dataloader VS dgraph

When I began working with GraphQL, I had concerns about the N+1 query problem. In my research, I came across the DataLoader pattern and its implementation on GitHub. While I explored various examples of its usage, I still struggled to grasp how it operates internally. Join me in delving a bit deeper into GraphQL DataLoader! :)

DataLoader: it is the standard solution to N+1 problem.

Additionally, you can use DataLoader or similar tools to optimize data fetching and avoid over-fetching or under-fetching data. Ultimately, performance and load tests ensure that your GraphQL API delivers optimal performance, meets response time expectations, and provides a smooth experience for users, even under heavy loads.

The most common practice is to turn N+1 into 1+1 using dataloaders (https://github.com/graphql/dataloader for JS, there are equivalents for most implementations). The N resolvers invoke a single batched loader which receives a list of keys and returns a list of values.

Let's take Payload, for example. Surprise, surprise. We have a relationship field, and it can store IDs to other related documents which are seamlessly merged in when you retrieve documents from the DB. We leverage the dataloader pattern to batch together all "populations" required for a given query, returning them all super fast and with as few separate queries to the DB as possible. We actually even outperform SQL-based frameworks quite a bit. In a purely relational test, we were 3x faster than Directus and 7x faster than Strapi while both were running Postgres, and we were on MongoDB.

Also, have a look at Facebook's Dataloader[0].

[0] https://github.com/graphql/dataloader

In the next article, I'm going to implement a GraphQL server with dataloader using the tools we introduced.

The one example of using Scoped dependency that comes to my mind, it's HTTP request level caching for libs like dataloader.

you would fetch these 1000 rows via dataloader that batches all requests for this relation to a single query... solving the n+1 issue

Dgraph: A distributed and scalable graph database known for high performance. It's a good fit for large-scale graph processing, offering a GraphQL-like query language and gRPC API support.

Dgraph (GraphQL, DQL)

Have you tried dgraph.io?

DGraph – A distributed GraphQL database with a graph backend.

How does it compare to, say grakn (renamed https://vaticle.com/, I think?), or draph (https://dgraph.io/), or Ontotext's GraphDB (https://www.ontotext.com/products/graphdb/), or Datomic?

Consul Connect service mesh has a higher memory footprint, so on a small cluster with e5-medium nodes (2 vCPUs, 4 GB memory), you will only be able to support a maximum of 6 side-car proxies. In order to get an application like Dgraph working, which will have 6 nodes (3 Dgraph Alpha pods and 3 Dgraph Zero pods) for high availability along with at least one client, a larger footprint with more robust Kubernetes worker nodes were required.