a new metadata API.
- Route Handlers: Built-in custom request handlers for Web “Request” and “Response”.
- MDX for Server Components: Server-side only when using React components inside Markdown.
- Rust MDX Parser: New Rust plugin for faster Markdown parsing.
- Improved Error Overlay: For easier reading, separate the stack traces for Next.js and React.js.
- Statically Typed Links (Beta): Use TypeScript and “next/link” to stop broken links.
- Improvements to the Turbopack (Alpha): Better support and compatibility with Webpack loaders.
- Next.js Cache (Beta): Faster code change re-deployment with progressive ISR.
Run today to update:
npm i next@latest react@latest react-dom@latest eslint-config-next@latest
1. Built-in SEO support with new Metadata API
If you used the new, experimental method to build apps, it was difficult to properly configure the metatags for SEO. It was rather difficult to develop the required special files (head.js). Exporting objects or functions (for static metadata) is the new strategy (for dynamic metadata).
//https://nextjs.org/blog/next-13-2#built-in-seo-support-with-new-metadata-api // Static metadata export const metadata = { title: ‘…’, }; // Dynamic metadata export async function generateMetadata({ params, searchParams }) { const product = await getProduct(params.id); return { title: product.title }; }
That represents a significant increase in the quality of life for developers working on projects of all sizes.
2. Route Handlers for the App Directory
API routes were one component that the new approach to developing Next apps was missing. You were able to use Vercel’s framework as a real full-stack framework thanks to them. Only the required bits remained on the client while heavy operations were maintained running on the server.
Of course, you could build API routes in the folder for old pages, but that wasn’t the best option. Well, it worked, but the fact that the new router did not support one of the most crucial aspects was less than ideal, to put it mildly.
In the update, the Next.js team delivered.
The API routes have not only been modified but are now available.
It is now simpler to respond to a single HTTP method. The “Route Handlers” are also based on well-known Web APIs like Request and Respond, which all web developers are familiar with.
The following is how to set cookies:
import { cookies } from ‘next/headers’; export async function GET(request: Request) { const cookieStore = cookies(); const token = cookieStore.get(‘token’); return new Response(‘Hello, Next.js!’, { status: 200, headers: { ‘Set-Cookie’: `token=${token}` }, }); }
It’s a significant improvement overall. The following is how you might look for a POST request beforehand:
export default function handler(req, res) { if (req.method !== ‘POST’) { res.status(405).send({ message: “some message here” }); return; } // do something here… }
3. MDX for Server Components
A superset of markdown called MDX enables you to write JSX right in your markdown documents. It is a potent method for including dynamic interaction and React components in your content.
With version 13.2, you can utilize MDX exclusively with React Server Components, which will result in less client-side JavaScript and quicker page loads while retaining the robust React capabilities for templating dynamic UI. As required, you can incorporate interactive elements into your MDX material.
Support for a brand-new unique file, “mdx-components.js|ts”, defined at the root of your application to offer unique components have been added to the “@next/mdx” plugin:
// This file allows you to provide custom React components // to be used in MDX files. You can import and use any // React component you want, including components from // other libraries. function H1({ children }) { // … } function H2({ children }) { // … } export function useMDXComponents(components) { return { h1: H1, h2: H2, …components }; }
In order to add support for React Server Components, we also collaborated with the community packages “next-mdx-remote” and “contentlayer” for fetching MDX content.
4. Rust MDX Parser
Next.js is also improving performance by rewriting the MDX parser in Rust as part of enabling MDX for Server Components. Compared to the prior JavaScript-based parser, which had noticeable slowdowns when processing a large number of MDX files, this is a major improvement.
The Rust parser in “next.config.js” is an option that you can enable. For example, with “@next/mdx”:
/** @type {import(‘next’).NextConfig} */ const nextConfig = { experimental: { appDir: true, mdxRs: true, }, }; const withMDX = require(‘@next/mdx’)(); module.exports = withMDX(nextConfig);
5. Improved Error Overlay
A many numbers of changes to the Next.js error overlay to aid in enhancing the readability and debugability of errors.
It is now simpler to determine where the error is coming from in version 13.2 because Next.js and React stack traces are now separated. The most recent Next.js version is also shown in the error overlay, making it easier to determine whether your version is current.
Version staleness is shown by the enhanced error overlay in 13.2.
