Blogerko

Blogerko – Exploring Next.js Server-Side Rendering and Server Actions

Blogerko is a full-stack blog platform and one of the most important learning projects in my journey with Next.js. This was the project where I first properly introduced myself to server-side rendering (SSR) and server actions, and started understanding how data fetching, rendering, and user interactions work together on the server.

Rather than keeping the project minimal, I intentionally filled the database with a large amount of mock data to simulate a more realistic content-heavy application and to explore performance, filtering, and sorting at scale.

Why I Built Blogerko

When learning Next.js, I wanted a project that would force me to think beyond client-side rendering. Blog platforms are ideal for this because they benefit greatly from:

• Server-rendered content
• SEO-friendly pages
• Structured data models
• Scalable filtering and sorting

Blogerko became my playground for experimenting with how Next.js handles data on the server, how authentication fits into that flow, and how to build an application that feels fast even with a larger dataset.

What the Project Does

Blogerko is a blogging application that allows users to:

• Create and read blog posts
• Comment on posts
• Browse a large collection of articles
• Filter and sort content dynamically

The app is designed to feel like a real content platform rather than a demo, with realistic data and interactions that mirror production scenarios.

Server-Side Rendering for Performance and SEO

One of the main goals of Blogerko was to understand SSR in Next.js. Pages are rendered on the server, allowing content to be delivered quickly and indexed easily by search engines.

This approach improves:

• Initial page load performance
• SEO and metadata handling
• User experience on slower devices or networks

Working with SSR helped me better understand when server-side rendering is the right choice and how it impacts application architecture.

Server Actions and Data Mutations

Blogerko was also my first real project using server actions for handling mutations like creating posts and adding comments. Instead of relying on traditional API routes for everything, server actions allowed for a more direct and intuitive data flow.

This significantly simplified:

• Form submissions
• Database writes
• Error handling
• Server-client boundaries

It was an important step toward writing cleaner and more maintainable Next.js applications.

Working With Large Mock Data Sets

To make the project more realistic, the database was seeded with a large amount of mock content. This made it possible to experiment with:

• Filtering posts by different criteria
• Sorting by date or relevance
• Pagination and query optimization
• Prisma performance patterns

This aspect of the project helped me think about scalability even at an early learning stage.

How It’s Built

Frontend

The frontend is built with Next.js and TypeScript, using Tailwind CSS for styling. The UI is intentionally clean and minimal, keeping the focus on content readability and usability.

Backend, Database & Authentication

Blogerko uses PostgreSQL as its database, with Prisma ORM handling schema definition and queries. Authentication is implemented with NextAuth.js, using Google OAuth for a simple and secure login experience.

The combination of SSR, server actions, and Prisma made this project a strong foundation for understanding modern full-stack React development.

What I Learned From This Project

Blogerko was a turning point in my learning process. It helped me gain hands-on experience with:

• Next.js server-side rendering
• Server actions and form handling
• Database modeling with Prisma
• Authentication flows with OAuth
• Performance considerations for data-heavy applications

It laid the groundwork for the more advanced projects I built later.

Final Thoughts

Blogerko represents an important milestone in my development journey. While conceptually simple, it taught me core architectural principles that I now apply to more complex, production-ready applications.

This project showcases my ability to learn new frameworks deeply, experiment thoughtfully, and build full-stack solutions with scalability and performance in mind.

👉 Live Demo: https://blogerko.vercel.app/