Configuring SSR

Quasar.conf.js

This is the place where you can configure some SSR options. Like if you want the client side to takeover as a SPA (Single Page Application – the default behaviour), or as a PWA (Progressive Web App).

return {
  // ...
  ssr: {
    pwa: true/false, // should a PWA take over (default: false), or just a SPA?
    componentCache: {...} // lru-cache package options,

    // -- @quasar/app v2.3+ --
    // Manually inject the store state into ssrContext.state
    manualStoreSsrContextInjection: true/false

    // -- @quasar/app v1.4.2+ --
    // Manually handle the store hydration instead of letting Quasar CLI do it.
    //   store.replaceState(window.__INITIAL_STATE__)
    manualHydration: true/false,

    // -- @quasar/app v1.9.5+ --
    // optional; add/remove/change properties
    // of production generated package.json
    extendPackageJson (pkg) {
      // directly change props of pkg;
      // no need to return anything
    },

    // -- @quasar/app v1.5+ --
    // optional; webpack config Object for
    // the Webserver part ONLY (/src-ssr/)
    // which is invoked for production (NOT for dev)
    extendWebpack (cfg) {
      // directly change props of cfg;
      // no need to return anything
    },

    // -- @quasar/app v1.5+ --
    // optional; EQUIVALENT to extendWebpack() but uses webpack-chain;
    // the Webserver part ONLY (/src-ssr/)
    // which is invoked for production (NOT for dev)
    chainWebpack (chain) {
      // chain is a webpack-chain instance
      // of the Webpack configuration
    }
  }
}

If you decide to go with a PWA client takeover (which is a killer combo), the Quasar CLI PWA mode will be installed too. You may want to check out the Quasar PWA guide too. But most importantly, make sure you read SSR with PWA page.

When building, extendWebpack() and chainWebpack() will receive one more parameter (Object), currently containing isServer or isClient boolean props, because there will be two Webpack builds (one for the server-side and one for the client-side).

// quasar.conf.js
build: {
  extendWebpack(cfg, { isServer, isClient }) { ... }
}

If you want more information, please see this page that goes into more detail about handling webpack in the quasar.conf.js file.

Nodejs Server

Adding SSR mode to a Quasar project means a new folder will be created: /src-ssr, which contains SSR specific files which define your production Node webserver:

.
└── src-ssr/
    ├── index.js      # Production Node webserver serving the app
    └── extension.js  # Common code for production & development server

You can freely edit these files. You’re not required to use an Express server. Simply choose whatever fits you best and tweak however you want.

Notice a few things:

These files run in a Node context (they are NOT transpiled by Babel), so use only the ES6 features that are supported by your Node version. (https://node.green/)
If you import anything from node_modules, then make sure that the package is specified in package.json > dependencies and NOT in devDependencies.
Do not change the names of these two files. You can however add any additional files that you may need. Just take into consideration that if you want common configuration of the Node webserver for both production & development, you need to add that to /src-ssr/extension.js file.
When /src-ssr/extension.js is used by the development server, it assumes the configuration is ready to be used by an Express server. So plan accordingly. If you switch to another server, you may want to decouple extension.js from the production server (index.js).
(@quasar/app v1.5+) The /src-ssr is built through a Webpack config for production (only). You will see this marked as “Webserver” when Quasar App CLI builds your app. You can chain/extend the Webpack configuration of these files through quasar.conf.js:

return {
  // ...
  ssr: {
    // ...

    // -- @quasar/app v1.5+ --
    // optional; webpack config Object for
    // the Webserver part ONLY (/src-ssr/)
    // which is invoked for production (NOT for dev)
    extendWebpack (cfg) {
      // directly change props of cfg;
      // no need to return anything
    },

    // -- @quasar/app v1.5+ --
    // optional; EQUIVALENT to extendWebpack() but uses webpack-chain;
    // the Webserver part ONLY (/src-ssr/)
    // which is invoked for production (NOT for dev)
    chainWebpack (chain) {
      // chain is a webpack-chain instance
      // of the Webpack configuration
    }
  }
}

Helping SEO

One of the main reasons when you develop a SSR instead of a SPA is for taking care of the SEO. And SEO can be greatly improved by using the Quasar Meta Plugin to manage dynamic html markup required by the search engines.

Boot Files

When running on SSR mode, your application code needs to be isomorphic or “universal”, which means that it must run both on a Node context and in the browser. This applies to your Boot Files too.

However, there are cases where you only want some boot files to run only on the server or only on the client-side. You can achieve that by specifying:

// quasar.conf.js
return {
  // ...
  boot: [
    'some-boot-file', // runs on both server and client
    { path: 'some-other', server: false } // this boot file gets embedded only on client-side
    { path: 'third', client: false } // this boot file gets embedded only on server-side
  ]
}

Just make sure that your app is consistent, though.

When a boot file runs on the server, you will have access to one more parameter (called ssrContext) on the default exported function:

// some boot file
export default ({ app, ..., ssrContext }) => {
  // ssrContext has: { url, req, res }

  // You can add props to the ssrContext then use them in the src/index.template.html.
  // Example - let's say we ssrContext.someProp = 'some value', then in index template we can reference it:
  // {{ someProp }}
}

When you add such references (someProp surrounded by brackets in the example above) into your src/index.template.html, make sure you tell Quasar it’s only valid for SSR builds:

<!-- index.template.html -->
<% if (ctx.mode.ssr) { %>{{ someProp }} <% } %>

Ready for more?