Server Actions Fundamentals
Explore how Server Actions in Next.js enable you to handle user interactions like form submissions and data updates with minimal boilerplate. Learn to use the 'use server' directive to create secure server-side functions callable from client components. Understand how this approach improves performance, security, and progressive enhancement in your applications.
In any web application, we need to handle user actions that change data. This includes tasks like submitting a form, liking a post, or adding an item to a cart. In a traditional React app, this usually involves a familiar, multi-step process:
A user clicks a button in a client component.
An
onClickhandler triggers afetchrequest to a custom API route (e.g.,/api/todos).We create that API route in a separate file (e.g.,
app/api/todos/route.js), which contains the server-side logic to talk to our database.The API route sends a JSON response back.
The client component parses the response and updates its state.
This pattern works, but it’s a lot of boilerplate. We have to manage API endpoints, request states, and data serialization.
Server Actions collapse this entire process. They let us define a function that runs securely on the server, which we can then call from our components as if it were a regular JavaScript function. This is possible through a powerful RPC (Remote Procedure Call) implementation built into Next.js.
The 'use server' directive
The entire mechanism is powered by a simple string: ...