npm package: @morgs32/after
Description: Build isomorphic Javascript applications with ease.
Author: Jared Palmer
Latest version: 1.3.3

![repo-banner](https://user-images.githubusercontent.com/4060187/34948491-454de294-f9db-11e7-8fc5-86985ba05be8.png)

# After.js

[![Known Vulnerabilities](https://snyk.io/test/github/jaredpalmer/after.js/badge.svg?targetFile=package.json)](https://snyk.io/test/github/jaredpalmer/after.js?targetFile=package.json)

If [Next.js](https://github.com/zeit/next.js) and [React Router](https://github.com/reacttraining/react-router) had a baby...

## Project Goals / Philosophy / Requirements

Next.js is awesome. However, its routing system isn't for me. IMHO React Router 4 is a better foundation upon which such a framework should be built....and that's the goal here:

* Routes are just components and don't / should not have anything to do with folder structure. Static route configs are fine.
* Next.js's `getInitialProps` was/is a brilliant idea.
* Route-based code-splitting should come for free or be easy to opt into.
* Route-based transitions / analytics / data loading / preloading etc. , should either come for free or be trivial to implement on your own.

**Table of Contents**

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* [Getting Started with After.js](#getting-started-with-afterjs)
  * [Razzle Quickstart](#razzle-quickstart)
* [Data Fetching](#data-fetching)
  * [`getInitialProps: (ctx) => Data`](#getinitialprops-ctx--data)
  * [Injected Page Props](#injected-page-props)
* [Routing](#routing)
  * [Parameterized Routing](#parameterized-routing)
  * [Client Only Data and Routing](#client-only-data-and-routing)
* [Code Splitting](#code-splitting)
* [Custom `<Document>`](#custom-document)
* [Author](#author)
* [Inspiration](#inspiration)

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## Getting Started with After.js

After.js enables Next.js-like data fetching with any React SSR app that uses React Router 4.

### Razzle Quickstart

You can quickly bootstrap an SSR React app with After.js using Razzle. While Razzle is not required, this documentation assumes you have the tooling setup for an isomorphic React application.

```bash
yarn global add create-razzle-app
create-razzle-app --example with-afterjs myapp
cd myapp
yarn start
```

Refer to [Razzle's](https://github.com/jaredpalmer/razzle) docs for tooling, babel, and webpack customization.

## Data Fetching

For page components, you can add a `static async getInitialProps` function.
This will be called on both initial server render, and then client mounts.
Results are made available on `this.props`.

```js
// ./src/About.js
import React from 'react';
import { NavLink } from 'react-router-dom';

class About extends React.Component {
  static async getInitialProps({ req, res, match }) {
    const stuff = await CallMyApi();
    return { stuff };
  }

  render() {
    return (
      <div>
        <NavLink to="/">Home</NavLink>
        <NavLink to="/about">About</NavLink>
        <h1>About</h1>
        {this.props.stuff ? this.props.stuff : 'Loading...'}
      </div>
    );
  }
}

export default About;
```

### `getInitialProps: (ctx) => Data`

Within `getInitialProps`, you have access to all you need to fetch data on both
the client and the server:

* `req?: Request`: (server-only) An Express.js request object
* `res?: Request`: (server-only) An Express.js response object
* `match`: React Router 4's `match` object.
* `history`: React Router 4's `history` object.
* `location`: (client-only) React Router 4's `location` object.

### Injected Page Props

* Whatever you have returned in `getInitialProps`
* `prefetch: (pathname: string) => void` - Imperatively prefetch _and cache_ data for a path. Under the hood this will map through your route tree, call the matching route's `getInitialProps`, store it, and then provide it to your page component. If the user ultimately navigates to that path, the data and component will be ready ahead of time. In the future, there may be more options to control cache behavior in the form of a function or time in milliseconds to keep that data around.
* `refetch: (nextCtx?: any) => void` - Imperatively call `getInitialProps` again

## Routing

As you have probably figured out, React Router 4 powers all of After.js's
routing. You can use any and all parts of RR4.

