How can you implement custom error boundaries in a Next.js project to gracefully handle errors and prevent the entire application from crashing?

Here’s how to implement custom error boundaries in Next.js to gracefully handle errors and enhance application resilience:

1. Create a Custom Error Boundary Component:

• Define a class component that extends React’s React.Component class.
• Implement the static getDerivedStateFromError(error) lifecycle method to capture errors and update the component’s state.
• Render a fallback UI in the render() method when errors occur, preventing the entire application from crashing.

import React from 'react';

class ErrorBoundary extends React.Component {
    constructor(props) {
        super(props);
        this.state = { hasError: false };
    }

    static getDerivedStateFromError(error) {
        return { hasError: true };
    }

    componentDidCatch(error, errorInfo) {
        // Optionally log the error or send 
        //it to an error reporting service
    }

    render() {
        if (this.state.hasError) {
            return <h1>Something went wrong.</h1>;
        }
        return this.props.children;
    }
}

2. Wrap Components with the Error Boundary:

• Use the <ErrorBoundary> component as a wrapper around any components or sections of your application you want to protect.

<ErrorBoundary>
    <MyComponent />
</ErrorBoundary>

Key Points:

• Error Handling: Error boundaries catch both JavaScript errors (e.g., syntax errors, runtime exceptions) and React errors (e.g., errors thrown during rendering).
• Error Propagation: Unhandled errors within the error boundary itself propagate up to the nearest parent error boundary, creating a hierarchy for error handling.