IncludeServerUrlInMediaUrls

[mg-aceik]

Description

I notice that the proxy of media item requests has been disabled / removed here, I would just like to know the recommendation now regarding this one - https://doc.sitecore.com/xmc/en/developers/jss/22/jss-xmc/troubleshooting-jss-next-js-apps.html#sitecore-images-dont-load-on-localhost

So setting the IncludeServerUrlInMediaUrls to false will no longer work on dev or in prod.

In particular, I'm interested to know the rationale of why this is a bad idea in prod, as the benefit of it is that all media links get the custom domain automatically without needing to bind a custom domain to Experience Edge.

Additional information

No response

[mg-aceik]

One down side is it incurs a serverless function hit for every media item that you serve. On hosts like netflify and vercel, you have a quota for both cached and uncached hits. While the cost for cached hits is low, it might add up over time.

[MenKNas]

Hello @mg-aceik and thanks for your question. You're right — the Content SDK no longer supports relative media URLs, and the proxy approach has been removed. Regarding your question, yes, setting IncludeServerUrlInMediaUrls = false will no longer be effective in dev or prod.

We’d love to better understand your use case — could you share more about your environment setup and what you're aiming to achieve with custom domains? Also, is this for local development only, or are you interested in production use cases as well?

Regarding the issue you linked to in the JSS troubleshooting docs ("Sitecore images don’t load on localhost") — could you share how you were previously using that setup and what your current scenario or goal is? That would help us understand the context and provide more targeted guidance.

[jballe]

I would also argue that the best approach is to serve medias through experience edge and if a custom domain is preferred then add it to experience edge.
However, I know there is something about when using preview context and targetHostname is specified then the media urls are with /-/jssmedia/ instead of the edge domain domain (and target hostname is necessary to have usable sitemaps generated), so something might be needed.