Who Am I?

Senior WordPress Engineer at Digital First Media in Denver, CO
WordPress developer for 9+ years
GraphQL Developer for ~1.5 years
Denver Native
Creator & maintainer of WPGraphQL
- https://github.com/wp-graphql/wp-graphql

Agenda

What is GraphQL?
WordPress as an Application Data Graph
Using the WPGraphQL Plugin
Extending WPGraphQL for your needs
WPGraphQL in the wild

GraphQL

A Query Language for your API

GraphQL is a query language for APIs and a runtime for fulfilling those
queries with your existing data. GraphQL provides a complete
and understandable description of the data in your API, gives
clients the power to ask for exactly what they need
and nothing more, makes it easier to evolve APIs over time,
and enables powerful developer tools

https://graphql.org

GraphQL

Graph != Graph Databases

Graph != Graph Search

Graph = Application Data Graph

QL = Query Language

GraphQL: A Query Language for Your Application Data Graph

GraphQL

{
me {
name
}
}

{

data: {

me: {

name: "Jason Bahl"

}

}
}

GraphQL Query

GraphQL Result

Post

Category

Post

title

"Hello World"

title

"GoodBye Mars"

Image

name

"news"

name

"crime"

name

"sports"

Image

WordPress as an Application Data Graph

GraphQL

GraphQL lets us pick trees out of the Application Data Graph

GraphQL

query {
  post(id: "...") {
    title
    link
    categories {
      nodes {
        name
      }
    }
  }
}

{
  data: {
    post: {
      title: "Hello World!"
      link: "http://site.com/hello-world"
      categories: {
        nodes: [
          {
            name: "sports"
          },
          {
            name: "crime"
          }
        ]
      }
    }
  }
}

Post

Category