It Depends - Examining GraphQL Myths & Assumptions

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Marc-Andre Giroux - GraphQL Galaxy 2020 It Depends Examining GraphQL Myths & Assumptions

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Marc-Andre Giroux GitHub Montreal, Canada

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It Depends

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Caching We’re thinking of using GraphQL as our API Terrible mistake! Say bye to caching.

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https://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc7234

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Solutions must be looked at from a specific context

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There’s some truth to it

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Conventions

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Flexibility vs Cache Hits

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Performance We’re thinking of using GraphQL as our API Cool! Why are you choosing GraphQL over other API styles? Because… performance!

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Is GraphQL faster than ____?

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GET /user { viewer { name age } }

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The trade-off, though, is that a uniform interface degrades efficiency, since information is transferred in a standardized form rather than one which is specific to an application's needs. The REST interface is designed to be efficient for large-grain hypermedia data transfer, optimizing for the common case of the Web, but resulting in an interface that is not optimal for other forms of architectural interaction. https://www.ics.uci.edu/~fielding/pubs/dissertation/rest_arch_style.htm

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One Query to Rule them All

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viewer { contributionsCollection { commitContributionsByRepository { contributions { nodes { commitCount } } } } repositories(first: 100) { nodes { name issues(first: 100) { nodes { body } } } } issues(first: 100) { edges { node { author { login } } } }

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@defer & @stream

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viewer { contributionsCollection { commitContributionsByRepository { contributions { nodes { commitCount } } } } repositories(first: 100) @defer { nodes { name issues(first: 100) { nodes { body } } } } issues(first: 100) @defer { edges { node { author { login } } } }

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Full Circle?

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Make Tradeoffs, Mitigate Downsides

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Predictability

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BFF The Backend-For-Frontend Pattern

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https://samnewman.io/patterns/architectural/bﬀ/

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BFFs are not only about representation

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Autonomy

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type User { name: String! age: Int! Friends: [User!]! }

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type User { name: String! nameForAndroid: String! age: Int! ageForThisOneClient: Int! friends: [User!]! friendsForXBOX: [XBOXFriend!]! }

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Complete Separation

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“One Graph”

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type User { name: String! nameForAndroid: String! age: Int! ageForThisOneClient: Int! friends: [User!]! friendsForXBOX: [XBOXFriend!]! }

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It Depends

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Why this is important

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We want GraphQL to succeed

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We want developers using GraphQL to succeed.

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In which context?

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Compared to what?

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What are the trade-offs?

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Thank You! @__xuorig__ book.productionreadygraphql.com twitch.tv/graphqlfm - youtube.com/c/GraphQLFM/ (30% OFF GRAPHQLGALAXY30)