On the server side, we use express to define a root endpoint which serves a index.html file. When a request is received, we render our React app root component App to a string using ReactDOMServer.renderToString. The rendered string is then injected into our index.html file so that we replace the div with the id root with our rendered content.
Full Answer
What is server-side rendering?
As opposed to client-side rendering, server side-rendering renders the react component in the server before being sent to the client. In a server-side rendering process, the steps from the initial request to the app being available for interaction goes like this:
What is server side rendering in react?
Server-side Rendering As opposed to client-side rendering, server side-rendering renders the react component in the server before being sent to the client. In a server-side rendering process, the steps from the initial request to the app being available for interaction goes like this: Request for the page is sent to the server from the client.
Which components must be pure for server side rendering?
Any component that is not a Route component, must be pure (as in - expecting to receive data via props) for the purposes of server-side rendering. One could argue that there is a method to the madness, perhaps.
Should I render on server side or client side for SEO?
You will get SEO benefits and an initial performance boost by rendering on the server side. But you will still have to do the same client side rendering.
Is Express JS server-side rendering?
React Server Side Rendering provides the ability to render your React pages from server such as ExpressJs. React SSR provide various benefits which includes SEO Friendly and faster initial page load. React has an amazing documentation on ReactDOMServer.
Is Express server-side technology?
It is useful for building web apps quickly on NodeJS. It is useful for building real-time applications like messaging apps. It can be used both on the client-side and server-side. It can be used on the server-side.
What kind of server is Express?
js, or simply Express, is a back end web application framework for Node. js, released as free and open-source software under the MIT License. It is designed for building web applications and APIs. It has been called the de facto standard server framework for Node.
Is React server-side rendering?
Yes! This is where server-side rendering for React comes in. In this article, I want to introduce you to server-side rending (SSR) with React, reasons to use it, and some popular frameworks for rendering React on the server side.
Which is better Django or Express?
In Django vs Express. js performance comparison, Express is much faster than Django. Django is generally considered a slow framework that can affect your website development phase. But performance issues can be easily negated by experienced developers.
What is the difference between Express and Angular?
Though there is a fundamental difference between the way these frameworks are used in developing web applications, for example, Express is primarily used for backend purposes, while Angular is known for frontend capabilities.
Is Express a framework or library?
Express is the most popular Node web framework, and is the underlying library for a number of other popular Node web frameworks. It provides mechanisms to: Write handlers for requests with different HTTP verbs at different URL paths (routes).
Is Express a part of node?
Express is a node js web application framework that provides broad features for building web and mobile applications. It is used to build a single page, multipage, and hybrid web application. It's a layer built on the top of the Node js that helps manage servers and routes.
What is node VS Express?
Express is a minimal and flexible node. js web application framework, providing a robust set of features for building single and multi-page, and hybrid web applications. On the other hand, Node. js is detailed as "A platform built on Chrome's JavaScript runtime for easily building fast, scalable network applications".
Is angular client-side rendering?
Angular applications are client-side applications that execute on the browser - which means they are rendered on the client, not on the server. You can add server-side rendering to your app using Angular Universal.
Is Facebook server-side rendering?
Does Facebook use Server Side Rendering? Yes, Facebook uses SSR heavily.
Is Reactjs client-side rendering?
By default, your React app will be client-side rendered. This means basically, all of the source code will live in JavaScript files referenced in a single HTML file that initializes your app.
What is the difference between Express and nginx?
Nginx is a web server that can also be used as a reverse proxy, load balancer, mail proxy and HTTP cache. Express is a web application framework for Node. js, released as free and open-source software under the MIT License. It is designed for building web applications and APIs.
How do I setup a server on Express?
2:4719:38So we need to initiate. Our Express application so Express. And we put in here. The. Only like thisMoreSo we need to initiate. Our Express application so Express. And we put in here. The. Only like this so this is gonna initiate. And return the instance of our Express framework.
