What is getStaticProps? And Benefits of using in XM Cloud. 

In today’s digital world, delivering a fast, seamless user experience is a key factor in keeping your visitors engaged. With search engines like Google emphasizing site speed and performance as ranking factors, it's essential to ensure that your web pages load quickly. This is where static site generation (SSG) comes into play, and when used alongside tools like XMCloud, it can dramatically enhance your site’s performance. One of the most powerful methods for implementing static site generation in a Next.js application is through getStaticProps.

In this blog post, we'll dive into how to use getStaticProps in XMCloud, its benefits, and how it can help improve your website’s load times, SEO, and overall user experience.

What is getStaticProps?

getStaticProps is a built-in feature in Next.js, the popular React framework, that allows you to fetch data at build time and pre-render the page as static HTML. When you use getStaticProps, the page is generated once during the build process and served as static content, making it fast and ready to be delivered from a CDN (Content Delivery Network) without requiring dynamic rendering on each request.

This method of pre-rendering can be a game-changer in terms of speed and user experience. But how does this work with XMCloud?

How Does getStaticProps Work with XMCloud?

Let’s walk through the steps of how getStaticProps integrates with XMCloud to improve your website’s performance.

1. Fetching Content from XMCloud

XMCloud serves as a centralized content management platform. Through its API or SDK, you can fetch blog posts, product data, images, or any other type of content that you’ve created in the XMCloud system. You can use getStaticProps to query XMCloud and retrieve this content during build time.

2. Static Site Generation at Build Time

When you build your Next.js app, getStaticProps ensures that your page is pre-rendered with the fetched content. This static page is generated once at build time and doesn’t require re-fetching data on each user visit.

3. Serving the Pre-rendered Page

Once the page is pre-rendered and stored as static HTML, it can be delivered to users directly from a CDN, making it incredibly fast to load. Since the page is already generated and does not need to be dynamically rendered every time a user accesses it, you can expect quicker load times and a smoother user experience.

4. Optional Revalidation

With getStaticProps, you can also set a revalidation period. This means that XMCloud content can be fetched and updated periodically (e.g., every 60 seconds). So, your site can still be dynamic and reflect content updates without sacrificing the performance benefits of static rendering.

Key Benefits of Using getStaticProps in XMCloud

1. Lightning-Fast Load Times

Static sites are extremely fast because they don’t need to rely on server-side rendering (SSR) on every request. Instead, the HTML is pre-built and served from a CDN. When combined with XMCloud, you can fetch your content once and serve it as static HTML, ensuring that users experience minimal loading times, especially for media-rich or content-heavy pages.

• Immediate Rendering: Since the page is pre-rendered, users will experience near-instant page loads. This is particularly important for retaining visitors who might leave a site if it takes too long to load.
• Content Delivery at Scale: Static files are easily distributed globally via a CDN, meaning users worldwide will experience fast, consistent load times.

2. Improved SEO

Search engines like Google prioritize fast-loading sites with high-quality content. Pre-rendering content using getStaticProps improves your SEO in several ways:

• Faster Crawl Times: Search engines can crawl static HTML more easily and efficiently compared to dynamic pages, which helps your content get indexed more quickly.
• Better Core Web Vitals: With faster load times and instant interactivity, your site is more likely to score well on Google's Core Web Vitals, which directly influences search rankings.

3. Scalability

Since static pages are served from a CDN, your site can scale without worrying about server load or performance bottlenecks. This is especially beneficial when your site experiences traffic spikes, such as during product launches or promotional events.

• Reduced Server Overload: By offloading the work to a CDN, your server’s resources are freed up, allowing it to handle other tasks efficiently.
• Global Availability: Static files on a CDN are delivered from servers located worldwide, ensuring low latency and fast loading no matter where your users are located.

4. Content Management Simplified

XMCloud simplifies content management by acting as a headless CMS. With getStaticProps, you don’t need to worry about setting up complex backend infrastructure for content fetching. You simply query XMCloud’s APIs, and Next.js handles the rest.

• Centralized Content: All your content (blog posts, product listings, etc.) is managed within XMCloud, making it easier to keep everything organized.
• Seamless Integration: Next.js, with getStaticProps, integrates directly with XMCloud’s APIs to fetch content effortlessly during the build phase.

5. Reduced Backend Complexity

Static site generation with getStaticProps means that there’s no need for a complex backend infrastructure to generate dynamic content on each user request. This reduces both development and operational complexity while improving performance.

• No Need for Backend Requests: Since the content is pre-fetched during build time, you don’t need to handle backend requests for every user visit.
• Simplified Hosting: With static pages, you can host your site on platforms like Vercel, Netlify, or even a basic CDN without worrying about server-side infrastructure

Example: Fetching Blog Data from XMCloud with getStaticProps

Here’s a simplified example of how you can use getStaticProps to fetch blog posts from XMCloud and display them on your website:

// pages/blog.js

import { getBlogPostsFromXMCloud } from '../lib/xmcloud-api';

export async function getStaticProps() {

  const blogPosts = await getBlogPostsFromXMCloud();

  return {

    props: {

      blogPosts,

    },

    revalidate: 60, // Revalidate content every 60 seconds

  };

}

const Blog = ({ blogPosts }) => {

  return (

    <div>

      <h1>Latest Blog Posts</h1>

      <ul>

        {blogPosts.map(post => (

          <li key={post.id}>

            <h2>{post.title}</h2>

            <p>{post.excerpt}</p>

            <a href={`/blog/${post.slug}`}>Read More</a>

          </li>

        ))}

      </ul>

    </div>

  );

};

export default Blog;

In this example:

• Fetching Content: The getBlogPostsFromXMCloud function retrieves blog posts from XMCloud.
• Static Generation: The page is generated statically at build time and revalidated every 60 seconds to ensure that content stays up-to-date.
• Rendering: The blog posts are rendered as a list, and users can click to read more about each post.