From  REST  (in peace)

to  GraphQL  &  Apollo

Founder of CasaVersa

Yariv Gilad
@__Ajar__

Head of Dev
Netcraft Academy

Founding Team
Wibbitz

I 💖Startups!

I 💖 Good Design!

Every great App needs

Model your Data

How will your App(s)

Access your data?

 /data-endpoint/

my-domain.com/api

 /user/ { id }

 my-domain.com/api

 /user/ { id } /tweets

 /user/ { id } /notifications

 /tweet/ { id }

 /tweet/ { id } /media

 /tweet/ { id } /stats

 /user/ { id }

 /user/ { id } /notifications

 /tweet/ { id }

 /tweet/ { id } /media

 /tweet/ { id } /stats

client / s

api server

 /user/ { id } /tweets

{ data... }

🙅

Too many roundtrips to the server

api server

client / s

🙅

Over-fetching Data we don't need

api server

client / s

 /resource/ { id }

Custom end-points

api server

client / s

/just-tweet-data-i-need

/tweet-data-with-images

/tweet-data-with-images-and-author

/tweet-data-with-images-no-stats

/tweet-data-with-images-and-author_v2

Other screens / clients / media queries ???

api server

client / s

  /user/ { id }

 GET

  /user/ { id } /update

  /user/create

  /tweet/ { id }

  /tweet/ { id } /update

  /tweet/ { id } /create

 PUT

 POST

  /user/remove

 DELETE

 GET

 PUT

 POST

 DELETE

  /tweet/ { id } /delete

Each Resource needs

api server

client / s

  • Create a new screen view
  • Present another version view v2
  • Change the Data Model
  • Update a screen view

Every time we will...

We will need to...

  • Create more endpoints
  • Update existing endpoints

Filtering

Pagination

Authentication

Real-time

Notifications

Resources also need...

Filtering

Pagination

Authentication

Real-time

Notifications

CRUD

Too many end-points 

to write & maintain

Big API's
Require Good Testing tooling

Big API's
Require Good Documentation

REST in peace

GraphQL

GraphQL

GraphQL

  • Created by Facebook 2012
  • Exposed to the world 2015
  • Used by:

and many more...

GraphQL

  • not a Database!
  • a Query Language for your API
  • Runs on any server side language 
  • Can be Accessed by any client

GraphQL

type Project {
  name: String
  tagline: String
  contributors: [User]
}

Describe your data

{
  project(name: "GraphQL") {
    tagline
  }
}

Fetch what you want

{
  "project": {
    "tagline": "A query language for APIs"
  }
}

Get predictable results

GraphQL

{
  Starship(name: "Millennium Falcon") {
    name
    hyperdriveRating
    pilots(orderBy: height_DESC) {
      name
      height
      homeworld {
        name
      }
    }
  }
}

Starwars Example

{
  "data": {
    "Starship": {
      "name": "Millennium Falcon",
      "hyperdriveRating": 0.5,
      "pilots": [
        {
          "name": "Chewbacca",
          "height": 228,
          "homeworld": {
            "name": "Kashyyyk"
          }
        },
        {
          "name": "Han Solo",
          "height": 180,
          "homeworld": {
            "name": "Corellia"
          }
        },
        {
          "name": "Rey",
          "height": null,
          "homeworld": null
        }
      ]
    }
  }
}

GraphQL

Advantages

  • Single end-point

  • Single round-trip

  • Only fetch what you need

  • Designed for low latency.

Fast & Simple:

GraphQL

Advantages

  • view-centric

  • client-specified queries

  • integrates with any current infrastructure.

De-coupled from storage:

GraphQL

Advantages

  • Defines what we want, not how we get it

  • Always backwards compatible.

  • Enables API evolution without versions

Declarative:

GraphQL

Advantages

  • Strongly typed via a hierarchical schema

  • Allowing query validation & nested queries

  • Predictable output.

Structure & Validation

GraphQL

Advantages

  • Discoverable schema
  • Free auto-documentation
  • In-browser IDE's - GraphiQL / Playground
  • Code editors linting

Empowers collaboration:

Makes Data 💖 Again!