🚀 About Next.js

Next.js is a React framework that enables server-side rendering (SSR), static site generation (SSG), API routes, and full-stack capabilities. It is built on top of React to improve performance, SEO, and developer experience.

📌 1. Why Use Next.js?

✅ Fast & Optimized → Automatic static optimization for fast page loads
✅ SEO-Friendly → Server-side rendering (SSR) improves search rankings
✅ Full-Stack Capabilities → API routes let you create backend functionality
✅ Built-in Routing → File-based routing without extra configuration
✅ Image Optimization → Automatically optimizes images for better performance
✅ Hybrid Rendering → Supports SSG, SSR, and Client-Side Rendering (CSR)

📌 2. Key Features of Next.js

🔹 Server-Side Rendering (SSR)

Next.js can render pages on the server at request time for dynamic content.

javascript
export async function getServerSideProps() {  const res = await fetch("https://api.example.com/data");  const data = await res.json();  return { props: { data } };}

✅ Great for dynamic data (e.g., dashboards, user profiles)

🔹 Static Site Generation (SSG)

Pre-builds pages at compile time and serves them as static files.

javascript
export async function getStaticProps() {  const res = await fetch("https://api.example.com/posts");  const data = await res.json();  return { props: { data } };}

✅ Best for blogs, documentation, and marketing pages

🔹 API Routes (Full-Stack Support)

Create backend functionality inside the pages/api/ directory.

javascript
export default function handler(req, res) {  res.status(200).json({ message: "Hello from Next.js API!" });}

✅ No need for an external backend

🔹 File-Based Routing

Next.js automatically generates routes based on the pages/ folder structure.
📂 pages/about.js → /about
📂 pages/blog/index.js → /blog
📂 pages/blog/[id].js → /blog/:id (Dynamic Routing)

✅ No need for manual route configuration

📌 3. Installation & Setup

🔹 Install Next.js

bash
npx create-next-app@latest my-next-appcd my-next-appnpm run dev

✅ Runs Next.js on http://localhost:3000

📌 4. Deployment

Deploy Next.js on Vercel (Recommended), AWS, Netlify, or Docker.

🔹 Deploy on Vercel

bash
npx vercel

✅ Instant deployment with global CDN

📌 5. When to Use Next.js?

✔️ SEO-heavy websites (e.g., blogs, e-commerce)
✔️ Web apps with fast page loads
✔️ Full-stack React applications
✔️ Hybrid static + dynamic content sites