In server-side rendering (SSR) applications built with React, it’s important to handle errors that occur during the rendering process. In traditional client-side rendering, React components can use error boundaries to catch and handle errors that occur during rendering. However, error handling in SSR requires some additional considerations due to the differences in the rendering process.

In this article, we will explore some techniques for handling SSR-specific errors with error boundaries in React.

1. Implementing an SSR-specific error boundary

To handle errors that occur during the server-side rendering, we can create an SSR-specific error boundary component. This component will be responsible for rendering an error message instead of the intended content when an error occurs during the rendering process.

import React from "react";

class SSRErrorBoundary extends React.Component {
  constructor(props) {
    super(props);
    this.state = { error: null };
  }

  static getDerivedStateFromError(error) {
    return { error };
  }

  render() {
    if (this.state.error) {
      // Render an error message
      return <div>Something went wrong during server-side rendering.</div>;
    }

    return this.props.children;
  }
}

export default SSRErrorBoundary;

In the example above, SSRErrorBoundary is a React component that extends the base React.Component class. It has a state property error to store any error that occurs during rendering. The getDerivedStateFromError static method is used to update the state with the error value.

If an error occurs during server-side rendering, the error message will be rendered instead of the intended content.

2. Using the SSR-specific error boundary in your component tree

To make use of the SSRErrorBoundary component, it needs to be placed in the component tree surrounding the components that are being rendered during the server-side rendering process.

import React from "react";
import ReactDOMServer from "react-dom/server";
import App from "./App";
import SSRErrorBoundary from "./SSRErrorBoundary";

const html = ReactDOMServer.renderToString(
  <SSRErrorBoundary>
    <App />
  </SSRErrorBoundary>
);

In the example above, the <App /> component is wrapped inside the SSRErrorBoundary component when calling ReactDOMServer.renderToString(). This ensures that any error occurring during the server-side rendering of the App component is caught and handled by the error boundary.

Conclusion

By implementing an SSR-specific error boundary and using it in your component tree during server-side rendering, you can handle errors that occur during the rendering process. This allows you to display meaningful error messages instead of crashing the server or displaying undefined content to the user.

Remember to use these techniques whenever you are working on SSR applications with React to improve the robustness and user experience of your application.

#React #SSR