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How do you enable SSR (Server-Side Rendering) in Angular?

 To enable Server-Side Rendering (SSR) in Angular, you use Angular Universal, which allows your app to be rendered on the server before being sent to the browser. This improves SEO, speeds up first contentful paint, and enhances social sharing capabilities.

Here’s a step-by-step guide:

How do you enable SSR (Server-Side Rendering) in Angular?

🔧 Step 1: Add Angular Universal to Your App

Use the Angular CLI to add SSR support:

ng add @nguniversal/express-engine

This command does the following:

  • Installs required dependencies like @nguniversal/express-engine

  • Adds server-specific files: server.ts, main.server.ts, app.server.module.ts

  • Updates angular.json with server build configuration

  • Configures a basic Express server

📁 Step 2: Understand the New File Structure

After running the command, you'll see:

  • src/main.server.ts – entry point for server bundle

  • src/app/app.server.module.ts – your AppModule tailored for SSR

  • server.ts – Express server that handles SSR requests

🏗 Step 3: Build the Application

To build both the browser and server versions of the app:

npm run build:ssr

This builds:

  • dist/browser/ – client-side app

  • dist/server/ – server-side app

🚀 Step 4: Serve the SSR Application

After building, run the server with:

npm run serve:ssr

This uses the Express server to serve your Angular app with SSR.

⚙️ Step 5: Configure Deployment (Optional)

For production:

🌐 Benefits of Angular SSR

BenefitWhy It Matters
SEOCrawlers can index rendered HTML
PerformanceFaster first paint and perceived speed
Social SharingMeta tags are server-rendered
🧪 Optional: Pre-rendering Static Routes

If your site is mostly static, you can pre-render pages at build time:

ng run [project-name]:prerender

This generates static HTML pages without needing a Node server.

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