From aa353f8d32cc8319051804a1b4682a5d3c81fa82 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: Arunoda Susiripala <arunoda.susiripala@gmail.com>
Date: Mon, 15 May 2017 09:12:27 +0530
Subject: [PATCH] Add docs.

---
 readme.md | 70 +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
 1 file changed, 70 insertions(+)

diff --git a/readme.md b/readme.md
index 17c4041e..007da30a 100644
--- a/readme.md
+++ b/readme.md
@@ -39,6 +39,7 @@ Next.js is a minimalistic framework for server-rendered React applications.
   - [Customizing babel config](#customizing-babel-config)
   - [CDN support with Asset Prefix](#cdn-support-with-asset-prefix)
 - [Production deployment](#production-deployment)
+- [Static HTML export](#static-html-export)
 - [Recipes](#recipes)
 - [FAQ](#faq)
 - [Contributing](#contributing)
@@ -761,6 +762,75 @@ Next.js can be deployed to other hosting solutions too. Please have a look at th
 
 Note: we recommend putting `.next`, or your custom dist folder (Please have a look at ['Custom Config'](You can set a custom folder in config https://github.com/zeit/next.js#custom-configuration.)), in `.npmignore` or `.gitignore`. Otherwise, use `files` or `now.files` to opt-into a whitelist of files you want to deploy (and obviously exclude `.next` or your custom dist folder)
 
+## Static HTML export
+
+This is a way to run your Next.js app as a standalone static app without any Node.js server. The export app supports almost every feature of Next.js including dyanmic urls, prefetching, preloading and dynamic imports.
+
+### Usage
+
+Simply develop your app as you normally do with Next.js. Then create a custom Next.js [config](https://github.com/zeit/next.js#custom-configuration) as shown below:
+
+```js
+// next.config.js
+module.exports = {
+  exportPathMap: function () {
+    return {
+      "/": { page: "/" },
+      "/about": { page: "/about" },
+      "/p/hello-nextjs": { page: "/post", query: { title: "hello-nextjs" } },
+      "/p/learn-nextjs": { page: "/post", query: { title: "learn-nextjs" } },
+      "/p/deploy-nextjs": { page: "/post", query: { title: "deploy-nextjs" } }
+    }
+  },
+}
+```
+
+In that, you specify what are the pages you need to export as static HTML.
+
+Then simply run these commands:
+
+```sh
+next build
+next export
+```
+
+For that you may need to add a NPM script to `package.json` like this:
+
+```json
+{
+    "scripts": {
+        "build": "next build && next export"
+    }
+}
+```
+
+And run it at once with:
+
+```sh
+npm run build
+```
+
+Then you've a static version of your app in the “out" directory.
+
+> You can also customize the output directory. For that run `next export -h` for the help.
+
+Now you can deploy that directory to any static hosting service. 
+
+For an example, simply visit the “out” directory and run following command to deploy your app to [ZEIT now](https://zeit.co/now).
+
+```sh
+now
+```
+
+### Limitation
+
+With next export, we build HTML version of your app when you run the command `next export`. In that time, we'll run the `getInitialProps` functions of your pages.
+
+So, you could only use `pathname`, `query` and `asPath` fields of the `context` object passed to `getInitialProps`. You can't use `req` or `res` fields.
+
+> Basically, you won't be able to render HTML content dynamically as we pre-build HTML files. If you need that, you need run your app with `next start`.
+
+
 ## Recipes
 
 - [Setting up 301 redirects](https://www.raygesualdo.com/posts/301-redirects-with-nextjs/)