Next.js is a framework for building web applications with React that provide additional functionality such as server-side rendering and static site generation.
The next.config.js is a configuration file used in Next.js, a popular React framework for building web applications. It allows developers to customize various settings and features of their Next.js projects, such as the build process, server configuration, asset optimization, and more.
Some common use cases for next.config.js include:
- Customizing web pack configurations
- Setting up environment variables
- Configuring server-side rendering
- Adding custom plugins and loaders
- Configuring image optimization and other performance optimizations
Creating Next.js Application:
Step 1: Installation of next.js require npm and node.js. You can install node.js from here. Confirm the installation by running these commands on the terminal.
node -v npm -v
Step 2: To create a Next.js app, open your terminal, in the directory you’d like to create the app in and run the following command:
npx create-next-app@latest folder-name
Step 3: You now have a new directory called folder-name. Let’s cd into it:
cd folder-name
Step 4: To start a development server for Next.js., run the following command:
npm run dev
Step 5: To see the website, go to the following URL from the web browser:
https://localhost:3000
Project Structure:
NextJs Project Structure
We create a Next.js app that contains a next.config.js file. The next.config.js is a configuration file used in Next.js applications to customize the behavior of the Next.js build system. It is a regular Node.js module that exports an object containing various configuration options.
By default, the file contains the following code:
/** @type {import('next').NextConfig} */
const nextConfig = {
reactStrictMode: true,
}
module.exports = nextConfig
Here are some of the key configuration options that can be set in next.config.js:
- webpack: This option allows you to customize the Webpack configuration used by Next.js. Using this option, you can add or modify Webpack plugins, loaders, and other settings.
- env: This option allows you to define environment variables available in your application at runtime. You can define environment variables for different build environments (development, production, etc.) using this option.
- pageExtensions: By default, Next.js uses .js, .jsx, .ts, and .tsx files as valid pages. You can use this option to add or remove file extensions from the list of valid pages.
- target: This option specifies the target environment for the Next.js application. It can be set to “server”, “serverless”, or “experimental-serverless-trace”. The “server” target is used for traditional server-rendered applications, while the “serverless” target is used for serverless functions (such as AWS Lambda). The “experimental-serverless-trace” target is used for experimental serverless tracing.
- images: This option allows you to customize the behavior of Next.js when it comes to optimizing images. You can set options such as image quality, formats, and sizes using this option.
- basePath: This option allows you to specify a base path for your application. This is useful if you want to deploy your application to a subdirectory on your server.
Reference: https://nextjs.org/docs/api-reference/next.config.js/introduction
