React Server Components Revisited: A Two-Year Progress Report
We will explore the journey of React Server Components, from its inception to its current state, and how it will revolutionize the way developers build high-performance React apps. We'll also discuss how Next.js has embraced React Server Components as the default way to build React apps and its impact on web development.
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React Server Components (RSC) have been generating a lot of buzz, especially since they became the default way to build React components in Next.js 13.
The React team has been working on RSC for a long time. The core React team introduced the first experimental version of RSC in December 2020.
However, developers often find it confusing to differentiate React Server Components (RSC) from traditional Server-Side Rendering (SSR). This confusion is especially evident when considering frameworks like Next.js. In such frameworks, SSR already plays a role in rendering React components on the server. Understanding how RSC compares or contrasts with this traditional SSR.
This article aims to discuss RSC from a fresher perspective. First, we'll explore how React transitioned from being entirely client-side rendered to incorporating server-side rendering (SSR). This shift significantly changed how we approach building React applications.
Finally, we'll conclude with a discussion about the limitations of RSC and when to not use it.
This article assumes that you have some familiarity with react. Some parts may be challenging to understand if you are new to React. Therefore, we recommend you read our Fundamentals of React article before going further in this article.
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