foundation VS apollo-server

GraphQL is a query language and runtime for APIs. It provides a flexible and efficient way for clients to request and retrieve specific data from a server using a single API endpoint.

When you use technologies like GraphQL, it is trivial to derive TypeScript types. A GraphQL API is created by implementing a schema. Generating the TypeScript type definitions from this schema is simple, and you do not have to do any more work than just making the GraphQL API. This is one reason why I like GraphQL so much.

REST and GraphQL have advantages, drawbacks, and use cases for different environments. REST is for simple logic and a more structured architecture, while GraphQL is for a more tailored response and flexible request.

A Gatsby site uses Gatsby, which leverages React and GraphQL to create fast and optimized web experiences. Gatsby is often used for building static websites, progressive web apps (PWAs), and even full-blown dynamic web applications.

In my usual NodeJS tech stack, which includes GraphQL, NestJS, SQL (predominantly PostgreSQL with MikroORM), I encountered these limitations. To overcome them, I've developed a new stack utilizing Rust, which still offers some ease of development:

At Woovi we are GraphQL lovers, hence we develop many helpers around this tool to bring a good developer experience.

A query language for APIs that allows clients to request only the data they need. It provides a more flexible and efficient alternative to RESTful APIs. GraphQL provides a single endpoint for multiple data sources, making it efficient for clients to retrieve only the necessary information forexample if a Node.js microservice uses GraphQL, a client can send a query to request specific data, and the GraphQL service will fetch the required information from the underlying data sources and respond accordingly.

This approach is particularly beneficial for teams looking to enhance their digital presence without the need for extensive coding or software development. By leveraging the GraphQL API endpoint, developers can prepare and execute queries to retrieve the desired content. This makes the Headless Channel a valuable tool 🔨 for content managers and developers, offering ease of use and practicality.

To know about Graphql and why it's being used head over to for more details, Now let's cut to the chase.

GraphQL is an excellent choice for real-time data synchronization in React Native apps. By using GraphQL, you can retrieve precisely the data you need and receive updates in real-time, reducing network usage and providing a seamless user experience.

Another interesting point is that executing fetches on the server can allow developers to more easily leverage caching. Next.js already handles caching out-of-the-box and I’m curious to see if the wider adoption of RSC reduces the need to combine React with solutions like Apollo Server and Apollo Client. While there are other benefits to these tools, RSC could provide similar caching behavior without the need to invest in a GraphQL solution.

There are several GraphQL server implementations, however, for this tutorial, we'll utilize Apollo GraphQL's Apollo Server, a lightweight and flexible JavaScript server that makes it easy to build GraphQL APIs.

As I mentioned, their main GraphQL server package is[1], so that's where the confusion came from. Thanks.

[1] https://github.com/apollographql/apollo-server/blob/9817bc47...

While working on this blog post, I learned that Apollo Server, the most popular GraphQL server for typescript, uses a similar method for adding error codes to GraphQL. It even lets you add custom errors. Hopefully, someday other GraphQL server projects will follow them. Until then, we’ve got a strong indication we took the right approach.

GraphQL is just a schema, there are many different implementations of a GraphQL server, AppSync being one of them. I mentioned Apollo server in this series as well.

After some head-scratching, I opened an issue on Apollo Server’s GitHub repository. There, Apollo Server contributor @​glasser shared a helpful suggestion: why not invoke our AuthPlugin from Apollo Server’s context function? Throwing from context would ensure we can control the HTTP status response without having to introduce more methods and error checks to our AuthPlugin (like unexpectedErrorProcessingRequest). With that suggestion in mind, we rewrote our AuthPlugin as follows:

Apollo as a middleware in Express.js, actually.

Apollo Server 3 Cookie Issue #5775

Lastly, instead of writing our API core ourselves, we'll be using the star of this episode --- Apollo Server (a.k.a. GraphQL server). It has detailed documentation available here.