### Parameterized Routing

```js
// ./src/routes.js
import Home from './Home';
import About from './About';
import Detail from './Detail';

// Internally these will become:
// <Route path={path} exact={exact} render={props => <component {...props} data={data} />} />
const routes = [
  {
    path: '/',
    exact: true,
    component: Home,
  },
  {
    path: '/about',
    component: About,
  },
  {
    path: '/detail/:id',
    component: Detail,
  },
];

export default routes;
```

```js
// ./src/Detail.js
import React from 'react';
import { Route } from 'react-router-dom';

class Detail extends React.Component {
  // Notice that this will be called for
  // /detail/:id
  // /detail/:id/more
  // /detail/:id/other
  static async getInitialProps({ req, res, match }) {
    const item = await CallMyApi(`/v1/item${match.params.id}`);
    return { item };
  }

  render() {
    return (
      <div>
        <h1>Detail</h1>
        {this.props.item ? this.props.item : 'Loading...'}
        <Route
          path="/detail/:id/more"
          exact
          render={() => <div>{this.props.item.more}</div>}
        />
        <Route
          path="/detail/:id/other"
          exact
          render={() => <div>{this.props.item.other}</div>}
        />
      </div>
    );
  }
}

export default Detail;
```

### Client Only Data and Routing

In some parts of your application, you may not need server data fetching at all
(e.g. settings). With After.js, you just use React Router 4 as you normally
would in client land: You can fetch data (in componentDidMount) and do routing
the same exact way.

## Code Splitting

After.js lets you easily define lazy-loaded or code-split routes in your `_routes.js` file. To do this, you'll need to modify the relevant route's `component` definition like so:

```js
// ./src/_routes.js
import React from 'react';
import Home from './Home';
import { asyncComponent } from '@jaredpalmer/after';

export default [
  // normal route
  {
    path: '/',
    exact: true,
    component: Home,
  },
  // codesplit route
  {
    path: '/about',
    exact: true,
    component: asyncComponent({
      loader: () => import('./About'), // required
      Placeholder: () => <div>...LOADING...</div>, // this is optional, just returns null by default
    }),
  },
];
```

## Custom `<Document>`

After.js works similarly to Next.js with respect to overriding HTML document structure. This comes in handy if you are using a CSS-in-JS library or just want to collect data out of react context before or after render. To do this, create a file in `./src/Document.js` like so:

```js
// ./src/Document.js
import React from 'react';
import { AfterRoot, AfterData } from '@jaredpalmer/after';

class Document extends React.Component {
  static async getInitialProps({ assets, data, renderPage }) {
    const page = await renderPage();
    return { assets, data, ...page };
  }

  render() {
    const { helmet, assets, data } = this.props;
    // get attributes from React Helmet
    const htmlAttrs = helmet.htmlAttributes.toComponent();
    const bodyAttrs = helmet.bodyAttributes.toComponent();

    return (
      <html {...htmlAttrs}>
        <head>
          <meta httpEquiv="X-UA-Compatible" content="IE=edge" />
          <meta charSet="utf-8" />
          <title>Welcome to the Afterparty</title>
          <meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1" />
          {helmet.title.toComponent()}
          {helmet.meta.toComponent()}
          {helmet.link.toComponent()}
          {assets.client.css && (
            <link rel="stylesheet" href={assets.client.css} />
          )}
        </head>
        <body {...bodyAttrs}>
          <AfterRoot />
          <AfterData data={data} />
          <script
            type="text/javascript"
            src={assets.client.js}
            defer
            crossOrigin="anonymous"
          />
        </body>
      </html>
    );
  }
}

export default Document;
```

