Next.js is widely known for its capabilities in server-side rendering and static site generation, but it also allows you to build full-fledged applications with server-side functionality, including APIs.
With Next.js, you can easily create a REST API directly within the framework itself, which can be consumed by your frontend application or any external service.
Next.js provides a straightforward way to build API routes using the pages/api directory. Each file you create in this directory automatically becomes an API endpoint, where the file name corresponds to the endpoint's route.
If you need to fetch data from your API on the server-side, you can use Next.js’s getServerSideProps to fetch data before rendering the page.
You can also consume the API client-side using React’s useEffect hook. This is useful for fetching data after the page has been loaded.
To send data to your API, you can use a POST request.
Next.js makes it incredibly easy to build and consume REST APIs directly within the same framework.
In this post, we’ve covered how to create a REST API in Next.js, handle different HTTP methods, and consume that API both server-side (with getServerSideProps) and client-side (using useEffect).
This opens up many possibilities for building full-stack applications with minimal configuration.
Next.js continues to empower developers with a flexible and simple solution for building scalable applications with integrated backend functionality.