In order for Remix to run your app in both the server and browser environments, your application modules and third party dependencies need to be careful about module side effects.
The Remix compiler will automatically remove server code from the browser bundles. Our strategy is actually pretty straightforward, but requires you to follow some rules.
Consider a route module that exports loader, meta, and a component:
import { useLoaderData } from "remix";
import PostsView from "../PostsView";
import { prisma } from "../db";
export function loader() {
return prisma.post.findMany();
}
export function meta() {
return { title: "Posts" };
}
export default function Posts() {
let posts = useLoaderData();
return <PostsView posts={posts} />;
}
The server needs everything in this file but the browser only needs the component and meta. In fact, it'll be completely broken if it includes the prisma module in the browser bundle. That thing is full of node-only APIs!
To remove the server code from the browser bundles, the Remix compiler creates a proxy module in front of your route and bundles that instead. The proxy for this route would look like:
export { meta, default } from "./routes/posts.tsx";
The compiler will now analyze the code in routes/posts.tsx and only keep code that's inside of meta and the component. The result is something like this:
import { useLoaderData } from "remix";
import PostsView from "../PostsView";
export function meta() {
return { title: "Posts" };
}
export default function Posts() {
let posts = useLoaderData();
return <PostsView posts={posts} />;
}
Pretty slick! This is now safe to bundle up for the browser. So what's the problem?
If you're unfamiliar with side effects, you're not alone! We'll help you identify them now.
Simply put, a side effect is any code that might do something. A module side effect is any code that might do something when a module is loaded.
Taking our code from earlier, we saw how the compiler can remove the exports and their imports that aren't used. But if we add this seemingly harmless line of code your app will break!
import { useLoaderData } from "remix";
import PostsView from "../PostsView";
import { prisma } from "../db";
console.log(prisma);
export function loader() {
return prisma.post.findMany();
}
export function meta() {
return { title: "Posts" };
}
export default function Posts() {
let posts = useLoaderData();
return <PostsView posts={posts} />;
}
That console.log does something. The module is imported and then immediately logs to the console. The compiler won't remove it because it has to run when the module is imported. It will bundle something like this:
import { useLoaderData } from "remix";
import PostsView from "../PostsView";
import { prisma } from "../db"; //😬
console.log(prisma); //🥶
export function meta() {
return { title: "Posts" };
}
export default function Posts() {
let posts = useLoaderData();
return <PostsView posts={posts} />;
}
The loader is gone but the prisma dependency stayed! Had we logged something harmless like console.log("hello!") it would be fine. But we logged the prisma module so the browser's gonna have a hard time with that.
To fix this, remove the side effect by simply moving the code into the loader.
import { useLoaderData } from "remix";
import PostsView from "../PostsView";
import { prisma } from "../db";
export function loader() {
console.log(prisma);
return prisma.post.findMany();
}
export function meta() {
return { title: "Posts" };
}
export default function Posts() {
let posts = useLoaderData();
return <PostsView posts={posts} />;
}
This is no longer a module side effect (runs when the module is imported), but rather a side effect of the loader (runs when the loader is called). The compiler will now remove both the loader and the prisma import because it isn't used anywhere else in the module.
Some Remix newcomers try to abstract their loaders with "higher order functions". Something like this:
import { redirect } from "remix";
export function removeTrailingSlash(loader) {
return function (arg) {
let { request } = arg;
let url = new URL(request.url);
if (url.pathname.endsWith("/")) {
return redirect(request.url.slice(0, -1), {
status: 308
});
}
return loader(arg);
};
}
And then try to use it like this:
import { removeTrailingSlash } from "~/http";
export let loader = removeTrailingSlash(({ request }) => {
return { some: "data" };
});
You can probably now see that this is a module side effect so the compiler can't prune out the removeTrailingSlash code.
