What is GraphQL? The Ultimate Guide to the Next Big Thing in API Design

GraphQL is the latest technology to develop new generation queries, Application Programming Interfaces, and many other use cases. It is useful for science, medicine, data and

Introduction to GraphQL

GraphQL is a powerful API-demanding technology, supporting REST like domain specific languages which can describe their data as a graph and return it in plain English. GraphQL challenges the assumptions of classical APIs, in particular the canonical URL pattern. GraphQL offers a huge number of features and is supported by major browsers. -How does GraphQL work? GraphQL queries are no longer in the form of Graph-Form and GraphQL has introduced a new syntax: Queries. That is why GraphQL supports all the features of REST and Document-Based APIs but in a more concise and expressive way. This is a very important feature, since now developers can use their entire expressive power on the graph and not on the form. The power of REST APIs will be supported in this new form.

The Problems with REST

Using REST is generally easy and fast, however it also has a lot of problems. The problems with REST include: REST is good for much more things than it is good at Because REST is ubiquitous, it is sometimes difficult to decide what we should use. Read Also: How to write REST APIs using Node Using REST, we limit ourselves to using a single library for everything. Because of the ubiquity of REST, it is difficult to get REST to work the way we want, as there are thousands of different REST servers on the web. Although REST is a fantastic technology, there are too many challenges when working with it. For example, it is often used in REST-based applications.

The Advantages of GraphQL

While React framework can be used to build front end applications, GraphQL will be much more helpful in working in large teams. When we need to handle more than 1000 API calls, a React architecture won’t be sufficient. With GraphQL, we can develop code in so many ways. For example, many GraphQL queries can be cached and reused for multiple requests. If the data changes, the query can be updated at the server and it won’t affect the data structure at client side. The best part is that you don’t need to change the entire architecture at every change. Here are some good use cases that we have worked with while developing React app with GraphQL. Develop an app for peer-to-peer ride sharing with Uber & Lyft. Develop a social network for gamers where user can see friend’s items & clans.

What is a GraphQL Server?

A GraphQL Server is a program that queries a GraphQL server for the data it needs. In other words, a GraphQL Server acts as a client, a job applicant to the GraphQL server. From the point of view of a developer, GraphQL Server looks more like a proxy server. With the request URI, you’re able to send the data you need and the GraphQL server will return the response to you. GraphQL Server Attributes There are some important attributes that a GraphQL server has, which are optional. You can even create your own GraphQL server attributes. In this article, I’ll focus on what GraphQL Server have. The main server attributes that you need to know: query — the code that represents what you’re requesting from the server. It must be passed with the request URI.

The GraphQL Schema

The GraphQL schema describe the data model for any type of application. It should be a verbose, yet concise type system, in which each resource can contain and describe data through a query to the server and stores. Existing examples of GraphQL Specifications: Details of the schema below: GraphQL’s data models are structured by a handful of basic data types (e.g., String, Int, Float, Dict) and an ever-growing family of native objects that can be generated or added as needed. The representation of each data type can be derived from a common GraphQL expression. provider { /* usages */ } { id: ‘auto’ constructor(city: ‘Portland’, name: ‘Automobile/Car’, …) get(url: string) { return ‘https://api.otulsa.gov/api/services/automobile.

The GraphQL Query

To fetch information about the latest celebrity Kim Kardashian, we are able to write the following query: But for those who do not know, GraphQL is actually a set of rules about how you ask a question , it is basically a much more “I want” . For instance, the following query will get you the latest tweets in the user id “john_smith”: For those interested, the query above is the SLGBTQ1 query. Now comes the question, why did you write that query? You would ask why John is called John Smith . We don’t need to write a query for that. But to satisfy our query, we will write a query for all names that have the given user’s name. In that case, the query will return all names of which the given user has the given name.

The GraphQL Mutation

Selecting the GraphQL mutation module was the first step. The initial argument of GraphQLMutation is : config { mutator { settings { production { getUsername () { return ” this is our configuration name ” } } } } Then we define the name of the mutation. This is what GraphQL calls a method : .Method( name: ” selectName ” , args: { username: new Date ( 2018 , 12 , 24 , 0 ), address } ) This was the first mutation. The path of mutations is to be up-to-date and perfectly efficient. The purpose of a GraphQL mutation is to send back a data structure. A perfect way to create an object is to assign a String (the payload) to the parameter name: mutation.Mutation.selectName( ” test.username ” ) Now we have a mutation in our application. Creating a Query Now we will construct a query.

Conclusion

At Shopify we started using GraphQL almost one and a half years ago. We’ve had some great benefits and some struggles when using GraphQL in our internal and in our external apps. It has allowed us to gain insight into different platforms and it helped us to develop a much faster and flexible architecture. I think GraphQL should be deployed in applications of different scale, data base and backend technology. There is always a time to go for GraphQL, it’s just a matter of choosing the right platform and the right team. So, don’t hesitate to read this article and let’s know the pros and cons. After looking at the whole interview, it’s clear that Shopify really has a hard working and a powerful team.