How to Enable Server-Side Rendering for a React App

Server-side rendering (SSR) is the process of rendering a web page on the server-side and then sending the rendered HTML to the client-side. SSR can improve the performance and SEO of your React app. In this tutorial, we will learn how to enable SSR for a React app using Node.js and Express.js.

Step 1: Create a React App

First, we need to create a new React app using npx create-react-app command:

npx create-react-app my-app

Step 2: Install Dependencies

Next, we need to install the dependencies required for SSR:

npm install express react react-dom react-router-dom

Step 3: Create Server-Side Code

Now, we need to create the server-side code to render our React app. Create a new file called server.js in the root directory of your app:

const express = require('express');
const React = require('react');
const ReactDOMServer = require('react-dom/server');
const { StaticRouter } = require('react-router-dom');
const App = require('./src/App');

const app = express();

app.use(express.static('build'));

app.get('/*', (req, res) => {
  const context = {};
  const html = ReactDOMServer.renderToString(
    
      
    
  );
  
  res.send(`
    
    
      
        
      
      
        
${html}
        
      
    
  `);
});

app.listen(3000, () => {
  console.log('Server is listening on port 3000');
});

The code above creates an Express.js server, serves static files from the build directory, and renders the React app using ReactDOMServer.renderToString method. It also injects the rendered HTML into a basic HTML template and sends it to the client-side.

Step 4: Build the React App

Before we can start the server, we need to build the React app using the following command:

npm run build

Step 5: Start the Server

Finally, we can start the server using the following command:

node server.js

Now, open your browser and go to http://localhost:3000 to see your React app rendered on the server-side!

Conclusion

Enabling server-side rendering for your React app can improve its performance and SEO. In this tutorial, we learned how to enable SSR for a React app using Node.js and Express.js. We hope you found this