Next.js Caching Features

Catalyst uses several caching mechanisms in Next.js, including request memoization and the Data Cache. These are designed to improve performance, reduce redundant requests, and lower rendering costs. For more details, check out the Caching documentation (opens in a new tab) on Next.js.

Request Memoization

Catalyst utilizes Next.js’s request memoization (opens in a new tab) to ensure data is fetched once during the React render cycle, even if requested multiple times within the component tree. This reduces unnecessary network requests, improving performance across your storefront.

For data fetching that might potentially be performed multiple times within a single page request, we wrap async functions with the cache utility. This memoizes the result and returns the cached value on subsequent calls.

Example:

 export const getProduct = 
  cache(
    async (entityId: number, customerAccessToken?: string) => {
      const { data } = await client.fetch({
        ...
      });
 
      return data.site.product;
    }
  );

Data Cache

Next.js extends the native fetch API to cache data across requests, allowing cached data reuse until it's invalidated. This ensures faster response times and reduces the load on external APIs, like the BigCommerce GraphQL Storefront API.

Data Cache behavior is controlled by the fetchOptions parameter passed to the Catalyst API Client (opens in a new tab).

Example:

import { revalidate } from '~/client/revalidate-target';
 
const { data } = await client.fetch({
  document: ProductQuery,
  fetchOptions: { next: { revalidate } },
});

fetchOptions parameters are passed directly to fetch and follow the standard Next.js conventions. See the Next.js docs on the cache (opens in a new tab) and next.revalidate (opens in a new tab) parameters.

Anonymous vs. Customer-Specific Requests

By default, Catalyst utilizes the Data Cache for fetch requests for anonymous data, which account for the vast majority of requests on a typical storefront.

This setup ensures non-unique, repeatable requests benefit from caching while requests affected by customer context are appropriately dynamic.

• Cacheable data: For data that is cacheable, such as product data, fetchOptions is configured to allow caching for guests and disallow it for logged-in customers.
• Non-cacheable data: For data that is never appropriate to cache, such as cart data, fetchOptions is always configured to disallow caching.

This configuration is passed on a per-request basis, so you can configure caching behavior to best suit the needs of a particular fetch.

Recommended Practices

To ensure optimal performance, when crafting your own API requests, use fetchOptions to take advantage of the Data Cache for any anonymous data or disable it for customer-specific data.

Example of catalog data fetch:

import { getSessionCustomerAccessToken } from '~/auth';
import { revalidate } from '~/client/revalidate-target';
 
const customerAccessToken = await getSessionCustomerAccessToken();
 
const { data } = await client.fetch({
  document: ProductQuery,
  customerAccessToken,
  fetchOptions: customerAccessToken ? { cache: 'no-store' } : { next: { revalidate } },
});

Example of cart data fetch:

import { getSessionCustomerAccessToken } from '~/auth';
 
const customerAccessToken = await getSessionCustomerAccessToken();
 
const { data } = await client.fetch({
  document: CartQuery,
  customerAccessToken,
  fetchOptions: {
    cache: 'no-store',
  },
});

Controlling Cache Duration

For data that is not customer-specific, we usually apply a default caching strategy of 1 hour, adjustable via the revalidate property in the fetch function. Most functions use a value based on the DEFAULT_REVALIDATE_TARGET environment variable. Adjust this value depending on your store's needs. Here’s a recommendation guide:

Rate Limiting

BigCommerce GraphQL mutations are rate-limited by the request IP. Catalyst adds the shopper’s IP address to the request headers when a fetch request has a cache value of no-store or no-cache. This helps prevent rate limiting and ensures your store can handle high traffic.