Server Side Rendering

[geelen]

Thought I'd open an issue to kick off the discussion. It's already possible because of the way we build on top of Glamor, but we haven't exposed it as an API. But basically, if you did this:

import styleSheet from 'styled-components/lib/models/StyleSheet'

/* before each render */
styleSheet.flush()

/* after each render */
styleSheet.rules().map(rule => rule.cssText).join('\n')

Then you should get the chunk of CSS you need for each request. Can someone with a server-rendered setup take a look and confirm this works, and maybe show how they'd be invoking it? I'd be happy enough to export something like:

import { serverStylesheet } from 'styled-components'

/* before each render */
serverStylesheet.reset()

/* after each render */
serverStylesheet.getCSS()

What do people think?

[pheuter]

I'll gladly help test this out! We currently avoid using styled components for most styles because of the unclear path to support SSR, would be great to move the inline styles into styled components if we can generate the CSS on the server.

Here is what I have setup so far:

import styleSheet from 'styled-components/lib/models/StyleSheet';

styleSheet.flush();

let markup = renderToString(
  <Root store={store} Router={ServerRouter} routerProps={{ location, context }} />
);

console.log(styleSheet.rules());

Unfortunately, I'm getting back an empty array []. I can confirm that one of the components nested inside Root is wrapped by styled and generates a className when the client loads.

[diegohaz]

I'm currently implementing SSR on a project and I managed to make this work without styleSheet.flush() (if I call this, the result is the same as @pheuter), only the styles from injectGlobal weren't included.

Once I finish it I will post the complete code and a demo here. (I'm trying to make the app work completely without javascript enabled on client).

[mxstbr]

only the styles from injectGlobal weren't included.

Huh, that's interesting. I think I might accidentally use another styleSheet for that? /cc @geelen

[diegohaz]

Demo: https://arc.diegohaz.com (disable javascript, even the form works).
Code: https://github.com/diegohaz/arc/blob/universal-redux/src/server.js#L74

It doesn't work with injectGlobal (I removed).

The serverStylesheet.getCSS() API would be nice. 👍

[lucasavila00]

I noticed something.
I'm using Grid from 'grid-styled' and using styleSheet.rules().map(rule => rule.cssText).join('\n') seems to go just one level deep. It never rendered code of Grid, but rendered my code that used media queries.

code is like this:

const Wrapper = styled(Grid)`
  position: fixed;
  display: flex;
  justify-content: center;
  align-items: center;
  height: 40px;
  z-index: 0;
  top: 90px;
  z-index: 1;
  width: 100%;
  left: 0px;
  @media screen and (min-width: 52em){
    left: 16.66%;
  }
  @media screen and (min-width: 64em){
    left: 25%;
  }
`

Invoked as <Wrapper xs={1} sm={1} md={2/3} lg={1/2}>{children}</Wrapper>

css gets rendered as

.iMsaJZ { 
  position: fixed;
  display: -webkit-box;display:flex;display:-webkit-flex;display:-ms-flexbox;
  -webkit-box-pack: center;
  -ms-flex-pack: center;
  -moz-justify-content: center;
  -webkit-justify-content: center;
  justify-content: center;
  -webkit-box-align: center;
  -ms-flex-align: center;
  -webkit-align-items: center;
  align-items: center;
  height: 40px;
  z-index: 0;
  top: 90px;
  z-index: 1;
  width: 100%;
  left: 0px;
 }
@media screen and (min-width: 52em){
  .iMsaJZ { 
    left: 16.66%;
  }
}
@media screen and (min-width: 64em){
  .iMsaJZ { 
    left: 25%;
  }
}

The element receives the correct classname on SSR (class="iMsaJZ hqknNf"), wich are two classes, one for my code(iMsaJZ) and one for Grid's(hqknNf).
But there is no mention to the classname designed to Grid in the initial server response.
When I turn JS on then Grid's code appears to the browser.

.hqknNf { 
  -webkit-box-sizing: border-box; 
  box-sizing: border-box;
  display: inline-block;
  vertical-align: top;
  padding-left: 0px;
  padding-right: 0px;
  width: 100%;
  width: 100%;
 }
@media screen and (min-width: 40em) {
  .hqknNf { 
    width: 100%;
  }
}
@media screen and (min-width: 52em) {
  .hqknNf { 
    width: 66.66666666666666%;
  }
}
@media screen and (min-width: 64em) {
  .hqknNf { 
    width: 50%;
  }
}

Inlining code solves the problem and ssr can be used but it breaks composition :(
I hope I made myself clear :)

Also to notice that while profiling on my dev pc (windows 10) I got 0 ~ 1ms latency calling styleSheet.rules().map(rule => rule.cssText).join('\n')
That's nice!

[gbozee]

Based on @pheuter test, I get the same result,(the class is injected in the string markup) but not calling stylesheet.flush() before calling styleSheet.rules() produces TypeError: Cannot read property 'cssRules' of undefined

[aesopwolf]

Ah, this is so great. I was able to get it working with gatsby in no time

  render () {
    const styles = styleSheet.rules().map(rule => rule.cssText).join('\n');

    return (
      <html lang="en">
        <head>
          <style>
            {styles}
          </style>
        </head>
        <body>
          <div id="react-mount" dangerouslySetInnerHTML={{ __html: this.props.body }} />
          <script src={prefixLink(`/bundle.js?t=${BUILD_TIME}`)} />
        </body>
      </html>
    )
  }

I'm all for exposing a simpler api via serverStylesheet.getCSS()

[kitten]

@gbozee I ran into that problem. Turns out when (f.e.) webpack 2 is used, it loads the es bundle, due to the package.json js:next/module fields.

Until there is an API for the stylesheet that we can use, you should work around it using webpack's resolve.alias to load the lib folder instead.

