Optimizing Blog API Integration: Lessons Learned with Dev.to and Hashnode

During the development of my personal portfolio with Astro, I ran into an interesting challenge: how to efficiently integrate my Dev.to and Hashnode posts without having to rebuild the site every time I post new content?

The Problem

The problem seemed simple at first: display all my posts from both platforms on a single page. However, I encountered several challenges:

1. Pagination Limits: Initially, I was getting only the first 20-30 posts
2. Lost Posts: Every time I published a new post, I had to modify the code for it to appear
3. Aggressive Cache: New posts did not appear immediately due to cache

The Solution

1. Serverless Endpoint

I created a serverless endpoint in Astro that combines the posts from both platforms:

export const GET: APIRoute = async () => {
  const [hashnodePosts, devtoPosts] = await Promise.all([
    getHashnodePosts(),
    getDevToPosts()
  ]);

  const allPosts = [...hashnodePosts, ...devtoPosts]
    .sort((a, b) => 
      new Date(b.rawDate).getTime() - new Date(a.rawDate).getTime()
    );

  return new Response(JSON.stringify(allPosts), {
    headers: {
      'Content-Type': 'application/json',
      'Cache-Control': 'no-store, no-cache, must-revalidate'
    }
  });
};

2. Maximizing Post Earnings

The key is to request the maximum number of posts possible:

// Para Dev.to
const params = new URLSearchParams({
  username: 'goaqidev',
  per_page: '1000', // Máximo número de posts
  state: 'published'
});

// Para Hashnode
const query = `
  query {
    publication(host: "goaqidev.hashnode.dev") {
      posts(first: 1000) { // Máximo número de posts
        edges {
          node {
            title
            brief
            // ...otros campos
          }
        }
      }
    }
  }
`;

3. Avoiding the Cache

To ensure fresh content, I implemented an anti-cache strategy:

const timestamp = new Date().getTime();
const response = await fetch(`/api/posts.json?_=${timestamp}`, {
  headers: {
    'Cache-Control': 'no-cache',
    'Pragma': 'no-cache'
  }
});

4. Client Implementation

To keep the interface up to date, I created a React component that handles loading and updating posts:

import { useState, useEffect } from 'react';

function BlogPosts() {
  const [posts, setPosts] = useState([]);
  const [loading, setLoading] = useState(true);

  useEffect(() => {
    const fetchPosts = async () => {
      try {
        const timestamp = new Date().getTime();
        const response = await fetch(`/api/posts.json?_=${timestamp}`);
        const data = await response.json();
        setPosts(data);
      } catch (error) {
        console.error('Error fetching posts:', error);
      } finally {
        setLoading(false);
      }
    };

    fetchPosts();
    // Actualizar cada 5 minutos
    const interval = setInterval(fetchPosts, 5 * 60 * 1000);
    return () => clearInterval(interval);
  }, []);

  if (loading) return <div>Cargando posts...</div>;

  return (
    <div classname="grid grid-cols-1 md:grid-cols-2 lg:grid-cols-3 gap-4">
      {posts.map(post => (
        <article key="{post.id}" classname="card">
          <h2 id="post-title">{post.title}</h2>
          <p>{post.brief}</p>
          <a href="%7Bpost.url%7D">Leer más</a>
        </article>
      ))}
    </div>
  );
}

Benefits Obtained

1. Automatic Update: New posts appear without needing to rebuild the site
2. Better Performance: Initial loading is faster thanks to the serverless endpoint
3. No Content Loss: All posts are accessible, regardless of when they were published
4. Reduced Maintenance: No manual intervention required to display new posts

Error Handling

I implemented a robust error handling system:

async function fetchPosts() {
  try {
    const response = await fetch('/api/posts.json');
    if (!response.ok) {
      throw new Error(`HTTP error! status: ${response.status}`);
    }
    const posts = await response.json();
    return posts;
  } catch (error) {
    console.error('Error fetching posts:', error);
    // Intentar cargar desde caché local si está disponible
    const cachedPosts = localStorage.getItem('blog_posts');
    return cachedPosts ? JSON.parse(cachedPosts) : [];
  }
}

Performance Optimization

To further improve performance, I implemented:

1. Local Cache:

// Guardar posts en localStorage
localStorage.setItem('blog_posts', JSON.stringify(posts));

// Cargar posts desde localStorage mientras se actualiza
const cachedPosts = localStorage.getItem('blog_posts');
if (cachedPosts) {
  setPosts(JSON.parse(cachedPosts));
}

1. Lazy Loading of Images:

function PostImage({ src, alt }) {
  return (
    <img loading="lazy" src="%7Bsrc%7D" alt="{alt}" classname="w-full h-48 object-cover">
  );
}

This solution has proven to be robust and efficient, allowing me to:

• Keep my portfolio automatically updated
• Improve user experience with fast charging
• Reduce the need for manual maintenance
• Ensure all my content is available and up to date

Next Steps

I plan to implement:

1. Post search and filtering system
2. Content preview
3. Engagement metrics
4. Unified comment system

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