Unlocking the Power of Hybrid Rendering in Astro 2.0
The Need for Hybrid Rendering
In the past, web developers had to choose between static site generation (SSG) and server-side rendering (SSR). SSG offers incredible performance, but lacks the ability to generate HTML on-demand for each request. SSR, on the other hand, enables web applications to generate HTML on-demand, but can be slow and resource-intensive. Hybrid rendering bridges this gap, allowing developers to combine the benefits of both approaches.
How Hybrid Rendering Works
In Astro, hybrid rendering is achieved through a combination of static and server output. During the build process, a new static analysis step determines which pages should be prerendered. These pages are then executed and the output is written to .html files, which are served statically. Meanwhile, the server chunk is passed to an adapter for further processing and is ultimately deployed as a Serverless or Edge Function.
# Example of Astro build process astro build --prerender
Benefits of Hybrid Rendering
- Improved render performance: By prerendering popular pages, developers can reduce server load and improve the user experience.
- Adding APIs to existing static sites: Hybrid rendering enables developers to add dynamic functionality to existing static sites.
- Improved build performance: By only prerendering the pages that need it, developers can significantly reduce build times.
Implementing Hybrid Rendering in Astro
To get started with hybrid rendering in Astro, developers need to enable SSR features in development mode and opt-in to prerendering for specific files. This involves adding a line of code to the top of the file and building the Astro project as normal.
// Example of enabling SSR features in development mode
export default {
ssr: true,
};