Implementing server-side rendering with JavaScript MVC frameworks

23 Sep 2023

In this blog post, we will explore how to implement server-side rendering with popular JavaScript MVC frameworks, focusing on Vue.js and React.js.

Server-side rendering with Vue.js

Vue.js provides built-in support for server-side rendering through its official package, Vue SSR. To implement server-side rendering with Vue.js, follow these steps:

Set up a server: You need a server to render the Vue application on the server side. You can use Node.js or any other server-side language/framework to create an HTTP server.
Use Vue SSR package: Install the vue-server-renderer package using npm or yarn.
Create an entry file: Set up an entry file for the server-side rendering. This file will import your Vue application and generate the server-rendered HTML. You can use the createRenderer function provided by vue-server-renderer to create a renderer instance.
Render the app: Use the renderer instance to render your Vue application to a string. Pass the app instance and any initial state as parameters to the renderToString method.
Inject the rendered HTML: Once the app is rendered to a string, inject it into the HTML template of your server response before sending it to the client.

// server.js
const Vue = require('vue');
const renderer = require('vue-server-renderer').createRenderer();

// Create an app instance
const app = new Vue({
  template: `<div>Hello, SSR!</div>`
});

// Render the app to a string
renderer.renderToString(app, (err, html) => {
  if (err) {
    console.error(err);
    // Handle the error
    return;
  }

  // Inject the rendered HTML into the server response
  serverResponse.send(`<html><body>${html}</body></html>`);
});

Server-side rendering with React.js

React.js also supports server-side rendering through its official package, Next.js. Here’s how you can implement server-side rendering with React.js using Next.js:

Set up a Next.js project: Initialize a new Next.js project using the official command line tool or by manually configuring your project.
Create pages: Next.js handles server-side rendering automatically for the pages inside the pages directory. Create your React components as separate files inside the pages directory.
Fetch data: Use Next.js built-in getServerSideProps or getStaticProps functions to fetch data and pass it as props to your React components before rendering. These functions are executed on the server side before rendering the page.
Render the page: Next.js handles the server-side rendering for you. Simply run the development server or build your Next.js project, and it will take care of rendering the pages server-side.

// pages/index.js
import React from 'react';

const Home = ({ data }) => {
  return (
    <div>
      <h1>Welcome to Next.js SSR!</h1>
      <p>{data}</p>
    </div>
  );
};

export async function getServerSideProps() {
  // Fetch data from an API or any other data source
  const response = await fetch('https://api.example.com/data');
  const data = await response.json();

  // Pass the data as props to the page component
  return {
    props: {
      data
    }
  };
}

export default Home;

By implementing server-side rendering with JavaScript MVC frameworks like Vue.js and React.js, you can achieve better performance, improved SEO, and enhanced user experience. With the server-side rendering packages provided by these frameworks, you can easily render your applications on the server and provide pre-rendered HTML to the client. So give it a try and enjoy the benefits of server-side rendering!

#JS #SSR #VueJS #ReactJS