Mastering React 19 Part 2: Server Components & Server Actions [Tutorial]
React 19 was a major milestone in the framework’s evolution. Two of the biggest achievements were the release of Server Components and Server Actions, the server-side aspect of React 19’s full-stack vision. It’s no exaggeration to say these features are a colossal game changer in how React developers will create full-stack code.
If you haven’t yet familiarized yourself with the client-side changes introduced in React 19, I covered them in part I of this series. In part II, we’re going to explore Server Components and Server Actions using a simple Next.js app – because, according to the React Team, Next.js’ implementation of Server Components most closely aligns with React’s direction as a full-stack UI framework.
Table Of Contents
- What Exactly Are React 19 Server Components?
- Async Server Components and Data Fetching
- Integrating Client Components in React 19 and Next.js
- Mixing React Server and Client Components
- Server Actions: Mutating Server-Side Data Without an API
- Potential Challenges with Server Actions and Server Components
- Upgrading to Next 15 and React 19
- Wrapping Up: React 19 Server Components and Server Actions
My goal in this article is to explore and answer some questions that are foundational to the latest React release:
- What exactly are Server Components and async Server Components?
- How do Server Components interact with Client Components?
- What are Server Actions, and how are they used in React 19?
To explore these questions, we’ll use our simple example app to demonstrate:
- How to implement server components to streamline data fetching.
- How Client Components can use Server Actions to mutate data on the server more cleanly, avoiding the need for useEffect or exposing APIs to the front-end.
- Explore the limitations and considerations of Server Components and Server Actions to get a balanced perspective.
By the end of this piece, you’ll have a clear understanding of these concepts and be able to decide whether now is the time to embrace full-stack React, recognize situations where this approach might not fit, and identify potential risks to keep in mind.
With that, let’s dig in!