feat!: beta-next

[AlessioGr]

This PR makes three major changes to the codebase:

1. Component Paths
   Instead of importing custom components into your config directly, they are now defined as file paths and rendered only when needed. That way the Payload config will be significantly more lightweight, and ensures that the Payload config is 100% server-only and Node-safe. Related discussion: RFC: Payload Admin Components Abstraction #6938

2. Client Config
   Deprecates the component map by merging its logic into the client config. The main goal of this change is for performance and simplification. There was no need to deeply iterate over the Payload config twice, once for the component map, and another for the client config. Instead, we can do everything in the client config one time. This has also dramatically simplified the client side prop drilling through the UI library. Now, all components can share the same client config which matches the exact shape of their Payload config (with the exception of non-serializable props and mapped custom components).

3. Custom client component are no longer server-rendered
   Previously, custom components would be server-rendered, no matter if they are server or client components. Now, only server components are rendered on the server. Client components are automatically detected, and simply get passed through as MappedComponent to be rendered fully client-side.

Component Paths

Instead of importing custom components into your config directly, they are now defined as file paths and rendered only when needed. That way the Payload config will be significantly more lightweight, and ensures that the Payload config is 100% server-only and Node-safe. Related discussion: #6938

In order to reference any custom components in the Payload config, you now have to specify a string path to the component instead of importing it.

Old:

import { MyComponent2} from './MyComponent2.js'

admin: {
  components: {
    Label: MyComponent2
  },
},

New:

admin: {
  components: {
    Label: '/collections/Posts/MyComponent2.js#MyComponent2', // <= has to be a relative path based on a baseDir configured in the Payload config - NOT relative based on the importing file
  },
},

Local API within Next.js routes

Previously, if you used the Payload Local API within Next.js pages, all the client-side modules are being added to the bundle for that specific page, even if you only need server-side functionality.

This /test route, which uses the Payload local API, was previously 460 kb. It is now down to 91 kb and does not bundle the Payload client-side admin panel anymore.

All tests done here with beta.67/PR, db-mongodb and default richtext-lexical:

dev /admin before:

dev /admin after:

---

dev /test before:

dev /test after:

---

build before:

build after::

Usage of the Payload Local API / config outside of Next.js

This will make it a lot easier to use the Payload config / local API in other, server-side contexts. Previously, you might encounter errors due to client files (like .scss files) not being allowed to be imported.

Client Config

Deprecates the component map by merging its logic into the client config. The main goal of this change is for performance and simplification. There was no need to deeply iterate over the Payload config twice, once for the component map, and another for the client config. Instead, we can do everything in the client config one time. This has also dramatically simplified the client side prop drilling through the UI library. Now, all components can share the same client config which matches the exact shape of their Payload config (with the exception of non-serializable props and mapped custom components).

This is breaking change. The useComponentMap hook no longer exists, and most component props have changed (for the better):

const { componentMap } = useComponentMap() // old
const { config } = useConfig() // new

The useConfig hook has also changed in shape, config is now a property within the context obj:

const config = useConfig() // old
const { config } = useConfig() // new

Custom Client Components are no longer server rendered

Previously, custom components would be server-rendered, no matter if they are server or client components. Now, only server components are rendered on the server. Client components are automatically detected, and simply get passed through as MappedComponent to be rendered fully client-side.

The benefit of this change:

Custom client components can now receive props. Previously, the only way for them to receive dynamic props from a parent client component was to use hooks, e.g. useFieldProps(). Now, we do have the option of passing in props to the custom components directly, if they are client components. This will be simpler than having to look for the correct hook.

This makes rendering them on the client a little bit more complex, as you now have to check if that component is a server component (=> already has been rendered) or a client component (=> not rendered yet, has to be rendered here). However, this added complexity has been alleviated through the easy-to-use <RenderMappedComponent /> helper.

This helper now also handles rendering arrays of custom components (e.g. beforeList, beforeLogin ...), which actually makes rendering custom components easier in some cases.

Misc improvements

This PR includes misc, breaking changes. For example, we previously allowed unions between components and config object for the same property. E.g. for the custom view property, you were allowed to pass in a custom component or an object with other properties, alongside a custom component.

Those union types are now gone. You can now either pass an object, or a component. The previous { View: MyViewComponent} is now { View: { Component: MyViewComponent} } or { View: { Default: { Component: MyViewComponent} } }.

This dramatically simplifies the way we read & process those properties, especially in buildComponentMap. We can now simply check for the existence of one specific property, which always has to be a component, instead of running cursed runtime checks on a shared union property which could contain a component, but could also contain functions or objects.

• I have read and understand the CONTRIBUTING.md document in this repository.