Learning GraphQL

September 12, 2022 · View on GitHub

Just one of the things I'm learning. https://github.com/hchiam/learning

Get just the data you want, possibly with just 1 API call. Also describe your data API with types and fields, instead of organizing the API around endpoints. This also lets you easily add new fields to an API without affecting breaking queries.

REST = URLs with fixed payloads.
GraphQL = 1 URL with "variable" payloads:
- read with the type Query (which references your other pre-defined types/schemas).
- write with the type Mutation (which references your other pre-defined types/schemas).
- this setup enables autocomplete and exploration of all possible queries and data "shapes"

Go here: https://developer.github.com/v4/explorer/

Paste this query:

query {
  viewer {
    login
  }
}

You should get a response with your username:

{
  "data": {
    "viewer": {
      "login": "hchiam"
    }
  }
}

JS demo

GraphQL.js: https://graphql.org/code/#javascript and https://www.npmjs.com/package/graphql

Run this: (triple-click to select the whole thing)

cd js-demo && yarn && yarn go

Should print out:

{ data: { hello: 'world' } }