How can I use getInitialProps only during the NextJS site build?

Question

When using NextJS to build a static site, I would like the getInitialProps method to fire only during the build step and not on the client.

In the build step, NextJS runs the getInitialProps method before each component's rendered HTML is used to generate the page's static HTML. On the client, NextJS also runs this method before the page component is rendered in order to return the necessary props for the component. Thus, large requests can delay the client's first paint as this is a blocking request.

// example usage of API call in getInitialProps
import fetch from 'isomorphic-unfetch'

function Page({ stars }) {
  return <div>Next stars: {stars}</div>
}

Page.getInitialProps = async ({ req }) => {
  const res = await fetch('https://api.github.com/repos/zeit/next.js')
  const json = await res.json()
  return { stars: json.stargazers_count }
}

export default Page

I'm unwilling to move my slow API request to componentDidMount in order to avoid the blocking request because I want to use the data returned during the build step to populate the static HTML, and this particular request doesn't need to be dynamic or updated after the build.

Is there a way I can make getInitialProps run only when next export builds and not as the client loads the page?

Is this good practice?

Answer 1

I found the workaround with NextJs 9.0.3 (other versions may also work, I didn't test that)

// XXXPage is your page

XXXPage.getInitialProps = async (req) => {
  if (process.browser) {
    return __NEXT_DATA__.props.pageProps;
  }
  // original logic
}

Answer 2

For version 9.3 or newer, it's recommended that you use getStaticProps for providing static build props.

export async function getStaticProps(context) {
  return {
    props: {}, // will be passed to the page component as props
  }
}

---

Old answer

There are two ways is one way that I've found to prevent code in getInitialProps from running on a page component load.

1. Use a regular anchor tag without next/link to that page.

getInitialProps only runs when the page is linked from a next/link component. If a regular JSX anchor <a href="/my-page">click me</a> is used instead, the component's getInitialProps will not be invoked. Direct page loads to NextJS static site pages will not invoke getInitialProps.

Note that using a standard anchor instead of the next/link component will cause a full page refresh.

Because this is a poor solution, I've submitted a feature request.

---

2. Use req in the context argument to conditionally make the API call in getInitialProps.

I believe what @evgenifotia wanted to convey is that req is undefined in a site that's been exported.

// example usage of API call in getInitialProps
import fetch from 'isomorphic-unfetch'

function Page({ stars }) {
  return <div>Next stars: {stars}</div>
}

Page.getInitialProps = async (ctx) => {
  const { req } = ctx // context object: { req, res, pathname, query, asPath }
  if (req) { // will only run during the build (next export)
    const res = await fetch('https://api.github.com/repos/zeit/next.js')
    const json = await res.json()
    return { stars: json.stargazers_count }
  }

  return {}
}

export default Page

For more information about getInitialProps, see the documentation. One example there confirms that req is expected to only be defined on the server (or during the exporting build):

const userAgent = req ? req.headers['user-agent'] : navigator.userAgent`

This second option may work for some scenarios, but not mine where returning an empty result from getInitialProps will affect the component's this.props.

---

Note:

Shallow routing is not the answer. According to the documentation (see under "Notes" section):

Shallow routing works only for same page URL changes.