www-new/docs/pages.md

# Pages

All pages are a separate React component in our repository, under the [pages](../pages) folder. This is a [special directory](https://nextjs.org/docs/tag/v11.0.0/basic-features/pages) used by Next.js which maps a React component exported from this directory to a page on a url.

The React components exported by these files are wrapped by the [`App` component](../pages/_app.tsx). This lets us reuse code in between pages which makes it a good place to render the [navbar](../components/Navbar.tsx), [footer](../components/Footer.tsx), [background shapes](../components/ShapesBackground.tsx), and the general CSS layout of a page.

## Title

We use a custom [`Title` component](../components/Title.tsx) to set the title on our pages. This is a very simple component and is just a wrapper around the Next.js [`Head` component](https://nextjs.org/docs/tag/v11.0.0/api-reference/next/head). It also automatically prefixes each title with "CSC - University of Waterloo". Look at the [code](../components/Title.tsx) for more details.

### Example 1

```tsx
import { Title } from "@/components/Title"

function FooPage() {
  return (
    <>
      <Title>Title in the tab</Title>
      <div>Content of the page</div>
    </>
  )
}

// The page's content will be "Content of the page"
// The title of the page (as shown at the top of the browser in the tab) is "CSC - University of Waterloo - Title in the tab"
```

### Example 2

You can also pass in an array of strings, and the [`Title` component](../components/Title.tsx) will automatically join them with " - ".

```tsx
import { Title } from "@/components/Title"

function FooPage() {
  return (
    <>
      <Title>{["Foo", "Bar", "Baz"]}</Title>
      <div>Content of the page</div>
    </>
  )
}

// The page's content will be "Content of the page"
// The title of the page (as shown at the top of the browser in the tab) is "CSC - University of Waterloo - Foo - Bar - Baz"
```

## Layout

Most pages are wrapped with the [`DefaultLayout`](../components/DefaultLayout.tsx) component which limits the page width and adds the necessary margins and paddings. However, some pages need to override these default styles to accomodate for their specific design. For example:

- The [home page](../pages/index.tsx) is wider than all the other pages.
- The [about us](../pages/about/index.tsx) needs the entire screen width to properly render the [bubbles](../components/Bubble.tsx).

<figure>
  <img src="static/bubbles-example.png" alt="bubble on about page" />
  <figcaption>
    The bubble component on the About us page
  </figcaption>
</figure>

We have an opt-in model for using a custom layout for pages. This is enabled by the static `Layout` function on a React component for a page.

### Example

```tsx
function PageXYZ() {
  return <p>I am a page</p>
}

// If we want this page to use a custom layout, we can add a static `Layout` function to it.
PageXYZ.Layout = function PageXYZLayout(props: { children: React.ReactNode }) {
  return <div className={styles.customLayoutStyles}>{props.children}</div>;
}
```

It is extremely important to return `props.children` as part of the JSX because this contains the entire page. If you fail to return it, the page will **not** show up.

Note that this functionality is **not** a part of Next.js. We take advantage of static properties in the [_app.tsx](../pages/_app.tsx#L30) file to implement this.

## Shapes Background

Just like the static `Layout` function, we use another static function on React pages called `getShapesConfig`. Most pages use the [default config](../components/ShapesBackground.tsx#L188) which positions shapes randomly on the page. Some pages require a little artistic nudge or even hardcoding the shapes to appear in certain locations.

Pages like the [home page](../pages/index.tsx) can use the `getShapesConfig` function to customize what shapes they want the page to render. 

### Example 1

```tsx
import { GetShapesConfig } from "@/components/ShapesBackground";

PageXYZ.getShapesConfig = (() => {
  // I ONLY LIKE DOTS AND WAVES!!!!
  return {
    dots: [
      {
        // These map to CSS properties. You don't have to use all of them. Use the ones that you want.
        top: "calc(0.06 * (580rem / 0.65) / 16)",
        right: "90vw",
        width: "calc(168rem / 16)",
        height: "calc(204rem / 16)",
        filter: "var(--teal)",
        opacity: "25%",
      }
    ],
    waves: [
      {
        top: "calc(0.5 * (580rem / 0.65) / 16)",
        left: "24vw",
        width: "calc(116rem / 16)",
        height: "calc(58rem / 16)",
        filter: "var(--teal)",
      },
    ]
  }
}) as GetShapesConfig
```

Note that background shapes are not rendered into html files during build time because it is impossible to know the window dimensions. This means that you can safely use `window.innerWidth` and `window.innerHeight` as well use the width and height of the shapes container inside the `getShapesConfig` function to change the shapes based on size of the screen.

### Example 2
```tsx
import { GetShapesConfig } from "@/components/ShapesBackground";

PageXYZ.getShapesConfig = ((containerWidth, containerHeight) => {
  // I like dots on desktops
  if (window.innerWidth >= 768) {
    return {
      dots: [
        {
          // These map to CSS properties. You don't have to use all of them. Use the ones that you want.
          top: "calc(0.06 * (580rem / 0.65) / 16)",
          right: "90vw",
          width: "calc(168rem / 16)",
          height: "calc(204rem / 16)",
          filter: "var(--teal)",
          opacity: "25%",
        }
      ],
    }
  }
  // but waves on phones and tables
  else {
    return {
      waves: [
        {
          top: "calc(0.5 * (580rem / 0.65) / 16)",
          left: "24vw",
          width: "calc(116rem / 16)",
          height: "calc(58rem / 16)",
          filter: "var(--teal)",
        },
      ]
    }
  }
}) as GetShapesConfig
```

As with the `Layout` function, this is **not** a part of Next.js. We take advantage of static properties in the [_app.tsx](../pages/_app.tsx#L51) file to implement this.