Introduction

In the previous chapter, you learned that you can use server-side rendering (SSR) to render React components on the server. SSR ensures that users receive a fully populated HTML document upon their initial HTTP request, not an almost empty page shell. You were also introduced to Next.js and learned how you may use that framework to build React apps that come with SSR (and many other useful features) out of the box.

This chapter builds upon the previous one—specifically, you’ll learn about two crucial React features that are unlocked by Next.js: React Server Components (RSCs) and Server Actions.

Throughout this chapter, you’ll learn how these two features help with data fetching and mutations, and why you can’t use them in every React project, even though they’re technically part of React—not Next.js.

Note

RSCs and Server Actions are relatively new React features. Supporting them in custom React projects...