If you were using something like `styled-components`, and you need to wrap you entire app with some sort of additional provider or function, you can do this with `renderPage()`.

```js
// ./src/Document.js
import React from 'react';
import { ServerStyleSheet } from 'styled-components'
import { AfterRoot, AfterData } from '@jaredpalmer/after';

export default class Document extends React.Component {
  static async getInitialProps({ assets, data, renderPage }) {
    const sheet = new ServerStyleSheet()
    const page = await renderPage(App => props => sheet.collectStyles(<App {...props} />))
    const styleTags = sheet.getStyleElement()
    return { assets, data, ...page, styleTags};
  }

 render() {
    const { helmet, assets, data, styleTags } = this.props;
    // get attributes from React Helmet
    const htmlAttrs = helmet.htmlAttributes.toComponent();
    const bodyAttrs = helmet.bodyAttributes.toComponent();

    return (
      <html {...htmlAttrs}>
        <head>
          <meta httpEquiv="X-UA-Compatible" content="IE=edge" />
          <meta charSet="utf-8" />
          <title>Welcome to the Afterparty</title>
          <meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1" />
          {helmet.title.toComponent()}
          {helmet.meta.toComponent()}
          {helmet.link.toComponent()}
          {/** here is where we put our Styled Components styleTags... */}
          {styleTags}
        </head>
        <body {...bodyAttrs}>
          <AfterRoot />
          <AfterData data={data}/>
          <script
            type="text/javascript"
            src={assets.client.js}
            defer
            crossOrigin="anonymous"
          />
        </body>
      </html>
    );
  }
}
```

To use your custom `<Document>`, pass it to the `Document` option of your After.js `render` function.

```js
// ./src/server.js
import express from 'express';
import { render } from '@jaredpalmer/after';
import routes from './routes';
import MyDocument from './Document';

const assets = require(process.env.RAZZLE_ASSETS_MANIFEST);

const server = express();
server
  .disable('x-powered-by')
  .use(express.static(process.env.RAZZLE_PUBLIC_DIR))
  .get('/*', async (req, res) => {
    try {
      // Pass document in here.
      const html = await render({
        req,
        res,
        document: MyDocument,
        routes,
        assets,
      });
      res.send(html);
    } catch (error) {
      console.log(error);
      res.json(error);
    }
  });

export default server;
```

## Custom/Async Rendering

You can provide a custom (potentially async) rendering function as an option to After.js `render` function.

If present, it will be used instead of the default ReactDOMServer renderToString function.

It has to return an object of shape `{ html : string!, ...otherProps }`, in which `html` will be used as the rendered string

Thus, setting `customRenderer = (node) => ({ html: ReactDOMServer.renderToString(node) })` is the the same as default option.

`otherProps` will be passed as props to the rendered Document

Example :

```js
// ./src/server.js
import React from 'react';
import express from 'express';
import { render } from '@jaredpalmer/after';
import { renderToString } from 'react-dom/server';
import { ApolloProvider, getDataFromTree } from 'react-apollo';
import routes from './routes';
import createApolloClient from './createApolloClient';
import Document from './Document';

const assets = require(process.env.RAZZLE_ASSETS_MANIFEST);

const server = express();
server
  .disable('x-powered-by')
  .use(express.static(process.env.RAZZLE_PUBLIC_DIR))
  .get('/*', async (req, res) => {
    const client = createApolloClient({ ssrMode: true });

    const customRenderer = node => {
      const App = <ApolloProvider client={client}>{node}</ApolloProvider>;
      return getDataFromTree(App).then(() => {
        const initialApolloState = client.extract();
        const html = renderToString(App);
        return { html, initialApolloState };
      });
    };

    try {
      const html = await render({
        req,
        res,
        routes,
        assets,
        customRenderer,
        document: Document,
      });
      res.send(html);
    } catch (error) {
      res.json(error);
    }
  });

export default server;
```

## Author

* Jared Palmer [@jaredpalmer](https://twitter.com/jaredpalmer)

## Inspiration

* [Razzle](https://github.com/jaredpalmer/razzle)
* [Next.js](https://github.com/zeit/next.js)

---

> MIT License