swapi-graphql VS RickNMortyCompose

My first introduction to GraphQL was roughly 7 years ago, about a year after it was initially announced by Facebook. My first taste was using the "SWAPI," The Star Wars API, GraphQL wrapper that the team at Facebook created. You can view the source code for it here. It was an eye-opening experience, GraphQL felt like a game changer, but I only had an excuse to use it once joining Amplication.

Other GraphQL clients offer similar functionality for testing and interacting with a GraphQL API, but this article places greater emphasis on using GraphQL Playground. To test our queries, we will work with the StarWars API.

Have you ever used graphql and more specifically graphiql?

Before getting started we need to find a working GraphQL SWAPI endpoint. The official repo is only for setting up our own server (which is nice to have), but if we don't want to set up a demo server, then we need a ready to use endpoint.

// /src/relay/environment.ts import { Store, RecordSource, Environment, Network, Observable, } from "relay-runtime"; import type { FetchFunction, IEnvironment } from "relay-runtime"; const fetchFn: FetchFunction = (params, variables) => { const response = fetch("https://rickandmortyapi.com/graphql/", { method: "POST", headers: [["Content-Type", "application/json"]], body: JSON.stringify({ query: params.text, variables, }), }); return Observable.from(response.then((data) => data.json())); }; export function createEnvironment(): IEnvironment { const network = Network.create(fetchFn); const store = new Store(new RecordSource()); return new Environment({ store, network }); }

import type { CodegenConfig } from '@graphql-codegen/cli'; const config: CodegenConfig = { overwrite: true, schema: "https://rickandmortyapi.com/graphql", documents: './**/*.graphql', generates: { "src/graphql/generated/graphql.ts": { plugins: ['typescript', 'typescript-operations', 'typescript-react-apollo'], }, config: { withHooks: true } } }; export default config;

export const apolloClient = new ApolloClient({ uri: "https://rickandmortyapi.com/graphql", cache: new InMemoryCache({ typePolicies: { Query: { fields: { characters: { keyArgs: false, merge(existing: Characters, incoming: Characters) { return { ...incoming, results: [ ...(existing?.results || []), ...(incoming?.results || []), ], } satisfies Characters; }, }, }, }, }, }), });

goctopus -a rickandmortyapi.com _ __ _ ___ ___| |_ ___ _ __ _ _ ___ / _` |/ _ \ / __| __/ _ \| '_ \| | | / __| | (_| | (_) | (__| || (_) | |_) | |_| \__ \ \__, |\___/ \___|\__\___/| .__/ \__,_|___/ v0.0.14 |___/ |_| [INF] Enumerating subdomains for 'rickandmortyapi.com' [INF] Found 5 subdomains for 'rickandmortyapi.com' in 15 seconds 276 milliseconds INFO[0016] Done fingerprinting rickandmortyapi.com INFO[0016] Found: {"authenticated":false,"domain":"rickandmortyapi.com","schema_status":"OPEN","source":"rickandmortyapi.com","url":"https://rickandmortyapi.com/graphql"} INFO[0016] Done. Found 1 graphql endpoints

Checkout https://rickandmortyapi.com and their https://rickandmortyapi.com/graphql

import { ApolloClient, InMemoryCache, ApolloProvider } from "@apollo/client"; Import PeopleData from './PeopleData' function App() { const client = new ApolloClient({ cache: new InMemoryCache(), uri: "https://rickandmortyapi.com/graphql", }); return (

); } export default App;

Back to business: fortunately, Postman has built-in full support for GraphQL! 🎉Let's take a quick tour of the capabilities by exploring the Rick and Morty API. To get started, create a new HTTP request in Postman. Set the request mode to POST and the URL to https://rickandmortyapi.com/graphql. Now; in the body section, select GraphQL. You should end up with something like this:

import "@/styles/globals.css"; import type { AppProps } from "next/app"; import { ApolloClient, InMemoryCache, ApolloProvider } from "@apollo/client"; const client = new ApolloClient({ uri: "https://rickandmortyapi.com/graphql", cache: new InMemoryCache(), }); export default function App({ Component, pageProps }: AppProps) { return ( ApolloProvider> ); }

import React from 'react'; import ReactDOM from 'react-dom/client'; import './index.css'; import App from './App'; import { ApolloClient, ApolloProvider, InMemoryCache } from '@apollo/client' const client = new ApolloClient({ uri: "https://rickandmortyapi.com/graphql", cache: new InMemoryCache(), }) const root = ReactDOM.createRoot(document.getElementById('root')); root.render( );

I have a next.js app that uses dynamic routes. Here is the repo on Github https://github.com/ChristianOConnor/graphql-next-api-tester. Run the app by cloning the repo and cd-ing into the root directory, running npm install then npm run dev. It works perfectly. It's a next.js app that does graphql calls to https://rickandmortyapi.com/graphql, and renders them out into a table. You first click on the "List of characters" button in the middle of the home page: [![enter image description here][1]][1]