Modern web development platform Netlify announces new Next.js runtime that canis enabled by an npm package called @netlify/next; it aims to“Provides an improved experience for developers who use popular web frameworks to build websites and web applications faster and at scale. Netlify provides the only runtime environment that supports Next.js advanced middleware, giving developers control over Rewrite and transform HTML content at the edge – without additional client-side JavaScript or complex server-rendering strategies.”

Previously, building dynamic personalization with Next.js required server-side rendering (SSR) or heavy client-side JavaScript, the announcement said. Netlify’s new Next.js advanced middleware, delivered with Netlify’s Next.js runtime, removes these tradeoffs and extends Next.js’ capabilities. Together, the new Next.js runtime and Next.js advanced middleware enhance the developer experience for Next.js on Netlify, including the following features:

• Full control over dynamically modifying request headers and the entire response:Enables HTML and page data transformations to be rewritten directly from the edge, making it easier to deliver custom user experiences, such as personalization, localization, authentication, and more, while achieving optimal performance.
• Zero configuration for Next.js: Netlify automatically detects Next.js and preconfigures the build environment to adapt the platform to the Next.js framework.
• Day-one feature supports:New Next.js features are typically enabled, tested, and supported locally on the Netlify platform the day they are released by the Next.js open source team.
• enhanceUser Experience: Next.js developers can have a seamless user experience in their website and application build and deployment workflows.

According to the introduction, there are already some large Next.js projects running on Netlify, including TripActions and UW Health. The Netlify platform provides a native Next.js development experience, often with day-one support for all Next.js features. “Now, Next.js is uniquely extended to give developers more control when using the framework”.

Netlify said that they have been working on using the expertise of their dedicated framework engineering team to move Next.js forward, and the team also regularly contributes upstream to framework open source projects, including Next.js. “Netlify has been actively investing in Next.js for many years, but today marks a shift from natively supporting Next.js to what is possible to extend the framework. An investment made by our ecosystem team to bring more functionality to developers , we’ve greatly simplified Next.js on Netlify and made it easier to do more.”

Currently, Netlify’s Next.js runtime is available for all planned developers and for all versions of Next.js. Next.js Advanced Middleware is available to all Next.js developers running Next.js 12.2.x or higher.

More details can be found in the official announcement.