graphql-helix VS graphql-yoga

Depends on language, I've build GraphQL servers in a few, though mostly JavaScript and Python. For Python I used to use Graphene, these days I use Strawberry.

For JavaScript, I originally used graphql-js and express-graphql, as these were the original libraries and I was a literal day 1 adopter. All the libraries are essentially just wrappers around graphql-js, so it's still viable to use directly. But for schema-building I now use Pothos (https://pothos-graphql.dev/), I'd probably use graphql-helix as the http layer (https://github.com/contra/graphql-helix).

If you want a lower level graphql server https://graphql-helix.vercel.app/ or https://benzene.vercel.app/ might be worth checking out.

While there are many GraphQL server packages available, we need one that will play nicely with Nuxt3's server engine (Nitro / h3). In the spirit of keeping things extensible and framework-agnostic, GraphQL Helix seems like a really good choice. Let's add it to our project:

Looks interesting, have you tried graphql-helix?

When using a JavaScript server, a convenient way to achieve this is with GraphQL Helix, which decouples the handling of the HTTP request from the GraphQL server. With Helix, we can have the routing logic be handled by a Node.js web framework (such as Express.js or Fastify), and then — depending on the requested path (i.e., the requested endpoint — we can provide the corresponding schema to the GraphQL server.

GraphQL Helix is a framework and runtime agnostic collection of utility functions for building your own GraphQL HTTP server. Instead of providing a complete HTTP server or middleware plugin function, GraphQL Helix only provides a handful of functions for turning an HTTP request into a GraphQL execution result. You decide how to send back the response.

import { envelop, useSchema, useLogger } from '@envelop/core'; import fastify from 'fastify'; import { processRequest, getGraphQLParameters } from 'graphql-helix'; // This creates the `getEnveloped` function for us. Behind the scense the wrapped functions are created once, here. const getEnveloped = envelop({ plugins: [useSchema(schema), useLogger()], }); const app = fastify(); app.route({ method: ['POST'], url: '/graphql', async handler(req, res) { // Here we can pass the request and make available as part of the "context". // The return value is the a GraphQL-proxy that exposes all the functions. const { parse, validate, contextFactory, execute, schema } = getEnveloped({ req, }); const request = { body: req.body, headers: req.headers, method: req.method, query: req.query, }; const { operationName, query, variables } = getGraphQLParameters(request); // Here, we pass our custom functions to Helix, and it will take care of the rest. const result = await processRequest({ operationName, query, variables, request, schema, parse, validate, execute, contextFactory, }); if (result.type === 'RESPONSE') { res.status(result.status); res.send(result.payload); } else { // You can find a complete example with Subscriptions and stream/defer here: // https://github.com/contrawork/graphql-helix/blob/master/examples/fastify/server.ts res.send({ errors: [{ message: 'Not Supported in this demo' }] }); } }, }); app.listen(3000, () => { console.log(`GraphQL server is running...`); });

Fortunately, we now have libraries like Graphql Helix, which, in my humble opinion, should replace express-graphql as the reference HTTP implementation since GraphQL Helix is also not tied to any web server framework.

If you are using Node.js there are a lot of implementations of GraphQL servers with a few being express-graphql, apollo-server, mercurius, graphql-helix and more. And if you are using other languages, you can see a great list here

Graphql Helix

We have migration guide try it out! We can't wait answer your questions and get your feedback on how we can make GraphQL Yoga even more better!

Within our GraphQL Yoga monorepository we have a subscription package which includes a maintained (and fully TypeScript typed) PubSub implementation. https://github.com/dotansimha/graphql-yoga/tree/main/packages/subscription / https://the-guild.dev/graphql/yoga-server/v3/features/subscriptions#pubsub

It's easy to do with a Serverless Function and with GraphQL Yoga.

And since Yoga server works perfectly with Envelop plugins, a verity of error handling and security plugins are available on the plugin hub

In today's article we are going to create a GraphQL api using the Koa framework together with the GraphQL Yoga library and Pothos. In addition, we will use Kysely, which is a query builder entirely written in TypeScript.

I want to share my approach to handling errors in GraphQL resolvers (I use GraphQL Yoga on the server-side) and pass them to the frontend side (where I use Svelte + @urql/svelte).

Last, in case you just want a simple GraphQL server where you don’t have to setup anything and subscriptions work out of the box (using SSE), you might wanna check out GraphQL Yoga v2 (Disclaimer: I am maintaining this library).

What is your server setup like? Have you tried the latest GraphQL Yoga ? It has everything configured OOTB including subscriptions.

Not that I know of. But here are a few things that may be of interest.

Redwood's GraphQL API is built on Yoga (we collaborate tightly with The Guild) — https://www.graphql-yoga.com You just need a GraphQL Client, which The Guild already has an option ready for you https://apollo-angular.com (Note: Apollo or other clients fine as well.)

Here's an example "How To" about connecting Next (React) with Redwood: https://community.redwoodjs.com/t/how-to-connect-a-next-js-f...

I'm a co-founder of Redwood and help lead the project so I can say as a matter of fact we a highly collaborative and enjoy (and support) exploratory projects. It's a priority for us to better demonstrate the power of Redwood's API through examples. If you'd be interested in digging in collaboratively with the community, I can help connect the dots. Just kick things off over here and tag me @thedavidprice: https://community.redwoodjs.com

No pressure at all! Just wanted you to know the invitation is open. Anytime.