graphql-yoga

What is graphql-yoga?

graphql-yoga is a fully-featured GraphQL server that is easy to set up and use. It is built on top of GraphQL.js and provides a simple yet powerful API for building GraphQL servers. It comes with out-of-the-box support for features like subscriptions, file uploads, and more.

What are graphql-yoga's main functionalities?

Basic Server Setup

This code sets up a basic GraphQL server with a single query 'hello' that returns a string. The server is started and listens on port 4000.

const { createServer } = require('graphql-yoga');
const typeDefs = `
  type Query {
    hello: String!
  }
`;
const resolvers = {
  Query: {
    hello: () => 'Hello, world!',
  },
};
const server = createServer({ typeDefs, resolvers });
server.start(() => console.log('Server is running on http://localhost:4000'));

Subscriptions

This code demonstrates how to set up a GraphQL server with subscriptions. It uses the 'graphql-subscriptions' package to handle real-time updates. A new message is published every second.

const { createServer } = require('graphql-yoga');
const { PubSub } = require('graphql-subscriptions');
const pubsub = new PubSub();
const typeDefs = `
  type Query {
    hello: String!
  }
  type Subscription {
    newMessage: String!
  }
`;
const resolvers = {
  Query: {
    hello: () => 'Hello, world!',
  },
  Subscription: {
    newMessage: {
      subscribe: () => pubsub.asyncIterator(['NEW_MESSAGE']),
    },
  },
};
const server = createServer({ typeDefs, resolvers });
server.start(() => console.log('Server is running on http://localhost:4000'));
setInterval(() => {
  pubsub.publish('NEW_MESSAGE', { newMessage: 'Hello, world!' });
}, 1000);

File Uploads

This code sets up a GraphQL server that supports file uploads. It defines a custom scalar 'Upload' and a mutation 'singleUpload' that handles the file upload process.

const { createServer } = require('graphql-yoga');
const typeDefs = `
  scalar Upload
  type Query {
    hello: String!
  }
  type Mutation {
    singleUpload(file: Upload!): String!
  }
`;
const resolvers = {
  Query: {
    hello: () => 'Hello, world!',
  },
  Mutation: {
    singleUpload: async (parent, { file }) => {
      const { createReadStream, filename } = await file;
      createReadStream().pipe(fs.createWriteStream(path.join(__dirname, filename)));
      return filename;
    },
  },
};
const server = createServer({ typeDefs, resolvers });
server.start(() => console.log('Server is running on http://localhost:4000'));

Other packages similar to graphql-yoga

apollo-server

Apollo Server is a community-driven, open-source GraphQL server that works with any GraphQL schema. It provides a robust set of features, including caching, subscriptions, and more. Compared to graphql-yoga, Apollo Server offers more advanced features and integrations but may require more configuration.

express-graphql

express-graphql is a minimalistic GraphQL HTTP server middleware for Express. It is easy to set up and use, making it a good choice for simple applications. However, it lacks some of the advanced features provided by graphql-yoga, such as built-in subscriptions and file uploads.

graphql-koa

graphql-koa is a GraphQL server middleware for Koa. It provides a simple way to integrate GraphQL into a Koa application. While it is similar to express-graphql in terms of simplicity, it does not offer the same level of built-in features as graphql-yoga.

README

graphql-yoga

Fully-featured GraphQL Server with focus on easy setup, performance & great developer experience

Features

• Easiest way to run a GraphQL server: Good defaults & includes everything you need with minimal setup.
• Includes Subscriptions: Built-in support for GraphQL Subscriptions using WebSockets.
• Compatible: Works with all GraphQL clients (Apollo, Relay...) and fits seamless in your GraphQL workflow.

graphql-yoga is based on the following libraries & tools:

• express/apollo-server: Performant, extensible web server framework
• apollo-upload-server: File uploads via queries or mutations
• graphql-subscriptions/subscriptions-transport-ws: GraphQL subscriptions server
• graphql.js/graphql-tools: GraphQL engine & schema helpers
• graphql-playground: Interactive GraphQL IDE

Install

yarn add graphql-yoga

Usage

Quickstart (Hosted demo)

import { GraphQLServer } from 'graphql-yoga'
// ... or using `require()`
// const { GraphQLServer } = require('graphql-yoga')

const typeDefs = `
  type Query {
    hello(name: String): String!
  }
`

const resolvers = {
  Query: {
    hello: (_, { name }) => `Hello ${name || 'World'}`,
  },
}

const server = new GraphQLServer({ typeDefs, resolvers })
server.start(() => console.log('Server is running on localhost:4000'))

To get started with graphql-yoga, follow the instructions in the READMEs of the examples.