[diegohaz]

I think I might accidentally use another styleSheet for that?

@mxstbr I'm interested in solving this (injectGlobal). Can you give me a way?

[MoOx]

Please get in touch when somebody start to handle this. I would like to get this to work out of the box in Phenomic (I just integrated Glamor and Aphrodite rendering and would like to cover all populars CSS in JS solutions).
I was thinking glamor integration will be enough but @philpl just told me it won't work :(

[thisguychris]

@aesopwolf did you get the same problem as @diegohaz of not having styles included from injectGlobal calls?

I think its a general consensus that this is working out of the box. The only minor caveat is styles from injectGlobal isn't included. But fixing that is trivial I guess?

[aesopwolf]

@thisguychris I just ran a quick test with injectGlobal and I didn't get the same problem. My document head included a single style tag with everything expected.

Input:

const Title = styled.h1`
  font-size: 1.5em;
  text-align: center;
  color: palevioletred;
`;

injectGlobal`
  body {
    background: red;
  }
`;

Output:

<style>
    .kZQsGZ {
        font-size: 1.5em;
        text-align: center;
        color: palevioletred;
    }
    body {
        background: red;
    }
</style>

[geelen]

Yeah the implementation for injectGlobal uses the same instance of StyleSheet under the hood so what @aesopwolf is getting looks right..

[thisguychris]

@geelen so do we get a green light for the exposed api? aka serverStylesheet.getCSS()?

Also, @aesopwolf would you mind giving me a test repo of your SSR to test my PR with?

[mxstbr]

I would love an exposed API, would love for you to look into that @thisguychris!

[diegohaz]

You guys are right, injectGlobal is working. It was a problem in my code.
I was using it inside componentDidMount (which doesn't run in ssr).

Sorry for the mess.

[diegohaz]

Now this repo is working with styled-components, injectGlobal, SSR and everything: https://github.com/diegohaz/arc/tree/fullstack

@thisguychris

[tomazy]

It would be great if .flush() worked. The problem may be somewhere here:
https://github.com/styled-components/styled-components/blob/master/src/vendor/glamor/sheet.js#L88

     this.sheet  = {
        cssRules: [],
        insertRule: rule => {
          const serverRule = { cssText: rule }
          this.sheet.cssRules.push(serverRule)              
          return {serverRule, appendRule: (newCss => serverRule.cssText += newCss)}  
        }
      }

flush() on server does this:

this.sheet.cssRules = []

So after flushing appendRule will be appending text to a dangling serverRule that is not in this.sheet.cssRules anymore.

EDIT:
ComponentStyle holds the ref to the dangling serverRule here:
https://github.com/styled-components/styled-components/blob/master/src/models/ComponentStyle.js#L44

[dignifiedquire]

I am trying to use hedron, but it seems the styles from it are not present. But my custom styles are rendered fine. Any ideas why this is happening/how to work around?

[clempat]

@jorilallo I had quite similar issue. In my case I solved it by adding 'styled-components/lib/models/StyleSheet' in externals in webpack 2.

externals: {
  'styled-components/lib/models/StyleSheet': 'commonjs styled-components/lib/models/StyleSheet',
}

it was not there because I was adding only the node_modules root folder to externals.

[codepunkt]

I'm not sure why this is so hard using styled-components. It's already possible with glamor, which it seems this is based on, right? Can't we just simply use the underlying glamor API or parts of it and re-expose?

@geelen Concatenating the resulting cssText is fine, but it should also be rehydrated on server-side to prevent the client from injecting the styles again.

[thisguychris]

@code-punkt see #214 :)

[SachaG]

@aesopwolf thanks for the code snippet, worked with Gatsby for me too. But I think it should be <style dangerouslySetInnerHTML={{ __html: styles }} />, otherwise special characters will get escaped out.

[eXon]

@tomazy You can always remove your SSR style block once the client-side rendering is done. That way, your page will look great while the app is loading and you will not get duplicate styles.

ReactDOM.render(<App />, document.getElementById('app'));
document.getElementById('ssr-style').remove();

[codepunkt]

@eXon yes, but styled-components could also just stop injecting it on the client-side again so you don't have to hack stuff like that together ;-)

See #214 for more discussion about this.

[teonik]

@tomazy I used something similar to remove the server rendered critical-css block when react and styled-components kicked in on the client side.
The problem with this approach is that it will also remove any styles you injected with injectGlobals,Those styles, if rendered on the server, will end up in the ssr block.
It is also feels like a dirty hack compared to the rest of the experience offered by styled-components 😛

Of course there are simpler ways to stick some global css in the pre-rendered page's head section but the point is that it would be nice to have proper support for it.

[kristojorg]

PSA: I was seeing TypeError: Cannot read property 'cssRules' of undefined when using this line of code:

const styles = styleSheet.rules().map(rule => rule.cssText).join('\n');

The fix: If you are seeing this as well, make sure you are rendering at least one styled component in your app.

For me, I was just installing styled-components for the first time, and hadn't used one yet, and was therefore seeing this error.

[kristojorg]

I have submitted a PR to fix this issue here. Hope this helps some!

[karthikiyengar]

I am trying to use hedron, but it seems the styles from it are not present. But my custom styles are rendered fine. Any ideas why this is happening/how to work around?

@dignifiedquire - Could you please tell me how you worked around this? I'm having the exact same issue with hedron.
@diegohaz - Using the universal-redux branch for this, is there anything that I should look into particularly?

[kristojorg]

@karthikiyengar Hedron is using styled-components which I believe means you need to import both your own server markup and theirs.

[karthikiyengar]

@kristojorg - Thanks for your answer.

Please disregard, my vendor assets weren't being generated properly, leading to the issue.

[mxstbr]

This discussion has now been moved to #386.