No REST for the wicked: an introduction to GraphQL

GraphQL is a query language introduced by Facebook for building APIs which challenges one of the fundamental tenets of modern web development, aka REST. In this talk, we will go through the basics of GraphQL and see how it can help us build incredibly multifaceted APIs.

1. No REST for the Wicked Ember London @arkham
2. A gentle introduction to GraphQL Ember London @arkham
3. Hello! 4 My name is Ju ! 4 I'm an engineer at AlphaSights 4 We build ambitious apps in Ember (talk to me!) Ember London @arkham
4. What's this GraphQL thing? Ember London @arkham
5. 4 A Graph Query Language 4 Invented by Facebook in 2012, now made open 4 Powers most of the Facebook iOS and Android apps Ember London @arkham
6. GraphQL* * Does not actually require a Graph Ember London @arkham
7. A simple example Ember London @arkham
8. We have a users table like this one +----+------+---------------+-----+-----------+ | id | name | twitter | age | country | +----+------+---------------+-----+-----------+ | 1 | Ju | arkh4m | 29 | Italy | | 2 | Will | willrax | 268 | Australia | | 3 | Matz | yukihiro_matz | 50 | Japan | +----+------+---------------+-----+-----------+ Ember London @arkham
9. Get all users - Query string { users { id, name } } Ember London @arkham
10. Get all users - JSON response { "data": { "users": [ { "id": "1", "name": "Ju" }, { "id": "2", "name": "Will" }, { "id": "3", "name": "Matz" } ] } } Ember London @arkham
11. Get one user - Query string { user(id: 1) { id, name } } Ember London @arkham
12. Get one user - JSON response { "data": { "user": { "id": "1", "name": "Ju" } } } Ember London @arkham
13. Create a user - Query string mutation { user: createUser( name: "Tom", twitter: "tomdale", country: "USA" ) { id, name } } Ember London @arkham
14. Create a user - JSON response { "data": { "user": { "id": "4", "name": "Tom" } } } Ember London @arkham
15. Error - Query string mutation { user: createUser( twitter: "tomdale", country: "USA" ) { id, name } } Ember London @arkham
16. Error - JSON response { "errors": [ { "message": "Field 'createUser' argument 'name' of type 'String!' is required but not provided." } ] } Ember London @arkham
17. Relationships Relationships Relationships Ember London @arkham
18. Now imagine we have a company table like this one +----+-------------+---------------+ | id | name | city | +----+-------------+---------------+ | 1 | AlphaSights | London | | 2 | Heroku | San Francisco | +----+-------------+---------------+ Ember London @arkham
19. And we add a company_id to each user +----+------+---------------+-----+-----------+------------+ | id | name | twitter | age | country | company_id | +----+------+---------------+-----+-----------+------------+ | 1 | Ju | arkham | 29 | Italy | 1 | | 2 | Will | willrax | 268 | Australia | 1 | | 3 | Matz | yukihiro_matz | 50 | Japan | 2 | +----+------+---------------+-----+-----------+------------+ Ember London @arkham
20. Relationships - Query string { user(id: 1) { id, name, company { name } } } Ember London @arkham
21. Relationships - JSON response { "data": { "user": { "id": "1", "name": "Ju", "company": { "name": "AlphaSights" } } } } Ember London @arkham
22. Nested relationships - Query string { user(id: 1) { id, name, company { name employees: users { name } } } } Ember London @arkham
23. Nested relationships - JSON response { "data": { "user": { "id": "1", "name": "Ju", "company": { "name": "AlphaSights", "employees": [ { "name": "Ju" }, { "name": "Will" } ] } } } } Ember London @arkham
24. But why should I use it? Ember London @arkham
25. 4 Hierarchical 4 Product-centric 4 Client-specifies queries 4 Backwards Compatible 4 Structured, Arbitrary Code 4 Application-Layer Protocol 4 Strongly-typed 4 Introspective Ember London @arkham
26. Ember London @arkham
27. No REST for the wicked! Ember London @arkham
28. REST request GET /users/1 Ember London @arkham
29. REST response ??? Ember London @arkham
30. GraphQL request { user(id: 1) { id, name } } Ember London @arkham
31. GraphQL response { "data": { "user": { "id": "1", "name": "Ju" } } } Ember London @arkham
32. What You See Is What You Get Ember London @arkham
33. Every GraphQL query is a contract Ember London @arkham
34. Every GraphQL query is a frontend-driven contract Ember London @arkham
35. SOLID Ember London @arkham
36. Interface Segregation Principle Ember London @arkham
37. 4 Clients should not be forced to depend on methods that they do not use. Ember London @arkham
38. 4 Clients should not be forced to depend on methods that they do not use. 4 Many client specific interfaces are better than one general purpose interface. Ember London @arkham