6. Statically Typed Links (Beta)
To improve type safety while browsing between pages, next.js can now statically type links in the app directory to avoid typos and other issues when using next/link.
import Link from ‘next/link’ // ✅ <Link href=”/about” /> // ✅ <Link href=”/blog/nextjs” /> // ✅ <Link href={`/blog/${slug}`} /> // ❌ TypeScript errors if href is not a valid route <Link href=”/aboot” />
The new App Router and TypeScript are both required for this feature.
// next.config.js /** @type {import(‘next’).NextConfig} */ const nextConfig = { experimental: { appDir: true, typedRoutes: true, }, }; module.exports = nextConfig;
7. Improvements to the Turbopack (Alpha)
The newest bundler, Turbopack, which is Webpack’s replacement, did not get off to a great start. There were too many things missing. Because of this, the Next.js team has added these features since the last release:
- Support for “next/dynamic”
- In the next.config.js file, there is support for “rewrites”, “redirects”, “headers”, and “pageExtensions”.
- Support for 404s and errors in “pages”
- Support for CSS modules “composes: … from …”
- Improved Fast Refresh reliability and error recovery
- Improved CSS precedence handling
- Improved compile-time evaluation
8. Next.js Cache
A built-in cache for Next.js has also been released, enabling you to cache web pages and data on both the client and server sides.
By speeding up the loading of pages and data, this functionality can dramatically enhance the performance of your application.
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Other Improvements for Next JS:
- Fonts: Following incredible community adoption, @next/font is now built-in to Next.js as next/font. This means you no longer need to install @next/font separately.
- Fonts: The default font-display property for next/font has been changed to font-display: swap instead of optional based on community feedback.
- Performance: Optimized the build process to use less memory, ~550MB saved in our tests (PR).
- Performance: Avoid loading project configuration multiple times, leading to ~400ms faster builds (average) in our tests (PR).
- Performance: Optimized the error component to reduce 0.4kb of the HTML payload without changing the styling (PR).
- Performance: Reduced the edge bundle size by ~130KB, almost half of the size, to further decrease the cold boot size when deployed to edge environments like Vercel (PR).
- Security: Added configuration images.contentDispositionType: “attachment” to force download images when visiting the Image Optimization API directly (PR).
How to Upgrade Next.js 13 to Next.js 13.2?
This step-by-step guide will help you upgrade to version 13.2 in no time and help you optimize your website for a better user experience.
Step 1: Check your current version
Before you upgrade, make sure you are running the correct version of Next.js. To do this, go to your project root and run the following command:
`npx next -v`
This will show you the version of Next.js you are currently running. Once you’ve confirmed that it is an older version, you can proceed to the next step.
Step 2: Upgrade your project to the latest version next js 13
Now that you know you’re running an older version of Next.js, it’s time to upgrade. To do this, first update your package.json file. Change the version of Next.js to the latest one (13.2):
`”next”: “13.2.0”`
Once this is done, you can then install the latest version of Next.js by running the following command:
`npm install`
Now your project is ready to be upgraded.
Step 3: Update your code
Before you can start using the new version of Next.js, you need to update the code in your project. This can be done by checking the documentation of the new version and updating any code that is not compatible with it. Once you’ve done that, you can move on to the next step.
Step 4: Test your project
Now that you’ve updated your code, it’s time to test it. To do this, run the following command:
`npx next dev`
This will start a local development server and you can test your project to make sure it is working properly with the new version of Next.js.
Step 5: Deploy your project
Once you’ve tested your project and you’re happy with it, it’s time to deploy it. To do this, simply run the following command:
`npx next build && npx next start`
This will build the project and start the server. Once it’s done, you can visit your project in the browser and you should be running the new version of Next.js.
Congratulations! You have now successfully upgraded to Next.js 13.2. Enjoy the new features it has to offer and enjoy building apps with Next.js.
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Conclusion
In conclusion, Next.js 13.2 offers some great new features and upgrades. These new features make it easier for developers to build apps and websites with Next.js and make the development process more efficient. We hope this guide has given you a better understanding of the new features and upgrades available in Next.js 13.2 and helped you understand how to use them.
At Syndell, we help businesses develop their web application to reach their business goals.Our experienced web developers are available to help you upgrade to the latest technology. Get in touch with us to explore frontend frameworks in more detail and let us build an outstanding UI for your Custom Web Application Development.
