Reader small image

You're reading from  Full Stack Web Development with Remix

Product typeBook
Published inNov 2023
Reading LevelIntermediate
PublisherPackt
ISBN-139781801075299
Edition1st Edition
Languages
Tools
Right arrow
Author (1)
Andre Landgraf
Andre Landgraf
author image
Andre Landgraf

Andre is a full stack developer from Germany. He graduated with an MS in Information Systems from the Technical University of Munich and was also awarded an MS in Computer Science from Sofia University in Palo Alto. Andre currently lives in Cupertino, California, and he works as a Software Engineer at LinkedIn. Andre loves learning, writing, and speaking about all things web. In his free time, he tutors aspiring developers and builds for the web.
Read more about Andre Landgraf

Right arrow

Assets and Metadata Handling

So far, we’ve practiced routing, data loading and mutations, handling errors, and managing state and sessions in Remix. However, building for the web also involves managing static assets to ensure a smooth and efficient user experience.

In this chapter, we will learn how to manage static assets and meta tags in Remix. This chapter is split into three sections:

  • Using meta tags in Remix
  • Handling fonts, images, stylesheets, and other assets
  • Exposing assets with loader functions

First, we will use Remix’s meta export to create dynamic meta tags based on loader data. Next, we will investigate how to expose static assets in Remix. We will create a robots.txt file, add a custom font, and experiment with nested stylesheets. After that, we will discuss managing images in Remix. Finally, we will see how we can create assets dynamically in loader functions.

After reading this chapter, you will understand how to work with...

Technical requirements

You can find the code for this chapter here: https://github.com/PacktPublishing/Full-Stack-Web-Development-with-Remix/tree/main/09-assets-and-meta-data-handling. You can go ahead and use the end solution from the previous chapter. No additional setup steps are required for this chapter.

Using meta tags in Remix

Meta tags are used to describe the content of an HTML document. They are important for Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and are used by web crawlers to understand the content of your site. Meta tags are also used to configure browser behavior, link previews, and the site’s appearance in the bookmark list and search results.

For example, the title, description, and image meta tags are used on link previews and search pages, like Google's search results. The title meta tag is also used together with the favicon to display the website in the bookmark list.

In this section, you will learn how to add meta tags to your Remix application.

Declaring global meta tags

An application usually exposes some global meta tags that must be included on every page. Since Remix allows us to manage the full HTML document in React, including the head, we can inline global meta tags in the root of our application:

<head>  <meta charSet...

Handling fonts, images, stylesheets, and other assets

Fonts, images, and stylesheets are examples of static assets that need to be efficiently managed when building for the web. To ensure a fast user experience, it is necessary to optimize, minimize, and cache these assets. Proper management of static assets can significantly improve page load times and enhance the overall user experience. In this section, you will learn how to access and manage static assets in Remix. Let’s start by reviewing how to access a simple static file in Remix.

Working with static assets

We can host static assets on our web server so that our client application can access them. As we learned previously, Remix is not a web server but an HTTP request handler. As such, Remix does not offer a built-in way to serve static assets. It’s the underlying web server’s responsibility to set up access for public assets.

Luckily, Remix’s starter templates follow the common pattern of...

Exposing assets with loader functions

Earlier in this chapter, we created a robots.txt file and exposed it by placing it into the public folder. However, we can also use loader functions in resource routes to expose assets. This is particularly useful when we want to dynamically create these assets on the fly or manage user access. To get started, follow these steps:

  1. Delete the existing robots.txt file from the public folder as it will override our API route otherwise.
  2. Create a new robots[.txt].tsx file in the routes folder.

    The square brackets let us escape parts of the route name. Instead of creating a .txt file, we create a .tsx file but ensure that the route matches the robots.txt path.

  3. Add the following content to the newly created resource route:
    const textContent = `User-agent: *Disallow: /dashboard/Allow: /loginAllow: /signupAllow: /$`;export function loader() {  return new Response(textContent, { headers: { 'Content-Type': 'text/plain...

Summary

In this chapter, you learned how to handle static assets and meta tags in Remix.

First, we introduced you to the meta route module export. You learned that Remix injects the meta function’s return value into the head of the HTML element by using the Meta component. Remix will always use the closest meta function export and ignore all other meta function exports higher up in the route hierarchy.

You also learned that Remix runs meta functions both on the client and server. Remix passes the meta function, a data property that can be used to access the route’s loader data. After following this chapter, you should understand that the data property of the meta function can potentially be undefined if a loader function throws an error. Hence, it is important to only conditionally access loader data in meta functions.

You also practiced typing the matches parameter and learned how to access other matching route data in the meta function.

Next, you learned...

Further reading

You can find more information about meta tags in the MDN Web Docs: https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/HTML/Element/meta.

You can learn more about Remix’s route module meta export in the Remix documentation: https://remix.run/docs/en/2.0.0/route/meta.

You can read more about robots.txt files in the Google documentation: https://developers.google.com/search/docs/crawling-indexing/robots/intro.

Review the MDN Web Docs if you want to learn more about link tags: https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/HTML/Element/link.

You can find more information about handling styling in Remix in the Remix documentation: https://remix.run/docs/en/2/styling/css.

You can learn more about working with resource routes in the Remix documentation: https://remix.run/docs/en/2/guides/resource-routes.

lock icon
The rest of the chapter is locked
You have been reading a chapter from
Full Stack Web Development with Remix
Published in: Nov 2023Publisher: PacktISBN-13: 9781801075299
Register for a free Packt account to unlock a world of extra content!
A free Packt account unlocks extra newsletters, articles, discounted offers, and much more. Start advancing your knowledge today.
undefined
Unlock this book and the full library FREE for 7 days
Get unlimited access to 7000+ expert-authored eBooks and videos courses covering every tech area you can think of
Renews at €14.99/month. Cancel anytime

Author (1)

author image
Andre Landgraf

Andre is a full stack developer from Germany. He graduated with an MS in Information Systems from the Technical University of Munich and was also awarded an MS in Computer Science from Sofia University in Palo Alto. Andre currently lives in Cupertino, California, and he works as a Software Engineer at LinkedIn. Andre loves learning, writing, and speaking about all things web. In his free time, he tutors aspiring developers and builds for the web.
Read more about Andre Landgraf