I'm looking for solutions for better data fetching in a Next.js app. In this question I'm not just looking for a solution, I'm looking for multiple options so we can look at the pros and cons.
The problem I have
Right now I have a few pages that all include a component that displays som static content and a that have some dynamic content that is fetched from an API. Each page do a fetch()
in their getInitialProps()
to get their own page data, but also the footer data, which is the same for all pages.
This of course works, but there is a lot of duplicated data fetching. The footer data will always be displayed for all pages and always be the same. It will also rarely be changed in the API, so no need for revalidate the data.
The answers I'm looking for
I'm not just looking to solve this one problem, I'm looking for an overview to learn some new practice for future projects as well. I like writing "obvious" code, so not looking for too hacky solutions, like writing to the window
object etc. Simple solutions with less dependancies are preferred. The goal is a fast site. It's not that important to reduce network usage/API calls.
What I have thought so far
This is the possible solutions I've come up with, somewhat sorted from simple/obvious to more complex.
- Do a fetch inside the Footer component (client side)
- Do a fetch in getInitialProps (server side & client side) on all /pages
- Do a fetch in _app.js with a HOC and hooking into it's
getInitialProps()
and add it to props, so data is available for all pages - Use zeit/swr and data prefetching to cache data
- Use redux to store a global state
All of these "work", but most of them will refetch the data unnecessarily, and/or adds a bit more complexity. Here are the pros/cons as I see it (numbers are the same as above):
O'right! I found this thread while I was looking for something else. But since I had to work on similar issues, I can give you some directions, and I will do my best to make it clear for you.
So there are some data which you want to have it share, across your app (pages/components).
_app.js
file in root ofpages
directory. For more information follow this link: https://nextjs.org/docs/advanced-features/custom-appgetInitialProps
in your pages to fetch data from your API, you can also use the same method in_app.js
. So, I would fetch those data which I need to share them across my app and eliminate my API calls.createContext
hooks.1.1. Create a DataContext using createContext hooks. and wrap
<Component {...pageProps} />
with your<DataContext.Provider>
. Here is a code snippet to give you a better clue:1.2. Now in other pages/components you can access to your DataContext like following:
And then you are able to do the manipulation in your front-end
props
usinggetInitialProps
2.1.
getInitialProps
is used to asynchronously fetch some data, which then populatesprops
. that would be the same case in_app.js
.The code in your
_app.js
would be something like this:2.2. Now in your pages (not in your components) you can access to props including those you have shared from
_app.js
and you can start to do you manipulation.Hope I could give you a clue and direction. Have fun exploring.