In this blog post, we will explore how to perform server-side rendering (SSR) with suspense in React. Server-side rendering allows us to generate the initial HTML on the server and send it to the client, which improves the performance and SEO of our React applications. Suspense is a React feature that enables us to better handle asynchronous behavior, such as data fetching and code splitting.

Table of Contents

• Introduction to server-side rendering (SSR)
• Introducing suspense in React
• Combining SSR with suspense
• Conclusion

Introduction to server-side rendering (SSR)

Traditionally, when a user accesses a React application, the application’s JavaScript bundle is downloaded and executed on the client’s browser. This means that the initial HTML is empty and the user sees a blank page until the React components are rendered and hydrated with the required data.

Server-side rendering, on the other hand, generates the initial HTML on the server and sends it to the client. This way, the user sees content immediately as the page loads, improving the perceived performance and enabling better search engine optimization (SEO).

Introducing suspense in React

Suspense is a feature introduced in React 16.6 that allows us to define fallback UI while waiting for a component to load asynchronously. It enables better handling of asynchronous behavior, such as data fetching, code splitting, and even rendering time-traveling UI.

With suspense, we can define a Suspense component that wraps other components and specify a fallback UI to display while the wrapped components are loading. Once the content is ready, React will automatically swap the fallback UI with the actual content.

Combining SSR with suspense

To combine SSR with suspense, we need to make use of libraries that support both features. One popular choice is Next.js, a framework built on top of React that provides a simple and powerful API for server-rendered React applications.

With Next.js, we can define our components using the getServerSideProps lifecycle method, which allows us to fetch data on the server before rendering the component. We can also use the next/dynamic package to perform code splitting and lazy loading of components.

By leveraging Next.js, we can achieve server-side rendering with suspense by implementing the fallback UI using the Suspense component and handling the server-side data fetching using getServerSideProps.

Here is an example of how a Next.js component could look like:

import { Suspense } from 'react';
import dynamic from 'next/dynamic';

const DynamicComponent = dynamic(() => import('./DynamicComponent'), {
  loading: () => <div>Loading...</div>,
});

export default function MyComponent({ data }) {
  return (
    <div>
      <Suspense fallback={<div>Loading...</div>}>
        <DynamicComponent data={data} />
      </Suspense>
    </div>
  );
}

export async function getServerSideProps() {
  const response = await fetch('https://api.example.com/data');
  const data = await response.json();

  return {
    props: {
      data,
    },
  };
}

In this example, we import the Suspense component from React and the dynamic function from next/dynamic. We define a dynamic component that is loaded asynchronously using the import function. The fallback prop of the dynamic function specifies the fallback UI to display while the component is loading.

Inside the getServerSideProps function, we can perform server-side data fetching using the fetch API and return the fetched data as props to be used in the component.

Conclusion

Combining server-side rendering with suspense in React enables us to create high-performance and SEO-friendly applications. By leveraging libraries like Next.js, we can easily implement this combination and handle asynchronous behavior efficiently.

Server-side rendering with suspense provides users with a faster initial page load and a better user experience. Additionally, it allows search engines to crawl and index the content of our React applications more efficiently.

By adopting this approach, we can create React applications that are both performant and accessible, ensuring a smooth experience for users and improving our application’s visibility on search engines.

Tags: #React #ServerSideRendering