Setting up Next.js

In previous chapters, we used Create React App to run a React application. Although Create React App is a good starting point for most React applications, it doesn't support SSR. Luckily, Next.js does offer this feature as it's considered a framework for React. In this chapter, we'll be using the latest stable version of Next.js, which is version 12.

Installing Next.js

To set up Next.js, we run the following command:

npx create-next-app chapter-4

You'll be asked to select a template, which is either the default starter app or a template that is created by the community. After selecting the default template, the react, react-dom, and next libraries will be installed, among others.

After the installation is finished, we can move into the new chapter-4 directory and run the following command:

npm run dev

This will start the new Next.js application that will become available at http://localhost:3000. The default starter app will...