Tldr, React is overcomplicating things like Angular did
Is React Having an Angular.js Moment?
31–40 of 97 posts
Re: Is React Having an Angular.js Moment?
#32I was ready to dismiss the article because the answer to the title question is an obvious “No”, as server components is not a breaking change. It’s optional. But the author addresses it and then makes a very good point. > ”The introduction of React Server Components, unlike the Angular.js to Angular 2 transition, is not a breaking change. Existing single-page applications will still work with the latest version of Re…
I think the React team is responding to current trends. SPAs were super trendy. Once people started building them, they recognized that SPAs are much harder to optimize than the code for a single page. Next.js came in, and everyone has slowly been shifting to SSR.
If the react team doesn't react, other frameworks will eclipse them.
While I don't like the implementation details, I can see what they were going for. Encapsulating certain API calls behind the server adds a new layer of security that react didn't have before. It's good it is opt-in
Re: Is React Having an Angular.js Moment?
#33From the article (italics mine) - > So why is Next.js so pushy about it? (React server components) > I can't avoid feeling that the new direction taken by Next.js is not designed to help developers, but to help Vercel sell React. You can't really sell a service around SPAs: once compiled, a SPA is a single JS file that can be hosted for free anywhere. But a server-side rendered app needs a server to run. And a server…
If you think that way, you are not objectively weighing the benefits of server side rendering. It _is_ useful and shouldn't be tossed away for the benefits of a 6MB javascript blob.
Re: Is React Having an Angular.js Moment?
#34I tend to agree with the article. I've felt pretty frustrated with the direction of react in the last few years. Most of the companies I've worked for that used react did so because they wanted a SPA, in most cases making a conscious decision to move away from older SSR technologies towards the SPA. It's doubly frustrating because we primarily use C# and Asp.Net Core for back end work. A react SPA is trivial to use w…
Many have switched to a backend for frontend design (BFF). So you have another backend that proxies and/or uses the real backend and makes SSR and other frontend things. A better explanation: https://blog.bitsrc.io/bff-pattern-backend-for-frontend-an-i...
I totally get that it's possible, but it's completely unnecessary complexity for both deployed apps and local dev. If the react team tells us that we have to jump through these extra hoops to use react*, my response will probably be to move to a different front end framework. And I say this as someone who honestly really likes react and who never really cared for front end work prior to learning react.
* I'm aware that server components aren't required, and probably won't be in the near future. But the way they're being pushed ATM they're likely to become the de facto standard, similar to how functional components and hooks have completely displaced class components even though the latter is still officially supported.
Re: Is React Having an Angular.js Moment?
#35I would argue it is quite similar to an Angular.js moment, even if it's not a breaking change.
> React suggests mixing server-side and client-side rendering, using what feels like black magic. You can use client components in server components, and vice versa.
This is reminiscent of hybrid Angular apps[1], which allows you to use both Angular.js and modern Angular components together and was introduced to help the upgrade from Angular.js to modern Angular. The only issue is the "black magic" there isn't as good as advertised and you'll run into many holes if working on a moderately complex hybrid Angular app.
I can only hope that the "black magic" for a mixed React app is more complete, though lack of documentation for the wire format that the author pointed out does not inspire confidence.
Interestingly enough, there is a picture of a tree of mix of components[2] on the Angular upgrade guide which parallels the one in tfa. It is basically why I think these scenarios mirror each other: an introduction to a new paradigm which can be used with the old one in a mixed/hybrid application (and a possible lack of documentation which will make that application terrible to maintain without fully transitioning to the new or old paradigm).
[1] https://angular.io/guide/upgrade#how-ngupgrade-works
[2] https://angular.io/generated/images/guide/upgrade/dom.png
Re: Is React Having an Angular.js Moment?
#36From the article (italics mine) - > So why is Next.js so pushy about it? (React server components) > I can't avoid feeling that the new direction taken by Next.js is not designed to help developers, but to help Vercel sell React. You can't really sell a service around SPAs: once compiled, a SPA is a single JS file that can be hosted for free anywhere. But a server-side rendered app needs a server to run. And a server…
Pretty much every app I've ever needed required an API, which meant a server, which meant Next.js would have been a viable candidate. Sure, there are use-cases that you truly don't need an API or you can just hook up to an existing one, but I don't think they're nearly as common.
Re: Is React Having an Angular.js Moment?
#37I tend to agree with the article. I've felt pretty frustrated with the direction of react in the last few years. Most of the companies I've worked for that used react did so because they wanted a SPA, in most cases making a conscious decision to move away from older SSR technologies towards the SPA. It's doubly frustrating because we primarily use C# and Asp.Net Core for back end work. A react SPA is trivial to use w…
Many have switched to a backend for frontend design (BFF). So you have another backend that proxies and/or uses the real backend and makes SSR and other frontend things. A better explanation: https://blog.bitsrc.io/bff-pattern-backend-for-frontend-an-i...
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Re: Is React Having an Angular.js Moment?
#38Earlier quoted context omitted.
Client component still get SSR benefits. They just happen to be included in your JS bundle. This makes sense in the context of your example – you do expect the active route link to change during a client-side navigation.
That's kind of a really "meh" thing if you develop web applications and not websites. The static parts aren't that large, and the app kinda useless until the dynamic parts are there. So that doesn't really justify additional effort.
What additional effort?
Re: Is React Having an Angular.js Moment?
#39I've given server components with Next.js an honest try in my personal projects, and honestly, the pain of using them far outweighs the benefits. I MUCH prefer the pattern of getServerSideProps seeding data on-page-load and working with it via context providers. The fact that data loaded in with server components cannot support reactivity of any kind means you have to litter your code with "use client" wrappers that…
Oh man as a non fe person this is so overwhelming. I just got the hang of page based routing in nextjs and I still feel like I am walking on eggshells. Frankly all I want is TO render a next/jsx page into a jinja style template that I can render with backend of choice (golang) while leaving some ajax loading on the page when needed. I don't need my entire application to be a single page (don't get me started on understanding routing). May be that's why I can't appreciate consumer apps.
Re: Is React Having an Angular.js Moment?
#40[deleted]