Best Practices for SSR User Preferences?
Hello everyone 😊 I 'm hoping to get some architectural guidance on the best way to approach state management for users and visitors . I 'm relatively new to web development , so I would very much appreciate the help . 🙏 My goal is to create a system for managing user preferences (theme , layout , etc . ) that works seamlessly for both guests and authenticated users , with two key principles : 1 . No UI Flash : The initial page load must be server -side rendered with the user 's correct preferences . 2 . Optimistic UI : When a setting is changed , the UI should update instantly . My initial approach for authenticated users was based entirely on formulas and variables within my app _wrapper : - Formulas were "exposed in context " to pass down styles and settings . - These formulas used a defaultTo ( variable , auth _me _data ) pattern . This allowed for an optimistic UI (updating the variable ) while having the server -rendered auth _me _data as the default , preventing a flash for logged -in users . - Workflows , also "exposed in context " , handled updating the variables and syncing changes to the database in the background . I soon realized this architecture had a major limitation : it didn 't solve the UI flash for visitors , as they have no auth /me data for the server to render and variables aren 't initialized at that point . To create one unified , streamlined system , I decided to pivot to a "Cookie -First " Approach for SSR , since cookies can be read by the server for all users . The core logic remains the same , but the cookie becomes the primary source of truth for the initial render . However , I 've run into a roadblock trying to implement it . 😅 My logic for syncing an authenticated user 's preferences from the database to the cookie is failing : - The login API endpoint correctly returns an authToken and the user 's display _prefs object . - I use the " Set session cookies " action to securely store the authToken . This works perfectly . - In the onSuccess event of that action , I use the built -in " Set Cookie " action , passing the Encode JSON result of my display _prefs object as the value . The Problem : The Set Cookie action fails silently . I 've isolated this with a simple test button ; the action 's Success event fires every time , but the cookie never appears in the browser 's developer tools . The AI assistant suggests a possible cause : my app is served over HTTPS , and modern browsers will often silently reject cookies if they are not marked with the Secure flag . Unsure if it 's related but I do indeed have the Toddle extension enabled and I 'm using Google Chrome browser . Also , I did try different naming conventions for the cookie though I 'm sure that doesn 't matter . 1 . Is the ai assistant correct ? Is the missing Secure flag the most likely reason the browser is rejecting the cookie on an HTTPS connection ? 2 . If so , is there a way to force the built -in Set Cookie action to add this flag , or is a custom JavaScript action the only solution ? 3 . Are there potential GDPR implications I should be aware of with this cookie -based approach ? (My plan was to have this preference cookie auto -generated on a user 's first visit and classify it as "essential " for site functionality . ) 4 . Looking at my overall approach , is this a sound and robust way to handle SSR preferences , or would you suggest an alternative , simpler pattern for managing this in Nordcraft ? Again , I 'm new to these concepts and I 'm trying to follow best practices to lay a solid foundation for my learning and my projects . I truly appreciate any guidance you can offer . Thank you ! 🙏 ☺️
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