This is a library to allow the easy creation of Relay-compliant servers using the GraphQL.js reference implementation of a GraphQL server.
A basic understanding of GraphQL and of the GraphQL.js implementation is needed to provide context for this library.
An overview of GraphQL in general is available in the README for the Specification for GraphQL.
This library is designed to work with the GraphQL.js reference implementation of a GraphQL server.
An overview of the functionality that a Relay-compliant GraphQL server should provide is in the GraphQL Relay Specification on the Relay website. That overview describes a simple set of examples that exist as tests in this repository. A good way to get started with this repository is to walk through that documentation and the corresponding tests in this library together.
Install Relay Library for GraphQL.js
npm install graphql-relay
When building a schema for GraphQL.js, the provided library functions can be used to simplify the creation of Relay patterns.
Helper functions are provided for both building the GraphQL types
for connections and for implementing the resolve
method for fields
returning those types.
connectionArgs
returns the arguments that fields should provide when they return a connection type that supports bidirectional pagination.forwardConnectionArgs
returns the arguments that fields should provide when they return a connection type that only supports forward pagination.backwardConnectionArgs
returns the arguments that fields should provide when they return a connection type that only supports backward pagination.connectionDefinitions
returns aconnectionType
and its associatededgeType
, given a name and a node type.connectionFromArray
is a helper method that takes an array and the arguments fromconnectionArgs
, does pagination and filtering, and returns an object in the shape expected by aconnectionType
'sresolve
function.connectionFromPromisedArray
is similar toconnectionFromArray
, but it takes a promise that resolves to an array, and returns a promise that resolves to the expected shape byconnectionType
.cursorForObjectInConnection
is a helper method that takes an array and a member object, and returns a cursor for use in the mutation payload.
An example usage of these methods from the test schema:
var {connectionType: ShipConnection} =
connectionDefinitions({name: 'Ship', nodeType: shipType});
var factionType = new GraphQLObjectType({
name: 'Faction',
fields: () => ({
ships: {
type: ShipConnection,
args: connectionArgs,
resolve: (faction, args) => connectionFromArray(
faction.ships.map((id) => data.Ship[id]),
args
),
}
}),
});
This shows adding a ships
field to the Faction
object that is a connection.
It uses connectionDefinitions({name: 'Ship', nodeType: shipType})
to create
the connection type, adds connectionArgs
as arguments on this function, and
then implements the resolve function by passing the array of ships and the
arguments to connectionFromArray
.
Helper functions are provided for both building the GraphQL types for nodes and for implementing global IDs around local IDs.
nodeDefinitions
returns theNode
interface that objects can implement, and returns thenode
root field to include on the query type. To implement this, it takes a function to resolve an ID to an object, and to determine the type of a given object.toGlobalId
takes a type name and an ID specific to that type name, and returns a "global ID" that is unique among all types.fromGlobalId
takes the "global ID" created bytoGlobalID
, and returns the type name and ID used to create it.globalIdField
creates the configuration for anid
field on a node.pluralIdentifyingRootField
creates a field that accepts a list of non-ID identifiers (like a username) and maps then to their corresponding objects.
An example usage of these methods from the test schema:
var {nodeInterface, nodeField} = nodeDefinitions(
(globalId) => {
var {type, id} = fromGlobalId(globalId);
return data[type][id];
},
(obj) => {
return obj.ships ? factionType : shipType;
}
);
var factionType = new GraphQLObjectType({
name: 'Faction',
fields: () => ({
id: globalIdField('Faction'),
}),
interfaces: [nodeInterface]
});
var queryType = new GraphQLObjectType({
name: 'Query',
fields: () => ({
node: nodeField
})
});
This uses nodeDefinitions
to construct the Node
interface and the node
field; it uses fromGlobalId
to resolve the IDs passed in in the implementation
of the function mapping ID to object. It then uses the globalIdField
method to
create the id
field on Faction
, which also ensures implements the
nodeInterface
. Finally, it adds the node
field to the query type, using the
nodeField
returned by nodeDefinitions
.
A helper function is provided for building mutations with single inputs and client mutation IDs.
mutationWithClientMutationId
takes a name, input fields, output fields, and a mutation method to map from the input fields to the output fields, performing the mutation along the way. It then creates and returns a field configuration that can be used as a top-level field on the mutation type.
An example usage of these methods from the test schema:
var shipMutation = mutationWithClientMutationId({
name: 'IntroduceShip',
inputFields: {
shipName: {
type: new GraphQLNonNull(GraphQLString)
},
factionId: {
type: new GraphQLNonNull(GraphQLID)
}
},
outputFields: {
ship: {
type: shipType,
resolve: (payload) => data['Ship'][payload.shipId]
},
faction: {
type: factionType,
resolve: (payload) => data['Faction'][payload.factionId]
}
},
mutateAndGetPayload: ({shipName, factionId}) => {
var newShip = {
id: getNewShipId(),
name: shipName
};
data.Ship[newShip.id] = newShip;
data.Faction[factionId].ships.push(newShip.id);
return {
shipId: newShip.id,
factionId: factionId,
};
}
});
var mutationType = new GraphQLObjectType({
name: 'Mutation',
fields: () => ({
introduceShip: shipMutation
})
});
This code creates a mutation named IntroduceShip
, which takes a faction
ID and a ship name as input. It outputs the Faction
and the Ship
in
question. mutateAndGetPayload
then gets an object with a property for
each input field, performs the mutation by constructing the new ship, then
returns an object that will be resolved by the output fields.
Our mutation type then creates the introduceShip
field using the return
value of mutationWithClientMutationId
.
After cloning this repo, ensure dependencies are installed by running:
npm install
This library is written in ES6 and uses Babel for ES5 transpilation and Flow for type safety. Widely consumable JavaScript can be produced by running:
npm run build
Once npm run build
has run, you may import
or require()
directly from
node.
After developing, the full test suite can be evaluated by running:
npm test
While actively developing, we recommend running
npm run watch
in a terminal. This will watch the file system run lint, tests, and type checking automatically whenever you save a js file.
To lint the JS files and run type interface checks run npm run lint
.