Creating a Component in NextJS

NextJS is a popular framework for building React-based web applications. It comes with many features, including server-side rendering, automatic code splitting, and optimized performance. In this article, we will explore how to create a component within NextJS.

What is a Component?

Components are reusable piece of code that represents a specific part of a web page. It can be a button, form, navigation menu, or any other element that you want to use across multiple pages. Components can be used to build complex user interfaces by composing them together as simple html tags.

Creating a Component in NextJS

To create a component in NextJS, you’ll need to follow these steps:

1. Create a new file with a .jsx or .tsx extension in the components directory of your NextJS project. For example, if you want to create a button component, you can create a file named button.jsx or button.tsx (depending on if you are using typescript or not) in the /components directory.

2. Define your component as a function that returns a jsx or tsx element. For example, here’s how you can define a simple button component:

export default function Button(props) {
  return (
    <button className={props.className} onClick={props.onClick}>
      {props.label}
    </button>
  );
}

This button function takes a props object as its parameter, which contains properties like className, onClick, and label. The function returns a <button> element with the className, onClick, and label properties set to the values provided by the props object.

Be sure to have export default before the function definition. This will allow you to import the component from other files in your NextJS project.

3. To use your component in your NextJS pages you’ll need to import it from the /components directory. For example, if you want to use the Button component in a page named HomePage.jsx, you can import it like this:

import Button from "../components/Button";

You can then use call the <Button /> component in your HomePage page. If you have defined the label and onClick properties in the props object, you can pass them to the <Button /> component as well. For example:

function HomePage() {
  return (
    <div>
      <h1>Welcome to my NextJS app!</h1>
      <Button label="Click me" onClick={() => alert('Button clicked!')} /> <--Here
    </div>
  );
}

Conclusion

Creating a component in NextJS is a straightforward process. By following the steps outlined in this article, you can easily create reusable components that can be used across multiple pages in your NextJS app. Components help you to build more complex user interfaces by composing simpler elements together.