This type of abstraction is introduced to try to return a response early. Since you can throw a Response in a loader, we can make this simpler and remove the module side effect at the same time so that the server code can be pruned:
import { redirect } from "remix";
export function removeTrailingSlash(url) {
if (url.pathname.endsWith("/")) {
throw redirect(request.url.slice(0, -1), {
status: 308
});
}
}
And then use it like this:
import { removeTrailingSlash } from "~/http";
export let loader = ({ request }) => {
removeTrailingSlash(request.url);
return { some: "data" };
};
It reads much nicer as well when you've got a lot of these:
// this
export let loader = ({ request }) => {
return removeTrailingSlash(request.url, () => {
return withSession(request, session => {
return requireUser(session, user => {
return json(user);
});
});
});
};
// vs. this
export let loader = ({ request }) => {
removeTrailingSlash(request.url);
let session = await getSession(request);
let user = await requireUser(session);
return json(user);
};
If you want to do some extra-curricular reading, google around for "push vs. pull API". The ability to throw responses changes the model from a "push" to a "pull". This is the same reason folks prefer async/await over callbacks, and React hooks over higher order components and render props.
Unlike the browser bundles, Remix doesn't try to remove browser only code from the server bundle because the route modules require every export to render on the server. This means it's your job to be mindful of code that should only execute in the browser.
import { loadStripe } from "@stripe/stripe-js";
let stripe = await loadStripe(window.ENV.stripe);
export async function redirectToStripeCheckout(sessionId) {
return stripe.redirectToCheckout({ sessionId });
}
The most common scenario is intitializing a third party API when your module is imported. There are a couple ways to easily deal with this.
This ensures the library is only initialized if there is a window, meaning you're in the browser.
import firebase from "firebase/app";
if (typeof window !== "undefined") {
firebase.initializeApp(window.ENV.firebase);
}
export { firebase };
This strategy defers initialization until the library is actually used:
import { loadStripe } from "@stripe/stripe-js";
export async function redirectToStripeCheckout(sessionId) {
let stripe = await loadStripe(window.ENV.stripe);
return stripe.redirectToCheckout({ sessionId });
}
You may want to avoid initializing the library multiple times by storing it in a module-scoped variable.
import { loadStripe } from "@stripe/stripe-js";
let _stripe;
async function getStripe() {
if (!_stripe) {
_stripe = await loadStripe(window.ENV.stripe);
}
return _stripe;
}
export async function redirectToStripeCheckout(sessionId) {
let stripe = await getStripe();
return stripe.redirectToCheckout({ sessionId });
}
Another common case is code that calls browser-only APIs while rendering. When server rendering in React (not just Remix), this must be avoided because the APIs don't exist on the server.
function useLocalStorage(key) {
let [state, setState] = useState(
localStorage.getItem(key)
);
let setWithLocalStorage = nextState => {
setState(nextState);
};
return [state, setWithLocalStorage];
}
You can fix this by moving the code into useEffect, which only runs in the browser.
function useLocalStorage(key) {
let [state, setState] = useState(null);
useEffect(() => {
setState(localStorage.getItem(key));
}, []);
let setWithLocalStorage = nextState => {
setState(nextState);
};
return [state, setWithLocalStorage];
}
Now localStorage is not being accessed on the initial render, which will work for the server. In the browser, that state will fill in immediately after hydration. Hopefully it doesn't cause a big content layout shift though! If it does, maybe move that state into your database or a cookie so you can access it server side.
useLayoutEffectIf you use this hook React will warn you about using it on the server.
This hook is great when you're setting state for things like:
The point is to perform the effect at the same time as the browser paint so that you don't see the popup show up at 0,0 and then bounce into place. Layout effects let the paint and the effect happen at the same time to avoid this kind of flashing.
It is not good for setting state that is rendered inside of elements. Just make sure you aren't using the state set in a useLayoutEffect in your elements and you can ignore React's warning.
TODO: Link to Reach UI useIsomorphicLayoutEffect
Some third party libraries have their own module side effects that are incompatible with React server rendering. Usually it's trying to access window for feature detection.
These libraries are incompatible with server rendering in React and therefore incompatible with Remix. Fortunately, very few third party libraries in the React ecosystem do this.
We recommend finding an alternative. But if you can't, we recommend using patch-package to fix it up in your app.