39. 4 Clients should not be forced to depend on methods that they do not use. 4 Many client specific interfaces are better than one general purpose interface. 4 The dependency of one class to another one should depend on the smallest possible interface. Ember London @arkham
40. 4 Clients should not be forced to depend on methods that they do not use. 4 Many client specific interfaces are better than one general purpose interface. 4 The dependency of one class to another one should depend on the smallest possible interface. 4 Make fine grained interfaces that are client specific. Ember London @arkham
41. REST request Ember London @arkham
42. POST /repos/ { "name": "Hello-World", "description": "This is your first example", "homepage": "https://example.com", "private": false, "has_issues": true, "has_wiki": true, "has_downloads": true } Ember London @arkham
43. REST response { "id": 1296269, "owner": { "login": "octocat", "id": 1, "avatar_url": "https://example.com/images/error/octocat_happy.gif", "gravatar_id": "", "url": "https://api.example.com/users/octocat", "html_url": "https://example.com/octocat", "followers_url": "https://api.example.com/users/octocat/followers", "following_url": "https://api.example.com/users/octocat/following{/other_user}", "gists_url": "https://api.example.com/users/octocat/gists{/gist_id}", "starred_url": "https://api.example.com/users/octocat/starred{/owner}{/repo}", "subscriptions_url": "https://api.example.com/users/octocat/subscriptions", "organizations_url": "https://api.example.com/users/octocat/orgs", "repos_url": "https://api.example.com/users/octocat/repos", "events_url": "https://api.example.com/users/octocat/events{/privacy}", "received_events_url": "https://api.example.com/users/octocat/received_events", "type": "User", "site_admin": false }, "name": "Hello-World", "full_name": "octocat/Hello-World", "description": "This your first repo!", "private": false, "fork": true, "url": "https://api.example.com/repos/octocat/Hello-World", "html_url": "https://example.com/octocat/Hello-World", "archive_url": "http://api.example.com/repos/octocat/Hello-World/{archive_format}{/ref}", "assignees_url": "http://api.example.com/repos/octocat/Hello-World/assignees{/user}", "blobs_url": "http://api.example.com/repos/octocat/Hello-World/git/blobs{/sha}", "branches_url": "http://api.example.com/repos/octocat/Hello-World/branches{/branch}", "clone_url": "https://example.com/octocat/Hello-World.git", "collaborators_url": "http://api.example.com/repos/octocat/Hello-World/collaborators{/collaborator}", "comments_url": "http://api.example.com/repos/octocat/Hello-World/comments{/number}", "commits_url": "http://api.example.com/repos/octocat/Hello-World/commits{/sha}", "compare_url": "http://api.example.com/repos/octocat/Hello-World/compare/{base}...{head}", "contents_url": "http://api.example.com/repos/octocat/Hello-World/contents/{+path}", "contributors_url": "http://api.example.com/repos/octocat/Hello-World/contributors", "downloads_url": "http://api.example.com/repos/octocat/Hello-World/downloads", "events_url": "http://api.example.com/repos/octocat/Hello-World/events", "forks_url": "http://api.example.com/repos/octocat/Hello-World/forks", "git_commits_url": "http://api.example.com/repos/octocat/Hello-World/git/commits{/sha}", "git_refs_url": "http://api.example.com/repos/octocat/Hello-World/git/refs{/sha}", "git_tags_url": "http://api.example.com/repos/octocat/Hello-World/git/tags{/sha}", "git_url": "git:example.com/octocat/Hello-World.git", "hooks_url": "http://api.example.com/repos/octocat/Hello-World/hooks", "issue_comment_url": "http://api.example.com/repos/octocat/Hello-World/issues/comments{/number}", "issue_events_url": "http://api.example.com/repos/octocat/Hello-World/issues/events{/number}", "issues_url": "http://api.example.com/repos/octocat/Hello-World/issues{/number}", "keys_url": "http://api.example.com/repos/octocat/Hello-World/keys{/key_id}", "labels_url": "http://api.example.com/repos/octocat/Hello-World/labels{/name}", "languages_url": "http://api.example.com/repos/octocat/Hello-World/languages", "merges_url": "http://api.example.com/repos/octocat/Hello-World/merges", "milestones_url": "http://api.example.com/repos/octocat/Hello-World/milestones{/number}", "mirror_url": "git:git.example.com/octocat/Hello-World", "notifications_url": "http://api.example.com/repos/octocat/Hello-World/notifications{?since, all, participating}", "pulls_url": "http://api.example.com/repos/octocat/Hello-World/pulls{/number}", "releases_url": "http://api.example.com/repos/octocat/Hello-World/releases{/id}", "ssh_url": "git@example.com:octocat/Hello-World.git", "stargazers_url": "http://api.example.com/repos/octocat/Hello-World/stargazers", "statuses_url": "http://api.example.com/repos/octocat/Hello-World/statuses/{sha}", "subscribers_url": "http://api.example.com/repos/octocat/Hello-World/subscribers", "subscription_url": "http://api.example.com/repos/octocat/Hello-World/subscription", "svn_url": "https://svn.example.com/octocat/Hello-World", "tags_url": "http://api.example.com/repos/octocat/Hello-World/tags", "teams_url": "http://api.example.com/repos/octocat/Hello-World/teams", "trees_url": "http://api.example.com/repos/octocat/Hello-World/git/trees{/sha}", "homepage": "https://example.com", "language": null, "forks_count": 