Javascript server-render libraries with non-JS REST APIs

Question

Are server-rendered frameworks/libraries (such as Nextjs for React, Nuxt for Vue) and non-JS REST API backends (i.e. Java, Django, Go etc.) mutually exclusive or can they be used alongside?

Specifically, I am using Go for building a REST API at the backend and I wonder if I have to give it up for having the pages server-rendered.

Answer 1

These are two different concerns, really: Vue and React are JavaScript frameworks. They wouldn't run on your Go-based server application.

There's nothing to stop you from rendering HTML in a Go application, but a Go server is not going to run a JavaScript framework. If it did, it would likely require extra scaffolding, and at that point you might as well set up a NodeJS server to handle rendering those routes.

Answer 2

It's encouraged to use a separate API server with next.js even if you're using JavaScript for both. It's common to have the api on api.example.com, and to have the next.js app talk to it whether it's doing server-side or browser rendering.

If you want to have them on the same domain so you can cookies directly, you can use path aliases in now.sh, a Heroku-like PaaS from Zeit, the developers of Next.js. These can be set up in development with now-server. This can also be done with reverse proxies in nginx, apache, netlify, and CloudFront, or using path-based routing in AWS's Application Load Balancer.