Code example for the article: "Why I got rid of getInitialProps on my work Next.js project"

profile.js

async function fetchUser(params) {
  const res = await fetch('https://example.com/api/user', params);
  const data = await res.json();

  return data;
}

async function fetchUserFromServer(ctx) {
  const { token } = ctx.req.cookies;
  const user = await fetchUser({ headers: { Authorization: `Bearer ${token}` } });

  return user;
}

// with server side rendering
export async function getServerSideProps(ctx) {
  const user = await fetchUserFromServer(ctx);

  return {
    props: { user },
  };
}

function Profile({ user }) {
  return <div>{user.name}</div>;
}


// with static rendering
function Profile() {
  const [user, setUser] = useState();

  useEffect(() => {
    fetchUser().then((u) => setUser(u));
  }, []);

  if (user === undefined) {
    // we may create skeleton with react-content-loader here
    return <div>Loading...</div>;
  }

  return <div>{user.name}</div>;
}

Hi, I have a doubt, if not use getInitialProps in _app.jsx to share data for a page.

Then I will call the authorization once for each page? Wouldn't that be cumbersome.

The official recommendation is to use getServerSideProps, but I haven't been able to find a "global shared data" method other than getInitialProps.

So there is a lot of confusion

Hey @iiDestiny.

1. It's true, getInitialProps is the only way to pull shared data, but it's deoptimize your app it the worst way.
2. Then I will call the authorization once for each page? I won't need in production. First of auth is done per user not per page. Credentials could be stored in cookies of user browser and they are used for identification before response while request and it's true for any way. Only thing that is affected is you need to use auth check on every page. I would suggest to check out https://next-auth.js.org/ if you build auth right in your next app.
3. The way that suggested by the Next.js team is to request data on every page when you need it.

I also wrote an article about lowering load on your database or backend that provides data: https://itnext.io/fetch-shared-data-in-next-js-with-single-request-833433fa8ed1

Thank you for your reply.

I may have to think about it, I haven't found a best practice solution yet. Thank you.