Loader V2 - A major upgrade to Plasmic architecture

We just rolled out a coordinated set of upgrades across the Plasmic packages that power the shared core logic behind both hostless projects and loader/codegen codebases.

This has been a large effort that we’ve been working on for quite a while, and it represents one of the biggest architectural updates we’ve made to the package layer. Under the hood this is a foundational modernization of the core engine that Plasmic users build their codebases on.

How this impacts you

This upgrade is optional, and all of the versions that are currently out in production are not affected in any way.

But we strongly recommend moving to the newest version to receive all of the latest security updates and the benefits of React 19 and Next.js.

Hostless projects
If you don’t have a codebase deployed on a third-party server, no changes are needed!

Loader/Codegen projects
If you are using app host and have an existing codebase you can either:

  • Upgrade your codebase to use app router
  • Keep using pages router, and just apply a few minor fixes to the Plasmic initialization config

To see all of the instructions please visit the Migration guide in our docs.

What’s included

  • Major version updates for:
    • @plasmicapp/loader-nextjs
    • @plasmicapp/loader-react
    • @plasmicapp/loader-gatsby
  • Version upgrades across related codegen/runtime packages such as:
    • @plasmicapp/host
    • @plasmicapp/react-web
    • @plasmicapp/react-web-runtime
    • @plasmicapp/data-sources
  • Raised minimum runtime requirements to modern baselines, including:
    • React 18+
    • Next.js 14+ (for @plasmicapp/loader-nextjs)
    • Node 18.17+

What this unlocks

  • Full support for React 19
  • Complete support for the Next.js App Router
  • Better alignment with React Server Components
  • Ability to create hostless packages that rely on back-end functionality
  • Pre-requisite for registering custom data queries to edit them visually in the studio

What’s next

This release is laying the groundwork for the next phase of improvements. We’re already working on a larger set of follow-on updates planned for the coming months, and this upgrade is what enables that next wave of work. Here’s a preview of what’s coming:

  • Registered data queries — Define and register custom data queries so they can be edited and wired up visually inside Plasmic Studio
  • Custom back-end functions via interactions — Call your own server-side functions directly from Plasmic interactions, enabling richer event-driven logic without leaving the visual editor
  • Data tokens — A new token type for binding design tokens to dynamic data, keeping your UI in sync with back-end values
  • Updated back-end integrations — Expanded support for connecting to additional data sources and back-end services from within Plasmic
4 Likes

Nice! Looking forward to trying it all out~

1 Like

Hi there!

Sounds good. Could you provide a Migration guide for Users of @plasmicapp/nextjs-app-router?
Is this obsolete? Is GraphQl Data Fetcher implemented in this?

I see wird Issues using @plasmicapp/nextjs-app-router
But no data in SSR from GQL Datafetcher

1 Like

@johannes_wolfl Hi!
Yeah, sure, we are about to release the docs for migrating from the experimental versions of this integration.
As soon as we post them, I will release an announcement here and on Slack.
That package is obsolete, yes, but:

  • it’s fairly easy to migrate to a new version, and we’re happy to help if any question will arise
  • it will continue to work even if you will not update it right now

And yes - GraphQL data fetcher is included out of the box. You won’t need a codebase for using GraphQL integration, and the data will be available during SSR.