Serverless route handler

• NEXT JS allows applications to be full stack which means running the application both on the front end and on the back end

• using the same file based routing system NEXT JS allows us to handle HTTP requests and develop back-end functionality without requiring an external server

• Alternative to Express.js

users NEXT JS covers all of the features found in traditional backend servers which includes:

• middleware parsing

• authentication checks

• serverless functions that simplify the deployment

• scaling of API routes

3 Ways for defining route handler

1. File based route handlers in app/api folder

2. direct route handler in app directory using route.tsx

   • Side Effect: NEXT JS won't know if it is a regular frontend route or backend route.

   • This means cannot have page.tsx and route.tsx on same folder.

   • Preventing routing in API Endpoint(backend) and pages in frontend

3. Server Actions

route.js is also a special file name and just for that reason it allows us to create those backend routes

Let's compare with Express

incredibly straightforward you simply need to write a get function and begin implementing your backend logic within it export async function get and then you return the response as if you're returning it from the regular Express server in the same way and in the same file you can use all the other HTTP verbs

EXPRESS.JS

NEXT JS

No need to setup any extra express configuration, making it convenient to code.

http://localhost:3000/api/users