express-graphql

GraphQL HTTP Server Middleware

Create a GraphQL HTTP server with any HTTP web framework that supports connect styled middleware, including Connect itself and Express.

Installation

npm install --save express-graphql

Then mount express-graphql as a route handler:

const express = require('express');
const graphqlHTTP = require('express-graphql');

const app = express();

app.use('/graphql', graphqlHTTP({
  schema: MyGraphQLSchema,
  graphiql: true
}));

app.listen(4000);

Options

The graphqlHTTP function accepts the following options:

• schema: A GraphQLSchema instance from graphql-js. A schema must be provided.

• graphiql: If true, presents GraphiQL when the route with a /graphiql appended is loaded in a browser. We recommend that you set graphiql to true when your app is in development, because it's quite useful. You may or may not want it in production.

• rootValue: A value to pass as the rootValue to the graphql() function from graphql-js.

• context: A value to pass as the context to the graphql() function from graphql-js. If context is not provided, the request object is passed as the context.

• pretty: If true, any JSON response will be pretty-printed.

• formatError: An optional function which will be used to format any errors produced by fulfilling a GraphQL operation. If no function is provided, GraphQL's default spec-compliant formatError function will be used.

• validationRules: Optional additional validation rules queries must satisfy in addition to those defined by the GraphQL spec.

HTTP Usage

Once installed at a path, express-graphql will accept requests with the parameters:

• query: A string GraphQL document to be executed.

• variables: The runtime values to use for any GraphQL query variables as a JSON object.

• operationName: If the provided query contains multiple named operations, this specifies which operation should be executed. If not provided, a 400 error will be returned if the query contains multiple named operations.

• raw: If the graphiql option is enabled and the raw parameter is provided raw JSON will always be returned instead of GraphiQL even when loaded from a browser.

GraphQL will first look for each parameter in the URL's query-string:

/graphql?query=query+getUser($id:ID){user(id:$id){name}}&variables={"id":"4"}

If not found in the query-string, it will look in the POST request body.

If a previous middleware has already parsed the POST body, the request.body value will be used. Use multer or a similar middleware to add support for multipart/form-data content, which may be useful for GraphQL mutations involving uploading files. See an example using multer.

If the POST body has not yet been parsed, express-graphql will interpret it depending on the provided Content-Type header.

• application/json: the POST body will be parsed as a JSON object of parameters.

• application/x-www-form-urlencoded: this POST body will be parsed as a url-encoded string of key-value pairs.

• application/graphql: The POST body will be parsed as GraphQL query string, which provides the query parameter.

Combining with Other Express Middleware

By default, the express request is passed as the GraphQL context. Since most express middleware operates by adding extra data to the request object, this means you can use most express middleware just by inserting it before graphqlHTTP is mounted. This covers scenarios such as authenticating the user, handling file uploads, or mounting GraphQL on a dynamic endpoint.

This example uses express-session to provide GraphQL with the currently logged-in session.

const session = require('express-session');
const graphqlHTTP = require('express-graphql');

const app = express();

app.use(session({ secret: 'keyboard cat', cookie: { maxAge: 60000 }}));

app.use('/graphql', graphqlHTTP({
  schema: MySessionAwareGraphQLSchema,
  graphiql: true
}));

Then in your type definitions, you can access the request via the third "context" argument in your resolve function:

new GraphQLObjectType({
  name: 'MyType',
  fields: {
    myField: {
      type: GraphQLString,
      resolve(parentValue, args, request) {
        // use `request.session` here
      }
    }
  }
});

Debugging Tips

During development, it's useful to get more information from errors, such as stack traces. Providing a function to formatError enables this:

formatError: error => ({
  message: error.message,
  locations: error.locations,
  stack: error.stack
})

Similar packages

Other packages similar to express-graphql

apollo-server-express

Apollo Server is a community-maintained open-source GraphQL server that works with various Node.js HTTP server frameworks, including Express. It provides a more feature-rich and flexible solution compared to express-graphql, with built-in support for schema stitching, subscriptions, and more.

graphql-yoga

GraphQL Yoga is a fully-featured GraphQL server with focus on easy setup, performance, and great developer experience. It is built on top of Apollo Server and Express, offering additional features like out-of-the-box support for GraphQL subscriptions and file uploads.