#29: Next.js 14, Geist, Why I’m (not) using Next.js, Oslo, Security in Next.js, React Forget

Next.js Conf 2023 – This year’s Next.js Conf primarily focused on stabilizing existing features rather than introducing new ones. I recommend checking out the VoD. Here’s a quick summary of all the announcements:

• Next.js 14: No new APIs – As mentioned, it’s all about stability. So Next.js 14 comes with no new APIs this year. However, there’s news about multiple experimental features 👇
• Server Actions are stable now – First announced a year ago, Server Actions are finally ready to be used in your production Next.js apps and since they’re part of React, they’ll soon also be available in other frameworks too
• Partial Prerendering – ”You said no new APIs?? 😠” Yep, you don’t need to do anything to get the benefits of this feature. It’s a compiler optimization designed to enhance UX. It generates a static version of all non-dynamic parts of your components and sends them in the initial response
• Next.js Learn – A free and up to date course by Vercel about how to build a production-grade app with Next.js 14
• What’s Next – At the end of his keynote Guillermo Rauch reassured that Vercel is actively listening to the feedback and we can anticipate a simplified caching API, faster builds, and enhanced observability in the near future

Why I’m Using Next.js – This is a response to Kent C. Dodds recent article “Why I Won’t Use Next.js”. Both are worth reading. Lee’s post addresses various criticisms and misconceptions related to Next.js, including topics like deploying to your own server and the ”Too much magic” argument

🎥 Next 14 Reveals React’s Taint, Solves RSC Safety Issues – Theo goes through Sebastian Markbåge’s recent post about Security in Next.js and explains React’s new Taint API

UI Composition – Composition is probably the most powerful feature of React. This article explains how to create better React components through separating their responsibilities and re-composing them

Geist – There’s still one more thing™ about this year’s Next.js Conf. Vercel released a beautiful new open source font that you can use in your projects

Oslo – The creator of Lucia Auth published a new package with auth-related utilities. Oslo is a more lightweight but flexible alternative to Lucia.

experimental_StreamingReactResponse – This is so cool, I have to mention it. The vercel/ai package now includes experimental_StreamingReactResponse which enables you to stream React components generated by AI to the client. Vercel is making use of this in v0. Definitely check out Jared Palmer’s talk for more details

React Handbook v2 – This is one of the best resources online to learn about React. v2 comes with a better UI and more content

🎥 React Forget: React for developers and compilers – Imagine a world where you no longer need to use useCallback and useMemo for manual memoization. React would handle it all for you. Check out this talk to learn how this world will soon become a reality

Cloudflare Hyperdrive – Interesting product announcement by Cloudflare. Shorten round trip times when accessing your database inside Workers no matter where they’re running.

Web Animation for Your React App: Framer Motion vs GSAP – This article compares Framer Motion to GSAP and explains the benefits and downsides of using one vs the other in your React apps

Expose methods of a component using useImperativeHandle() – Learn about the useImperativeHandle hook in React and how it enables you to access child-component methods from a parent component