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Nextjs Link Component

In this tutorial, we'll delve into one of the most important features of Next.js - the Link Component. This is part of Next.js's built-in routing system and it's crucial for creating seamless user navigation experience in your Next.js applications.

Next.js provides a built-in Link component for client-side navigation between pages. It is a powerful tool that allows you to navigate between different routes in your Next.js application. The Link component pre-fetches the linked page's code, so the page is ready to render as soon as the user clicks the link, providing a smooth user experience.

Before using the Link Component, you must import it from the 'next/link' package. Here's how you can do it:

import Link from 'next/link'

The Link component is a Higher Order Component (HOC) that wraps around the <a> tag. The href attribute is required and should be provided to the <Link> component. Let's look at a basic example:

import Link from 'next/link'

export default function HomePage() {
  return (
    <div>
      <Link href="/about">
        <a>About Us</a>
      </Link>
    </div>
  )
}

In the above example, when users click on the "About Us" link, they will be navigated to the "/about" route.

One of the powerful features of the Link component is its ability to prefetch the linked page. When a Link component appears in the viewport, Next.js automatically prefetches the linked page's JavaScript code, making the page transition faster.

By default, prefetching is enabled in production mode and disabled in development mode. You can also manually control it using the prefetch attribute:

<Link href="/about" prefetch={false}>
  <a>About Us</a>
</Link>

In the above example, the "/about" page will not be prefetched.

Dynamic Routes​

Sometimes, you may need to create links to dynamic routes, such as "/post/:id". The Link component supports this as well. You can pass the dynamic part of the href as a query parameter:

<Link href="/post/[id]" as={`/post/${id}`}>
  <a>Post {id}</a>
</Link>

In the above example, you're telling Next.js that you want to navigate to a dynamic route named "/post/[id]" and you're replacing "[id]" with a specific post id.

Conclusion​

The Link component is a powerful tool provided by Next.js. It not only allows you to navigate between different routes in your Next.js application, but also improves the user experience by prefetching the linked pages. Understanding and effectively using the Link component is a key aspect of building efficient Next.js applications.