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Asmaa Almadhoun
Asmaa Almadhoun

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Astro: The Lightweight Challenger to Next.js for Landing Pages

#javascript #ai #programming

🤔 Imagine you're building a website with:

  • Same Header ✅
  • Same Navigation ✅
  • Same Footer ✅
  • Different page content ✅

Instead of copying the Header and Footer into every page, Astro lets you create a Layout.

Think of a Layout as a reusable page frame.

+------------------+
| Header / Navbar  |
+------------------+
|                  |
|  Page Content    |
|     (<slot />)   |
|                  |
+------------------+
| Footer           |
+------------------+
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⚙️ How It Works

Step 1: Create a Layout 

---
import Navbar from '../components/Navbar.astro';
import Footer from '../components/Footer.astro';

const { title } = Astro.props;
---

<html>
  <head>
    <Navbar title={title} />
  </head>

  <body>
    <h1>{title}</h1>

    <article>
      <slot />
    </article>

    <Footer />
  </body>
</html>
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The magic is:

<slot />
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Everything placed between the layout tags will be injected into that slot.

Step 2: Use the Layout 

---
import BaseLayout from '../layouts/BaseLayout.astro';
---

<BaseLayout title="Home Page">
  <p>Hello from Home Page!</p>
</BaseLayout>
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Astro automatically inserts the content inside the Layout's:

<slot />
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🎯 Why Use Layouts?

Without Layouts 

Page 1
 ├─ Header
 ├─ Footer

Page 2
 ├─ Header
 ├─ Footer

Page 3
 ├─ Header
 ├─ Footer
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Lots of duplicated code 😫

With Layouts 

BaseLayout
 ├─ Header
 ├─ Slot
 └─ Footer

Page 1 → Content A
Page 2 → Content B
Page 3 → Content C
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Cleaner, reusable, and easier to maintain ✅

📝 Layouts with Markdown

Astro can also apply Layouts to:

  • .md
  • .mdx

Example:

---
layout: ../layouts/BaseLayout.astro
title: "My Article"
author: "Asmaa"
---
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Your Markdown content is automatically injected into:

<slot />
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This makes blogs and documentation sites very easy to build.

📖 Accessing Frontmatter

Markdown metadata (frontmatter) can be read inside the layout.

Markdown File 

---
layout: ../layouts/BaseLayout.astro
title: "My First Astro Article"
author: "Asmaa"
date: "29 Oct 2026"
---
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Layout File 

---
const { frontmatter } = Astro.props;
---

<h1>{frontmatter.title}</h1>

<slot />

<p>Written by {frontmatter.author}</p>
<p>Date: {frontmatter.date}</p>
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🧩 MDX Layouts

For MDX files, you can manually import a Layout and pass custom props.

---
import BaseLayout from '../../layouts/BaseLayout.astro';

function fancyJsHelper() {
  return "Welcome to Astro!";
}
---

<BaseLayout
  title={frontmatter.title}
  fancyJsHelper={fancyJsHelper}
>
  My MDX Content
</BaseLayout>
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Inside the Layout:

---
const { title, fancyJsHelper } = Astro.props;
---

<h1>{title}</h1>

<slot />

<p>{fancyJsHelper()}</p>
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This allows MDX pages to use JavaScript and custom logic.

⭐ Key Takeaway

Astro Layouts = Reusable Page Templates

They help you:

  • Reuse Header/Footer
  • Keep a consistent design
  • Reduce duplicated code
  • Build blogs and documentation easily
  • Inject page content using <slot />
  • Share common UI across the entire site

Simple Analogy

Think of a Layout as a house blueprint 🏠

  • Walls, doors, and roof = Layout
  • Furniture inside each room = Page Content

You build the structure once and reuse it everywhere.

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