AWESOME Graphql

GraphQL is a specification

We define a schema

..write queries..

..And get JSON in response

{
  "author": {
    "username": "dave",
    "posts": [
      {
        "title": "AWESOME GraphQL",
        "votes": 5,
        "createdAt": "23-01-2018"
      },
      {
        "title": "Hello World",
        "votes": 2,
        "createdAt": "21-01-2018"
      },
    ]
  }
}

This is an architecture for implementing API

Just a spec,

Not a server,

Not an implementation

Open sourced by Facebook in 2015

Spec and reference implementation

The community has rapidly adopted the standard

Multiple implementations

in 10+ languages today

Easy things:

Simple patter for resolving fields on the server

import graphene

class Query(graphene.ObjectType):
    hello = graphene.String(name=graphene.String(default_value="stranger"))

    def resolve_hello(self, info, name):
        return 'Hello ' + name

schema = graphene.Schema(query=Query)

No overfetching

on the client

Using a client library has benefits

Like Relay and Apollo

Harder things: Data Changes

AKA Mutations

Caching harder than REST

Helpful tools: query exploration

graphiql

API mocking

graphql-faker

type Person {
  name: String @fake(type: firstName)
  gender: String @examples(values: ["male", "female"])
}

Schema exploration

graphql-voyager

And more..

for Introspection, typing, linting, etc.

And its a great time to contribute!