Vercel, during its online Next.js Conf event today, revealed it has updated its development environment based on Next.js and the React frameworks to include support for a conformance engine created by Google that automatically applies best practices for ensuring predictable performance.
The company also previewed Next.js Live, a dev server engine for Next.js that will be added to the Vercel platform to enable development teams to share instantly, chat, draw, and edit from anywhere in the world. Developers will be able to generate a URL in less than five seconds that provides both developers, testers, and application stakeholders with access to both static and dynamic Next.js applications.
Once that engine becomes available, Next.js will run entirely inside the web browser to both improve performance and foster collaboration, says Vercel CEO Guillermo Rauch.
Other capabilities added with the release of Next.js 11 include faster starts and changes, real-time feedback, and other image optimization enhancements. Vercel claims Next js. startup times have been improved by up to 24%, while the amount of processing time for changes from edit to screen has been reduced by 40%. There are now also Lighthouse tests to provide insights for improving loading performance.
Vercel is also now enabling developers to instantly see the reaction to changes because a browser will now reflect changes as soon as a file is saved. Next.js 11 also allows developers to swap the HTML “img” tag for the Next.js “Image” component to optimize images for each device.
The conformance engine created by Google is crucial because it eliminates the need for developers to memorize complicated rules for optimizing load performance, says Rauch. Instead, a compiler enforces best practices to ensure predictable outcomes in a way that reduces the stress on DevOps teams that are frequently tasked with optimizing application performance, adds Rauch.
Overall, these enhancements will enable Next.js applications to improve Core Web Vitals scores, which Rauch noted Google has begun to employ to influence search rankings.
Originally developed by Facebook, reactive programming frameworks are gaining traction as the need to build more interactive applications to drive digital business transformation initiatives becomes a higher priority for organizations. Vercel has combined that framework with an instance of JavaScript to create a server-side programming environment as an alternative to legacy platforms based on, for example. Java. The usage of React and Next.js makes it possible to build backend application services that integrate more easily with the front ends developers now typically build using JavaScript.
It’s not clear at what rate developers may be embracing Next.js as an alternative to other frameworks based on JavaScript. However, it’s clear that end-user expectations are driving developers to embrace the React framework. The average end-user now expects corporate applications to surface the same real-time interactions as their favorite consumer applications, whether they really need them or not. The goal, as always, is to keep end-users engaged with an application that is more often than not being accessed via a mobile computing device for as long as possible. After all, the only more difficult than getting the attention of an end-user in the first place is regaining it after it’s been lost.