API

new GraphQLServer()

Type Signature: constructor(props: Props): GraphQLServer

import { GraphQLServer } from 'graphql-yoga'

const server = new GraphQLServer({
  typeDefs,
  resolvers,
  options: {
    port: 4000,
  },
})

Here is a list of all argument fields:

typeDefs

A string containing GraphQL type definitions in SDL (required if schema is not provided)

resolvers

An object containing resolvers for the fields specified in typeDefs (required if schema is not provided). Uses makeExecutableSchema from graphql-tools.

schema

An instance of GraphQLSchema (required if typeDefs and resolvers are not provided)

context

An object or function containing custom data being passed through your resolver chain

The function has the following signature: ({ request?: Request, connection?: SubscriptionOptions }) => any

• request is the HTTP request object which is provided for normal HTTP requests (queries/mutations)
• connection is the connection object provided for new subscriptions

Note that there is always either the request or the connection argument provided.

options

The options object has the following fields:

• cors: An object containing configuration options for cors. Provide false to disable. (default: undefined).
• disableSubscriptions: A boolean indicating where subscriptions should be en- or disabled for your server (default: false).
• port: An integer determining the port your server will be listening on (default: 4000); note that you can also specify the port by setting the PORT environment variable.
• endpoint: A string that defines the HTTP endpoint of your server (default: '/').
• subscriptionsEndpoint: A string that defines the subscriptions (websocket) endpoint for your server (default: '/').
• playgroundEndpoint: A string that defines the endpoint where you can invoke the Playground (default: '/').
• disablePlayground: A boolean indicating whether the Playground should be enabled (default: false).
• uploads: An object containing configuration options for apollo-upload-server.

GraphQLServer.start()

Type Signature: start(callback?: (() => void)): Promise<void>

// this starts the HTTP and WebSocket server
server.start()

// you can also provide a callback (e.g. for logging)
server.start(() => console.log('Server is running on localhost:4000'))

GraphQLServer.express

Type Signature: express: express.Application

You can easily access (and modify) the underlying Express application using the exposed express property. Here is a simple example:

server.express.use(myMiddleware())

PubSub

PubSub can be used to implement subscriptions and has a simple publish-subscribe API:

import { PubSub } from 'graphql-yoga'

// simply instantiate a new PubSub object ...
const pubsub = new PubSub()
const SOMETHING_CHANGED_TOPIC = 'something_changed';

const resolvers = {
  Subscription: {
    somethingChanged: {
      // ... implement the `subscribe` method in your subscription resolvers ...
      subscribe: () => pubsub.asyncIterator(SOMETHING_CHANGED_TOPIC),
    },
  },
}

// ... and from somewhere publish events
setInterval(
  () => pubsub.publish(SOMETHING_CHANGED_TOPIC, { somethingChanged: { id: "123" }}),
  2000
)

For more information see the original documentation in graphql-subscriptions.

Endpoints

graphql-yoga by default exposes an HTTP and WebSocket endpoint on localhost:4000/. (Can be adjusted in the constructor options.)

Once your graphql-yoga server is running, you can use GraphQL Playground out of the box. (Read here for more information.)

Examples

There are three examples demonstrating how to quickly get started with graphql-yoga:

• hello-world: Basic setup for building a schema and allowing for a hello query.
• subscriptions: Basic setup for using subscriptions with a counter that increments every 2 seconds and triggers a subscriptions.
• fullstack: Fullstack example based on create-react-app demonstrating how to query data from graphql-yoga with Apollo Client 2.0.

Deployment

now

To deploy your graphql-yoga server with now, follow these instructions:

1. Download Now Desktop
2. Navigate to the root directory of your graphql-yoga server
3. Run now in your terminal

up (Coming soon 🔜 )

Heroku (Coming soon 🔜 )

AWS Lambda (Coming soon 🔜 )

FAQ

How does graphql-yoga compare to apollo-server and other tools?

As mentioned above, graphql-yoga is built on top of a variety of other packages, such as graphql.js, express and apollo-server. Each of these provide a certain piece of functionality required for building a GraphQL server.

Using these packages individually incurs overhead in the setup process and requires you to write a lot of boilerplate. graphql-yoga abstracts away the initial complexity and required boilerplate and let's you get started quickly with a set of sensible defaults for your server configuration.

graphql-yoga is like create-react-app for building GraphQL servers.

Can't I just setup my own GraphQL server using express and graphql.js?

graphql-yoga is all about convenience and a great "Getting Started"-experience by abstracting away the complexity that comes when you're building your own GraphQL from scratch. It's a pragmatic approach to bootstrap a GraphQL server, much like create-react-app removes friction when first starting out with React.

Whenever the defaults of graphql-yoga are too tight of a corset for you, you can simply eject from it and use the tooling it's build upon - there's no lock-in or any other kind of magic going on preventing you from this.

How to eject from the standard express setup?

The core value of graphql-yoga is that you don't have to write the boilerplate required to configure your express.js application. However, once you need to add more customized behaviour to your server, the default configuration provided by graphql-yoga might not suit your use case any more. For example, it might be the case that you want to add more custom middleware to your server, like for logging or error reporting.

For these cases, GraphQLServer exposes the express.Application directly via its express property:

server.express.use(myMiddleware())

Help & Community

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