Every application has a specific design language that helps it to stand out from the rest. From the color scheme to the typography, everything plays a significant role in defining the look and feel of the application. With dynamic theming, we get the ability to change these aspects in real-time based on user preferences or any other criteria.
NextJS, with its advanced features like server-side rendering and static site generation, makes it easier to build high-performance React applications. However, for implementing dynamic theming, we need to mix in a touch of CSS-in-JS. This combination allows us to not only change the visual aspects of our application on the fly, but also ensures the changes remain consistent throughout the application.
Implementing Dynamic Theming in NextJS
The journey towards dynamic theming begins with the setup of a 'contexts' folder in the root directory of the project. This is where our 'ThemeProvider' resides, which manages the current theme and makes it available throughout the application.
The first step to the implementation process is setting up a ‘ThemeProvider’. This is where we define our different themes and what properties they have.
Next, we use the ‘useContext’ hook of React to consume the current theme in any component we want to style dynamically. How a component uses the current theme to style itself is entirely dependent on the CSS-in-JS library we are using.
With styled-components, the theme is passed in as a prop to every styled component. With Emotion, you can use the 'useTheme' hook to consume the theme in any component.
The last step in implementing dynamic theming would be to provide a way for the user to switch themes. This can be achieved by providing a 'switch theme' button that calls a function to change the current theme when clicked.
PullTheCode provides all of the basic setup for NextJS and more, right out of the box. We have a number of modules available for NextJS including SEO and blog integration, Stripe payments, SQL with Prisma, and SSO with PassportJS. This makes development with NextJS faster and more efficient, allowing you to focus more on the actual building and styling of your application and less on the setup.
Also, PullTheCode offers weekly updates and specific modules like the Scraping or Internationalization, coming soon, so you can keep your application up-to-date with the latest features and improvements.
With this guide, we hope to make dynamic theming in NextJS a more approachable topic for everyone. So why wait? It's time to add that spark of dynamism to your web applications!