Summary of Data Fetching with React Server Components

00:00:00 - 00:55:00

React Server Components can be used to improve the performance of React applications by reducing the amount of code needed to handle data fetching.

• 00:00:00 The speaker discusses the principle of "good, fast, and cheap," and how it applies to software development. He explains that in UI development, he wants a good user experience, which requires fast and cheap code, but also takes a long time to create. He discusses an example of how this principle plays out in practice, using Spotify as an example.
• 00:05:00 In this video, the presenter discusses how to improve the performance of React apps by using GraphQL and Relay. However, it's not always feasible to use GraphQL, and in some cases, it's not even desirable. Furthermore, not everyone in a company will want to adopt GraphQL.
• 00:10:00 In this video, Dan Harkins describes how React Server Components can be used to improve the latency between the client and the server. He also shows how a demo application called React Notes has been converted to a Server Component.
• 00:15:00 In this video, the presenter shows how to improve the look of a sidebar by extracting each list item into its own component, using the date functions library to format the date, and rendering the components on the server. Webpack has built the components for us and we can see that none of the server components have been included in the client bundle.
• 00:20:00 The author explains that a "prop to a Client Component is that the JSX will be rendered by the Server Component before it gets to the client so what exactly do I mean by that?" This renders the Server Component before it sends it to the client, allowing for pre-rendered content in the client's preview. The author also explains that "when we click on a note really quickly and show you that it is really performing a server request to re-render the Server Component tree," this is because the Server Component tree is being re-rendered on the server whenever the context of the location (which is set in the context) changes.
• 00:25:00 Server components are different from SSR, in that they don't render to HTML, but instead render into a special format that can be used on the server or the client. This allows for the preservation of client-side state even when the component is re-fetched.
• 00:30:00 In this video, the presenter demonstrates how to fetch data with React Server Components by using an API call and a SQL query. When a new note is created, the sidebar component is re-rendered on the server, but the client-side state is still expanded.
• 00:35:00 Server components allow for immediate response to user input, without the need for a pre-processing step. This allows for simpler and more efficient user interfaces.
• 00:40:00 React Server Components give developers the option to write code that is optimized for performance on the server, without sacrificing the user interface feel of traditional web pages.
• 00:45:00 React Server Components let you access the backend resources directly, enable automatic code splitting for client code, and let you have a modern app-like user experience even though writing them feels like writing old-school web pages.
• 00:50:00 This YouTube video explains how data fetching with React Server Components can be improved by automating conversions from components that are compatible to be Server Components and by finalizing Concurrent Mode. The talk also mentions other future areas of work, such as building an HTML renderer for Server Components.
• 00:55:00 The video discusses how React Server Components can be used to reduce the amount of code needed to handle data fetching in React applications.