GRAPHQL-DETAIL

Facebook API query language, schema-first.

Definition

GraphQL SDL (Schema Definition Language) schema with Query, Mutation, Subscription types, scalars, objects, interfaces, unions. Spec maintained by GraphQL Foundation. Implementations: Apollo (JS), Hot Chocolate (.NET), Sangria (Scala), graphql-java, GraphQL Ruby. Federation for decomposing microservice schemas. Caching more complex vs REST. Adopted by Facebook, GitHub, Shopify, Pinterest.

Origin

GraphQL internally developed at Facebook 2012 ; open-sourced July 2015 ; donated to Linux Foundation 2018 (GraphQL Foundation).

Example in context

GitHub V4 API in GraphQL ; query specifies repository(owner,name){issues(first:10){nodes{title author{login}}}} returns exactly these fields.

Related terms

• JSON:API — other JSON standard.