Next.Js 14: A Complete Guide

Released on October 26th, 2023, Next.js 14 is the latest iteration of the widely used React Framework for creating and enhancing web apps. If you're a developer looking to start creating scalable web apps quickly, it's a great option because it simplifies development and improves speed.

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Next.js 14 Updates and Improvements.

Here are a few highlights of Next.js 14, which brings numerous enhancements that will greatly accelerate the creation of web applications:

Turbopack

An intriguing new feature in Next.js 14, Turbopack, greatly improves the speed of local development. Proceeding from an ongoing process of enhancement that started with Next.js 13, it has been fine-tuned to enhance local development in Pages and the App Router.

With a fresh emphasis on guaranteeing compatibility with all Next.js features, the Rust-based compiler is almost stable.

As part of their seven years of bug repairs and reproductions, the Next.js developers have used Turbopack to power five thousand integration tests. The outcomes on vercel.com have been outstanding:

• Up to 53.3% faster startup times have been recorded for local servers.
• Code updates can now be sent up to 94.7 percent quicker with Fast Refresh.

Especially in bigger applications with complex module graphs, these benefits indicate real advances, not just theoretical ones. You should expect next dev --turbo to consistently deliver quicker and more dependable performance, as 90% of the Next.js dev tests have now passed.

Turbopack will reach a stable condition in the next minor release as we near the milestone of passing all tests. Your usage of webpack for ecosystem plugins and bespoke setups will continue to receive our full support.?

Server Actions

Server Actions are a major improvement in Next.js 14 that gives developers more control over rendering on the server. To make sure that crucial information is promptly available when the page loads, this empowering innovation gives developers the capability to retrieve key data from the server before page development. This reduces unnecessary requests from the client side and speeds up the initial load times.

The Server Actions are an integral part of the App Router concept, providing developers with a flexible set of tools that let them do things like:

• Use methods like revalidatePath() and revalidateTag() to dynamically revalidate cached data.
• The redirect() method makes it easy to send users in multiple directions.
• The cookies() function makes effective use of both setting and retrieving cookies.
• Enhance user experience with optimistic UI updates by utilizing the useOptimistic() function.
• Use the useFormState() method to gracefully handle and display failures that occur on the server side.
• Use the useFormStatus() method to keep users updated on client-side loading statuses.

Developers are able to improve server-side rendering and build more responsive and powerful web apps using Next.js 14's diverse set of features.

Enhanced Metadata Options

Meta tags, when included in the first page content, guarantee a smooth user experience, which is important. This method eliminates the possibility of problems like page flickering when changing theme colors or layout changes caused by changing the viewport.

Also, for a more streamlined experience, Next.js 14 differentiates between blocking and non-blocking metadata. The static shell can still be served by partially prerendered pages without blocking metadata, which is why only a small subset of metadata choices are tagged as blocking.

Importantly, upcoming major releases will gradually remove the following metadata options:

• Before, it was the viewport's job to set the initial zoom and viewport attributes.
• Use colorScheme to set the viewport's support modes, which can be either light or dark.
• Choose the color of the chrome bordering the viewport using the themeColor property.

Viewport and generateViewport are new options in Next.js 14, although all the previous metadata options are still there.

Partial Prerendering

With the introduction of Next.js 14, Partial Prerendering has become a shining star. If you live in a world where SSR and SSG are always at odds with each other, Next.js 14 is your perfect compromise. With it, you can stream dynamic material based on your React Suspense boundaries and get a quick static answer without having to learn any new APIs. This way, you can enjoy both the static site speed and the dynamic application server-rendered application features.