The latest articles on DEV Community by Agnes Shan (@48nes). https://dev.to/48nes https://media2.dev.to/dynamic/image/width=90,height=90,fit=cover,gravity=auto,format=auto/https:%2F%2Fdev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fuploads%2Fuser%2Fprofile_image%2F910078%2Fc2806683-a8ca-4c14-871a-7c8adcbc372f.gif https://dev.to/48nes en Agnes Shan Wed, 17 Aug 2022 02:20:01 +0000 https://dev.to/48nes/nextjs-successes-and-struggles-3ela https://dev.to/48nes/nextjs-successes-and-struggles-3ela <h3> Intro </h3> <p>Over the past two weeks or so, I've been developing an online ARPG site in Next.JS. This was purely an experiment in trying out different languages and libraries, so I wasn't going for the most efficient web application; I was determined to build this web application using a very specific tech stack.<br> When Next.JS was introduced to me by a friend about a year ago, it was pitched to me as "backend built on the frontend...so you don't really need a backend. Because it's on a frontend." Obviously, I was intrigued. <br> Prior to using Next.JS, I'd been mostly using Flask for simpler web apps and Django if I needed anything more complex. For databases, I usually used either PostgreSQL or just plain MySQL. To really throw myself into the challenge, this time I used Next.JS with NoSQL (specifically MongoDB). </p> <h3> Successes </h3> <p>I had developed a bit of a penchant for building static sites with <a href="https://www.getzola.org/">Zola</a> and horribly misusing TOML templating, so I did really enjoy Next.JS's function components. I had a lot of sections on the same page that needed to look the same with different information, so it was really easy to just map over it. <br> The documentation for Next.JS was also fairly clear and easy to navigate. <br> I was a big fan of <code>useState</code>s, although I guess that's more of a React component than Next.JS. <br> Overall, and it pains me as someone who likes to keep things based on tangible evidence, it did <em>feel</em> more lightweight. </p> <h3> Struggles </h3> <p>When thinking of struggles with Next.JS, it's very easy to compare it to my past experience with Django. I think the biggest issue I had was that user authentication was a lot harder with Next.JS, in particular because I had to rely on an authentication platform since "backend built on the frontend" is just code for "some backend features! But still mostly frontend". <br> When querying database data, I forget what documentation I read, but some of the documentation for Next.JS very clearly stated that instead of accessing an API, it was better to just query the database directly in a Server Props wrapper, which was a bit odd. <br> Completely unrelated to Next.JS, but I also did miss being able to use relations from PostgreSQL, although I committed to using NoSQL this time. </p> nextjs webdev