9, "stargazers_count": 80, "watchers_count": 80, "size": 108, "default_branch": "master", "open_issues_count": 0, "has_issues": true, "has_wiki": true, "has_pages": false, "has_downloads": true, "pushed_at": "2011-01-26T19:06:43Z", "created_at": "2011-01-26T19:01:12Z", "updated_at": "2011-01-26T19:14:43Z", "permissions": { "admin": false, "push": false, "pull": true } } Ember London @arkham
44. Ember London @arkham
45. GraphQL request Ember London @arkham
46. mutation { repo: createRepo( name: "Hello-World", description: "This is your first example", homepage: "https://example.com", private: false, has_issues: true, has_wiki: true, has_downloads: true ) { id name clone_url user: owner { avatar_url } } } Ember London @arkham
47. GraphQL response Ember London @arkham
48. { "data": { repo: { "id": 1296269, "name": "Hello-World", "clone_url": "https://example.com/octocat/Hello-World.git", "user": { "avatar_url": "https://example.com/images/error/octocat_happy.gif", } } } } Ember London @arkham
49. GraphQL ! ISP Ember London @arkham
50. GraphQL queries allow to create infinite client specific interfaces Ember London @arkham
51. But I don't care about ISP!!! Ember London @arkham
52. ISP has feelings too... Ember London @arkham
53. Imagine you have a /articles endpoint. Ember London @arkham
54. Imagine you have a /articles endpoint. In the frontpage you want to display related articles. Ember London @arkham
55. Imagine you have a /articles endpoint. In the frontpage you want to display related articles. Easy, right? Ember London @arkham
56. Imagine you have a /articles endpoint. In the frontpage you want to display related articles. Easy, right? So we just add them to the payload. Ember London @arkham
57. Imagine you have a /articles endpoint. In the frontpage you want to display related articles. Easy, right? So we just add them to the payload. Now every time you call the /articles payload you have to pay the performance price for something you don't really care about. Ember London @arkham
58. But what if you could do this? Ember London @arkham
59. { articles { id title excerpt preview_image_url author { name } relatedArticles(limit: 5) { title preview_image_url } } } Ember London @arkham
60. Ember London @arkham
61. Hmm, okay.. But can I use it in Ember? Ember London @arkham
62. YES github.com/alphasights/ember-graphql-adapter Ember London @arkham
63. Features 4 Automatic queries generation 4 Field and object aliasing 4 Async relationships 4 BelongsTo relationships 4 HasMany relationships (sort of) Ember London @arkham
64. Adapter import { Adapter } from 'ember-graphql-adapter'; export default Adapter.extend({ endpoint: `${EmberENV.apiBaseUrl}/graph` }); Ember London @arkham
65. Serializer import { Serializer } from 'ember-graphql-adapter'; export default Serializer.extend({}); Ember London @arkham
66. Model DS.Model.extend({ name: DS.attr('string'); }); Ember London @arkham
67. Route model: function() { return this.store.findAll('company') } Ember London @arkham
68. Query query { companies { id name } } Ember London @arkham
69. Result { "data": { "companies": [ { id: "1", name: "AlphaSights" }, { id: "2", name: "Heroku" } ] } } Ember London @arkham
70. Ember London @arkham
71. Ember Data is amazing Ember London @arkham
72. You can just replace one resource Ember London @arkham
73. You have no excuses, go and try GraphQL! Ember London @arkham
74. Backend Node github.com/graphql/graphql-js Rails github.com/rmosolgo/graphql-ruby Ember London @arkham
75. References 4 learngraphql.com 4 facebook.github.io/graphql/ 4 HN thread Ember London @arkham
76. Articles 4 From REST to GraphQL 4 Initial Impressions on GraphQL & Relay 4 GraphQL Overview - Getting Started with GraphQL and Node Ember London @arkham
77. Videos 4 React.js Conf 2015 4 Exploring GraphQL 4 GraphQL at The Financial Times Ember London @arkham
78. Thanks! Questions? Slides @ bit.ly/ember-graph 4 Ju Liu @arkham 4 engineering.alphasights.com 4 github.com/alphasights/ember-graphql-adapter Ember London @arkham