Next.js for financial dashboards

Building financial dashboards requires real-time data, complex visualizations, and excellent user experience. Next.js provides the perfect foundation for these applications, combining React's component model with server-side rendering and API routes.

Why Next.js?

Next.js offers:

• Server-side rendering for fast initial loads
• API routes for backend logic
• TypeScript support out of the box
• Excellent developer experience
• Great performance optimizations

Architecture

We use:

• Next.js for the framework
• TypeScript for type safety
• Tailwind CSS for styling
• Recharts or Chart.js for visualizations
• SWR or React Query for data fetching

Example: Dashboard Page

import { GetServerSideProps } from 'next';
import { useState } from 'react';
import useSWR from 'swr';

interface DashboardProps {
  initialData: FinancialData;
}

export default function Dashboard({ initialData }: DashboardProps) {
  const { data, error } = useSWR('/api/financial-data', {
    fallbackData: initialData,
    refreshInterval: 5000, // Refresh every 5 seconds
  });

  if (error) return <div>Error loading data</div>;
  if (!data) return <div>Loading...</div>;

  return (
    <div className="grid grid-cols-3 gap-4">
      <BalanceCard balance={data.balance} />
      <TransactionList transactions={data.transactions} />
      <Chart data={data.chartData} />
    </div>
  );
}

export const getServerSideProps: GetServerSideProps = async () => {
  const data = await fetchFinancialData();
  return { props: { initialData: data } };
};

Real-Time Updates

function useRealtimeFinancialData() {
  const { data, mutate } = useSWR('/api/financial-data');
  
  useEffect(() => {
    const eventSource = new EventSource('/api/stream');
    eventSource.onmessage = (event) => {
      const newData = JSON.parse(event.data);
      mutate(newData, false); // Update without revalidation
    };
    return () => eventSource.close();
  }, [mutate]);
  
  return data;
}

Security Considerations

• Authenticate all API routes
• Validate all user inputs
• Use HTTPS in production
• Implement rate limiting
• Sanitize data before display

Performance

• Use static generation when possible
• Implement proper caching
• Optimize images
• Code split large components
• Monitor performance metrics

"Financial dashboards need to be fast, accurate, and secure."

Best Practices

1. Type everything with TypeScript
2. Handle loading and error states
3. Implement proper authentication
4. Optimize for performance
5. Test thoroughly