Next.js offers several approaches to state management. While some of these methods require installing new libraries, React’s Context API is built-in, so it’s a great way of reducing external dependencies.
With React Context, you may seamlessly pass data through different parts of your component tree, eliminating the hassle of prop drilling. This is especially useful for managing global state like the the current user’s logged-in status or their preferred theme.
Understanding React Context API
Before diving into the code, it’s important tounderstand what React Context API isand what problem it addresses.
Props provide an effective method for sharing data between components. They allow you to pass data from a parent component to its child components.
This approach is useful because it clearly shows which components use certain data and how that data flows down the component tree.
However, problems arise when you have deeply nested components that need to consume the same props. This situation can introduce complexities and potentially result in convoluted code that is harder to maintain. These issues, among others, are thedrawbacks of prop drilling.
React Context solves this challenge by providing a centralized method to create and use data that needs to be accessible globally, across components.
It sets up a context to hold this data, allowing components to access it. This approach helps you structure your codebase to ensure it’s well-organized.
You can find this project’s code in itsGitHubrepository.
Getting Started With State Management in Next.js 13 Using React Context API
Next.js Server Components allow you to create applications that make the best of both worlds: the interactivity of client-side apps and the performance benefits of server rendering.
Next.js 13 implements Server Components in theappdirectory—which is now stable—by default. However, because all components are server-rendered, you may run into problems when integrating client-side libraries or APIs such as React Context.
To avoid this, a great workaround is theuse clientflag that you can set on files that will run client-side code.
To get started, create a Next.js 13 project locally by running this command in your terminal:
After creating the project, navigate to its directory:
Then start the development server:
Once you’ve set up a basic Next.js project, you may build a basic to-do app that utilizes React Context API for state management.
Create the Context Provider
The context provider file serves as a central hub where you define and manage the global state that components need to access.
Create a new file,src/context/Todo.context.js, and populate it with the following code.
This React Context setup defines aTodoContextwhich initially holds the state of an empty to-do list for the app.
Aside from creating the initial state, this context configuration includes areducerfunction that defines various action types. These action types will modify the context’s state depending on the triggered actions. In this case, the actions include adding, deleting, and editing to-dos.
TheTodoContextProvidercomponent provides theTodoContextto other components in the application. This component takes two props: the value prop, which is the initial state of the context, and the reducer prop, which is the reducer function.
When a component consumes the TodoContext, it can access the state of the context and dispatch actions to update the state.
Add the Context Provider to the Next.js App
Now, to ensure that the context provider renders at the root of your Next.js application, and that all client components can access it, you need to add the context to the app’s root layout component.
To do this, open thesrc/app/layout.jsfile and wrap the children node in the HTML template with the context provider as follows:
Create a To-Do Component
Create a new file,src/components/Todo.js, and add the following code to it.
Start by making the following imports. ensure to include theuse clientflag to mark this component as a client-side component.
Next, define the functional component, including the JSX elements that will render on the browser.
This functional component includes input fields to add, edit, and delete to-dos, along with corresponding buttons. It usesReact’s conditional renderingto show the edit and delete buttons based on the editing index value.
Lastly, define the required state variables and the required handler functions for each action type. Inside the function component, add the following code.
These handler functions are in charge of handling the addition, deletion, and editing of a user’s to-dos within the context’s state.
They ensure that when a user adds, deletes, or edits a to-do, the appropriate actions are dispatched to the context’s reducer to update the state accordingly.
Render the To-Do Component
Finally, import the To-do component into the page component.
To do that, open the page.js file in the src/app directory, delete the boilerplate Next.js code, and add the code below:
Great! At this point, you should be able to manage the state in the To-do Next.js app using React Context.
Using React Context API With Other State Management Technologies
The React Context API is a great solution for state management. Nonetheless, it’s possible to use it alongside other state management libraries like Redux. This hybrid approach ensures you use the best tool for different parts of your app that perform key roles.
By doing so, you can capitalize on the benefits of different state management solutions to create efficient and maintainable applications.
