tip #42: Most-Viewed Recipes widget

TIPS.md

@@ -34,3 +34,4 @@ Going forward, new tips are pushed automatically by the `mc_survival_tips.py` cr
 - [Tip #39](tips/2026-07-20-039-performance-native-lazy-loading-for-item-icons.md) (2026-07-20) — **performance**: Native lazy-loading for item icons
 - [Tip #40](tips/2026-07-21-040-i18n-add-english-ui-translation.md) (2026-07-21) — **i18n**: Add English UI translation
 - [Tip #41](tips/2026-07-22-041-social-dynamic-og-image-share-previews.md) (2026-07-22) — **social**: Dynamic OG-Image share previews
+- [Tip #42](tips/2026-07-23-042-data-most-viewed-recipes-widget.md) (2026-07-23) — **data**: Most-Viewed Recipes widget

tips/2026-07-23-042-data-most-viewed-recipes-widget.md

@@ -0,0 +1,22 @@
+---
+tip_number: 42
+date: 2026-07-23
+category: data
+status: pending
+---
+
+# Tip #42 — Most-Viewed Recipes widget
+
+**Date:** 2026-07-23  
+**Category:** data  
+**Source:** MC-Survival Wiki Daily Tip (cron @ 18:00 MESZ)
+
+## Most-Viewed Recipes widget
+
+Track recipe views in a write-only RecipeView { recipeId, userId?, createdAt } table, aggregate the top 10 over the last 30 days, and render them as a widget on the homepage. It solves the 'what is popular' discovery problem: new visitors have no signal about which recipes are most useful, and a 'Most-Viewed' list is the universal way to bootstrap that. The signal is engagement analytics — a top-10 list consistently outperforms a 'featured' or editor-picked list, because the data reflects what the community actually uses. Caching the aggregate for 1 hour via TanStack Query keeps the cost negligible, and writing the view events is a single insert per page load.
+
+## Implementation tips
+
+1. Track views in a RecipeView { recipeId, userId?, createdAt } table (write-only, no read overhead).
+2. Aggregate query: top 10 by count, last 30 days, exclude bots (no User-agent filter — keep simple).
+3. Cache the result for 1h with TanStack Query — re-aggregating on every page load is wasteful.