Is node js a web server?
Node. js is an open source server environment.
What is Express middleware?
Middleware functions are functions that have access to the request object ( req ), the response object ( res ), and the next function in the application's request-response cycle. The next function is a function in the Express router which, when invoked, executes the middleware succeeding the current middleware.
Server.js
Create a directory under the root directory and name it “src” and create a new file and name it server.js
Running the App
We are going to run the app for the first time. Before that we need to include some script into our package.json. Include the below under “scripts”
Building the React Page
We are going to build a very basic React page with a button that will calculate the length of the name. Create a folder and name it “component” under the root folder or “src” and create a jsx file
Getting the React Component Rendered Server Side
The fun starts here. We will now go back to our SSR route that we created (src/routes/ssr.js).
Hydrating our React Component
React is a client side javascript. It renders DOM and hydrate the component to get it working. Because we only render our React component as HTML string and therefore, the current state of our application is just plain HTML.
Webpack Configuration
Create a new file in the root folder of our app and named it “webpack.config.js”.
Running the App
Finally, we are going run our application. We need to run 2 command and they are npm run webpack and npm run dev . You should run these command in different terminal or command prompt window. Once done browse to http://localhost:3030/firstssr and the result
Server-Side Rendering a React App Using Express.js
You have setup and created your react app (using create-react-app, other boilerplates, or even creating it from scratch). Now you’re trying to serve it to the web so people can experience your app.
Server-side Rendering
As opposed to client-side rendering, server side-rendering renders the react component in the server before being sent to the client. In a server-side rendering process, the steps from the initial request to the app being available for interaction goes like this:
The Project
You can use your existing React app if you already have one, or you can start a new one using create-react-app and leaving the main code inside src directory as is (as we’re focusing on the back end).
Webpack Configurations
We will first edit and configure the existing webpack.config.js file. Inside the file, an object with the keys entry, output, module, and devServer is defined and exported as a webpack configuration. This webpack configuration, however, is specifically to configure, transform and bundle our client-side React files to be presentable by the browser.
React Codes
From our previous project, we only have one file for our React code: src/app.js. Inside that file, we specified both the component ( App) and the rendering of that App component:
Server Code using Express.js
Now, we will create our backend server code using Express.js in a file called server/index.js. Express.js styles itself as “fast, unopinionated, minimalist web framework”. Express is a go-to JavaScript framework if you’re building a back end for your project. To install Express.js, run the following command:
Nodemon
Nodemon is a tool in developing Node-based application that helps to automatically restart the said application when file changes in the directory are detected. That way, we would not have to manually cancel and restart our express server every time we want to see how the changes we’ve made takes place.
Assumptions
I want to keep this article short. I will be writing a longer article on server-side rendering at a later time. So I will assume you are already using Handlebars or just getting started, have some experience with node.js and using VS Code. I will be Focusing mainly on two parts of the code that follows.
index.handlebars
If you are just getting started with Handlebars, notice { {greeting}} and notice that in app.js as well. Nothing special about the name “greeting”, it could be anything. The route in app.js will populate the { {greeting}} placeholder with an with the text we send to it.
Now For The Image
Kind of a let down because I’m not doing anything special. Line 13 of app.js took care of that. I’m just including an <img> element in my main.handlebars so it will be on each page.
What is the purpose of server entry file?
The server entry file’s main purpose is to serve a function that renders everything needed for SSR. At this time, we will only need ReactDOMServer but if you happen to use other libraries such as react-helmet, react-router, you will add their SSR functionalities in this function.
What is server side rendering?
The main function of server-side rendering is to take existing client-side code and render it in the server-side with the smallest amount of modifications. Most of the time these modifications are necessary for external libraries such as React Router due to the differences in the environment.
Is SSR a convoluted process?
The purpose of this guide was to show that building an SSR application is not a convoluted process. Separating express server from the React server-side application provides a much better developing experience than making express application part of the webpack process.