This guide compiles collective insights and recommendations from Optimizely experts for implementing Optimizely SaaS CMS, focusing on achieving stability and optimal performance. These are practical learnings from various projects and are shared to help you avoid common pitfalls and build robust solutions:

1. Caching Strategies

  • Understand Layered Caching: Be aware of the multiple layers of caching involved, including the SDK, your frontend application, and Optimizely Graph.
  • Static Site Generation (SSG) with Webhooks: When performing static site generation and re-generating content via webhooks from Graph, it is crucial to bypass the cache in Graph. This prevents pulling stale content, as cache eviction triggered by webhooks has no timing guarantee.
  • Dynamic Content Generation: For any dynamically generated content, always leverage caching to improve performance. Do not bypass the cache in these scenarios.
  • Utilize Graph's Built-in Features: Make use of Optimizely Graph's inherent caching capabilities to enhance overall performance.
  • Cached Templates: Employ cached templates where appropriate to further optimize content delivery.

2. Content Modeling for Performance and Stability

  • Avoid Deep Nesting: Complex page graph structures and deeply nested content can significantly slow down serialization and impact performance. Design your content models to keep nesting shallow.
  • Shallow Shared Blocks: If you utilize shared blocks, ensure they are designed to be shallow. Avoid patterns where shared blocks reference other pages, which can in turn reference more shared blocks, creating problematic reference loops.
  • Global Content Management: For global items such as navigation menus or site-wide settings, consider placing them in a specific, dedicated site node. Query these items separately rather than embedding them directly within individual pages.
  • Leverage Content Binding (New Feature): To prevent deep nesting and guide editors towards efficient content reuse, utilize content binding.
  • Define specific "promotion block" content types that contain only the properties required for display in the frontend.
  • Create a content binding from your page type to this promotion block type, referencing only the page properties you wish to use.
  • Limit content areas or sections to only allow these promotion block types, rather than full pages.
  • When an editor wants to promote a page, they create a new inline block of the promotion type and select the page they want to bind it to. This allows reuse without pulling in the entire page's content structure.
  • Single Source of Truth for Content Models: Always maintain a single, authoritative source for your content models. If content model changes are made directly via the UI, ensure these modifications are promptly pulled down and synchronized with your source control system.

3. Error Handling and Validation

  • Robust Error Handling for Paths: When implementing editor control over URL paths, ensure you have comprehensive error handling in place for the single "fall back" route. A single unhandled error in this critical path can potentially break the entire site.
  • Query Validation Against Graph Schema: Implement query validation against the Optimizely Graph Schema as a best practice. This proactive approach helps ensure that every deployment will function as expected and that any non-working code will cause a deployment failure rather than runtime issues on your live site.
  • Anticipate Graph Schema Changes: Be prepared for the possibility of unexpected changes in the Graph Schema and understand how these might impact your application.

4. Deployment and Development Practices

  • SaaS Instance Awareness: Be mindful of potential differences between various Optimizely SaaS instances (e.g., whether Digital Asset Management (DAM) is enabled or not).
  • Leverage Codegen: Utilize code generation tools to streamline development, improve efficiency, and maintain consistency across your codebase.
  • CMS Data Attributes: Restrict the rendering of data attributes exclusively to when you are working within the Optimizely CMS environment.
  • Asset URLs: Where possible, avoid exposing raw CMS URLs for assets directly to the public.
  • Item Queries for Efficiency: When fetching single content items, use item queries for optimal performance and efficiency.

Disclaimer

This guide represents the collective experience and insights of multiple Optimizely employees, Optimizely experts and the wider Optimizely community. It is intended to provide practical advice based on real-world implementations and should be considered alongside official documentation and your specific project requirements.

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