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How to Inspect React Server Component Activity with Next.js and OpenTelemetry

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Re: How to Inspect React Server Component Activity with Next.js and OpenTelemetry

#41

I hate RSC so much. Most hated technology of them all. And this very helpful / necessary blog post is infuriating, given that not so long ago the entirety of the react stack was capable of being held in one's head. It took very little expertise to make something that worked perfectly fine for most users. Those days are gone. Scale your Next.js RSC app to anything larger than a toy or marketing site and get f'ing burn…

Just got handed a next app that is currently just beyond toy stage. In what way am I about to get burned? Genuinely curious for opinions

Re: How to Inspect React Server Component Activity with Next.js and OpenTelemetry

#42

I hate RSC so much. Most hated technology of them all. And this very helpful / necessary blog post is infuriating, given that not so long ago the entirety of the react stack was capable of being held in one's head. It took very little expertise to make something that worked perfectly fine for most users. Those days are gone. Scale your Next.js RSC app to anything larger than a toy or marketing site and get f'ing burn…

Just got handed a next app that is currently just beyond toy stage. In what way am I about to get burned? Genuinely curious for opinions

Well, to start with, you'll need to study this dreadful blog post on inspecting RSC activity. And then read this: https://www.comfydeploy.com/blog/you-dont-need-nextjs

Are you using the pages router or the app router? If you're using the pages router you'll probably be fine.

Re: How to Inspect React Server Component Activity with Next.js and OpenTelemetry

#43
post #39
post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's mostly because `create-react-app` was abandoned. There is no default project template for React SPA, so everyone just uses Next, even if they don't need SSR.

I didn't know create-react-app was abandoned. What was wrong with it?

Nothing, it just required resources to maintain, which Facebook doesn't want to dedicate.

Re: How to Inspect React Server Component Activity with Next.js and OpenTelemetry

#44
post #36

Great write up. We’ve migrated to NextJs App Router where I work. While RSCs introduce a certain level of complexity, we’ve appreciated their benefits. The telemetry on the backend is something we’ve been looking to improve, and there doesn’t seem to be a lot of info out there, so this helps.

Glad you find it useful! :)

Re: How to Inspect React Server Component Activity with Next.js and OpenTelemetry

#45
post #17

I'm really not a fan of the "what colour is your component" situation introduced by RSC. RSC is a cool feature, but I'm still not convinced that the added churn of thinking about "colours" when building components and structuring the component tree is worth it for the benefits it gives.

It is a solution when all your developers are bootcamped on react for 6 months and don't know how to run a proper back-end. Managers like it because their front-end react dev can add a back-end feature NOW and in 1 hour.

My experience is that even seasoned frontend devs get confused about what happens where and for what reason.

Re: How to Inspect React Server Component Activity with Next.js and OpenTelemetry

#46

Excuse my ignorance but why does it look so complicated and unnecessary? What exactly does it improve over lets say PHP or Rails or whatever?

Because that's the only way a VC-backed cloud company can make shitload money

Re: How to Inspect React Server Component Activity with Next.js and OpenTelemetry

#47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why? lol

So that the page is already rendered upon the initial contact from the server, decreasing page load latency.

That is greatly compensated by the low quality of the generated code. Vercel's landing page for example takes 12 seconds and 1.4mb of files to load just a bunch of text.

Re: How to Inspect React Server Component Activity with Next.js and OpenTelemetry

#48
post #43
post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I didn't know create-react-app was abandoned. What was wrong with it?

Nothing, it just required resources to maintain, which Facebook doesn't want to dedicate.

That's the naive answer. I don't think the promotion of Vercel in React docs and the discontinuation of create-react-app are unrelated.

Re: How to Inspect React Server Component Activity with Next.js and OpenTelemetry

#49

I hate RSC so much. Most hated technology of them all. And this very helpful / necessary blog post is infuriating, given that not so long ago the entirety of the react stack was capable of being held in one's head. It took very little expertise to make something that worked perfectly fine for most users. Those days are gone. Scale your Next.js RSC app to anything larger than a toy or marketing site and get f'ing burn…

Yeah I have to agree. It’s funny Next.js is so convincingly sold to beginner devs as an easier solution than SPA + any backend.

When it works, it really is easy. But when it doesn’t work, it is absolutely infuriating. Too much magic going on, I guess.

A couple months ago, I was still under the impression that next.js is the easiest way to scaffold a simple site. I even tried hosting it on vercel for ultra-easy mode.

I got some inscrutable build errors that had like the thumbs-ups on an unresolved GitHub issue. So I tried running it from a VPS I already had, and it worked fine!

I would absolutely not use it again though. Vite is great, and if I need SSR at any point I’ll just hope that the tanstack SSR solution is 1.0 by then lol

Re: How to Inspect React Server Component Activity with Next.js and OpenTelemetry

#50

I hate RSC so much. Most hated technology of them all. And this very helpful / necessary blog post is infuriating, given that not so long ago the entirety of the react stack was capable of being held in one's head. It took very little expertise to make something that worked perfectly fine for most users. Those days are gone. Scale your Next.js RSC app to anything larger than a toy or marketing site and get f'ing burn…

Just got handed a next app that is currently just beyond toy stage. In what way am I about to get burned? Genuinely curious for opinions

I’m not sure if it’s still the case, but I remember people being incensed at next.js’s overly-aggressive caching. Might want to google for those GitHub issues and see if it’s still relevant.
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