GraphQL Binding for Graphcool services (GraphQL Database)
graphcool-binding
provides a convenience layer for building GraphQL servers on top of Graphcool services. In short, it simplifies implementing your GraphQL resolvers by delegating execution of queries (or mutations) to the API of the underlying Graphcool database service.
Here is how it works:
- Create your Graphcool service by defining data model
- Download generated database schema definition
database.graphql
(contains the full CRUD API) - Define your application schema, typically called
app.graphql
- Instantiate
Graphcool
with information about your Graphcool service (such as its endpoint and the path to the database schema definition) - Implement the resolvers for your application schema by delegating to the underlying Graphcool service using the generated delegate resolver functions
yarn add graphcool-binding
# or
npm install --save graphcool-binding
Consider the following data model for your Graphcool service:
type User {
id: ID! @unique
name: String
}
If you instantiate Graphcool
based on this service, you'll be able to send the following queries/mutations:
// Instantiate `Graphcool` based on concrete service
const graphcool = new Graphcool({
schemaPath: 'schemas/database.graphql',
endpoint: 'https://api.graph.cool/simple/v1/my-graphcool-service'
secret: 'my-super-secret-secret'
})
// Retrieve `name` of a specific user
graphcool.query.user({ id: 'abc' }, '{ name }')
// Retrieve `id` and `name` of all users
graphcool.query.users(null, '{ id name }')
// Create new user called `Sarah` and retrieve the `id`
graphcool.mutation.createUser({ name: 'Sarah' }, '{ id }')
// Update name of a specific user and retrieve the `id`
graphcool.mutation.updateUser({ id: 'abc', name: 'Sarah' }, '{ id }')
// Delete a specific user and retrieve the `name`
graphcool.mutation.deleteUser({ id: 'abc' }, '{ id }')
Under the hood, each of these function calls is simply translated into an actual HTTP request against your Graphcool service (using graphql-request
).
The API also allows to ask whether a specific node exists in your Graphcool database:
// Ask whether a post exists with `id` equal to `abc` and whose
// `author` is called `Sarah` (return boolean value)
graphcool.exists.post({
id: 'abc',
author: {
name: 'Sarah'
}
})
The GraphcoolOptions
type has the following fields:
Key | Required | Type | Default | Note |
---|---|---|---|---|
schemaPath |
Yes | string |
- | File path to the schema definition of your Graphcool service (typically a file called database.graphql ) |
endpoint |
Yes | string |
- | The endpoint of your Graphcool service |
secret |
Yes | string |
- | The secret of your Graphcool service |
fragmentReplacements |
No | FragmentReplacements |
null |
A list of GraphQL fragment definitions, specifying fields that are required for the resolver to function correctly |
debug |
No | boolean |
false |
Log all queries/mutations to the console |
query
and mutation
are public properties on your Graphcool
instance. They both are of type Query
and expose a number of auto-generated delegate resolver functions that are named after the fields on the Query
and Mutation
types in your Graphcool database schema.
Each of these delegate resolvers in essence provides a convenience API for sending queries/mutations to your Graphcool service, so you don't have to spell out the full query/mutation from scratch and worry about sending it over HTTP. This is all handled by the delegate resolver function under the hood.
Delegate resolver have the following interface:
(args: any, info: GraphQLResolveInfo | string): Promise<T>
The input arguments are used as follows:
args
: An object carrying potential arguments for the query/mutationinfo
: An object representing the selection set of the query/mutation, either expressed directly as a string or in the form ofGraphQLResolveInfo
(you can find more info about theGraphQLResolveInfo
type here)
The generic type T
corresponds to the type of the respective field.
exists
also is a public property on your Graphcool
instance. Similar to query
and mutation
, it also exposes a number of auto-generated functions. However, it exposes only a single function per type. This function is named according to the root field that allows the retrieval of a single node of that type (e.g. user
for a type called User
). It takes a filter
object as an input argument and returns a boolean
value indicating whether the condition expressed with filter
is met.
This function enables you to easily check whether a node of a specific type exists in your Graphcool database.
The request
method lets you send GraphQL queries/mutations to your Graphcool service. The functionality is identical to the auto-generated delegate resolves, but the API is more verbose as you need to spell out the full query/mutation. request
uses graphql-request
under the hood.
Here is an example of how it can be used:
const query = `
query ($userId: ID!){
user(id: $userId) {
id
name
}
}
`
const variables = { userId: 'abc' }
graphcool.request(query, variables)
.then(result => console.log(result))
// sample result:
// {"data": { "user": { "id": "abc", "name": "Sarah" } } }
- Code generation at build-time for the auto-generated delegate resolvers