January - GraphQL

What is GraphQL?

GraphQL is a query language for APIs and a runtime for fulfilling those queries with your existing data. It 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.

The ability for clients to request only the necessary data is a compelling feature. From my experience working with REST APIs, managing different data requirements for various clients is often a challenge. An endpoint that meets one client's needs may be insufficient for another, leading to inefficiencies and workarounds. With GraphQL, this issue is largely mitigated, provided the schema is well-structured. In this article, I will explore my learning journey with GraphQL, discuss its advantages and drawbacks, and share my overall impressions.

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Learning GraphQL 101 🧠

There is no better way to learn a new programming concept than heading to the docs and the GraphQL Docs were excellent. They provided a solid foundation in core concepts such as schema building, queries, mutations, etc...

Once I got a grasp of the fundamentals, I was ready to put hands to the keyboard. Having heard about Apollo as a popular way to implement GraphQL, I explored their tutorials which turned out to be some of the best educational resources I've discovered. Hats off to the team at Apollo!

I started with Intro to GraphQL with TypeScript & Apollo Server which focused just on the API implementation such as building the schema, resolvers, and mutations. The tutorial code I followed can be found in this Repository.

After completing that, I began the Full Stack GraphQL Path which connects a React front-end to an Apollo server building a similar API. The tutorial code I followed can be found in this Repository.

After getting a taste of what a GraphQL app looked like, I had a few observations...

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The Good 😍

• A Strongly Typed Schema.
• Flexible data fetching for the client.
• Removes the need for API versioning.
• Excellent Dev tooling and documentation.

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The Bad 😭

• Complexity overload.
• N+1 Queries are very easy to introduce.
• Query depth and complexity are items you must protect against.
• A client can ask for too much information that leads to poor performance.
• It appears the community and overall hype has faded away which isn't a good sign.

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Conclusion

The benefits of GraphQL are evident. I appreciated the high quality tutorials created by the Apollo team and always enjoy getting to work with new technology. That being said, I don't foresee myself using GraphQL in the future for any side project.

The benefits do not justify the excess complexity of setting up GraphQL for something that will never leave my Github repo. Additionally, with the rise of Server Components and many popular meta-frameworks optimizing RESTful API interactions, GraphQL feels less necessary in my current development workflow.

That all being said, I have signed up to a couple newsletters to stay up-to-date with the latest in the GraphQL ecosystem. I'm sure I'll revisit GraphQL in the future either for a side project or for work purposes but for now, I am heading back to implementing REST API's.

Thanks for reading 👋