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A comment on Next.js 12. Parent comment

Re:Next.js 12 by chrisco255 on Tuesday October 26, 2021 @01:05PM (#29002997)
Vercel / Next.js does function as a backend, too. You simply add an api folder and create 'routeName.js' files in there and you've got an endpoint backed by a lambda.

And Vercel itself allows you to install backend services such as Redis caching, databases, or queues that you can pull in from those functions.

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Re:Next.js 12 by letmeinhere on Tuesday October 26, 2021 @01:17PM (#29003177)
but (at least last I checked and from what I can glean from current docs) Vercel doesn't host databases, or integrate on a network level with the major cloud providers that do, so if you run your "back end" on Vercel you still need a "back back end" from a different provider and are opting into a huge amount of network operations burden to securely connect the two.
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Re:Next.js 12 by gherkinnn on Tuesday October 26, 2021 @01:24PM (#29003265)
Welcome to the Jamstack.

/snark

I'd think of a Next-driven BE as a BE for FE. And since it's co-located, You can share types, validators, utilities, (mental) models, etc. across the same codebase.

A technique that does have its place. Not always. Maybe not even half the time. But cleverer people than me use it to some effect.

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Re:Next.js 12 by sroussey on Tuesday October 26, 2021 @01:41PM (#29003517)
Check out supabase

https://supabase.io/

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Re:Next.js 12 by rattlesnakedave on Tuesday October 26, 2021 @01:28PM (#29003316)
For this sort of thing I really like fauna (https://fauna.com/). I don't think you really "need" a "backend backend" anymore, and small dev teams are probably better off without them.
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Re:Next.js 12 by chrisco255 on Tuesday October 26, 2021 @02:02PM (#29003858)
Right, they don't host the databases, but they do integrate with other database, etc. providers: https://vercel.com/integrations

Vercel itself I believe runs on a combination of Google Cloud and AWS.

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Re:Next.js 12 by mritchie712 on Tuesday October 26, 2021 @01:11PM (#29003077)
Yep, I'm using Vercel + Supabase for a SaaS right now. Easy, fast, cheap, and effective.
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Re:Next.js 12 by jekude on Tuesday October 26, 2021 @01:11PM (#29003076)
Definitely get that it works as a backend as well. I guess I am imagining a frontend-agnostic platform that is more backend-centric, rather than targeted directly for frontend web development.

Ideally I just get an endpoint from my backend-as-a-service (Supabase style) I can pop into Vercel as an environment variable, and use it as well in my moblile apps, public api, etc.

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Re:Next.js 12 by Abishek_Muthian on Tuesday October 26, 2021 @01:48PM (#29003625)
If you're already using likes of Supabase, Firebase etc. then Parse.com (RIP) was that OG BaaS but Facebook acqui-killed it. Now it's available as a open-source project and is used by several providers to provide BaaS[1].

I had used both proprietary & open-source Parse until 4 years back for several production applications but has since gone back to relational DB(pgSQL), so don't know the current status of the ecosystem.

[1] https://parseopensource.github.io/

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