Rapid Product Development AnchorĪ common pattern with REST APIs is to structure the endpoints according to the views that you have inside your app (example /menu, /prices, / images, etc.). This speeds up development and prevents errors in production. Popular tools like the GraphQL Code Generator can automatically build all of the code for queries, and mutations, directly from your codebase GraphQL query files. All the types that are exposed in an API are written down in a schema using the GraphQL Schema Definition Language (SDL) and/or code-first.įrontend teams can now work with the typed GraphQL API knowing that if any changes occur from the backend team on the APIs design, they’ll get this instant feedback when querying it from the frontend. GraphQL uses a strongly typed system to define the capabilities of an API. Your response wouldn’t include any other information that the endpoint may be able to provide, giving you a predictable dataset to work with based on what you requested. ![]() With GraphQL, you’d simply need to dictate what you want in a query: For example, if the endpoint holds data on burgers available at a restaurant, you’d hit the /burgers endpoint, and instead of only getting the names that you’re interested in, you may get everything that endpoint has to offer - including price, ingredients, calories, etc. Overfetching means getting more information than you need. It’s very difficult to design the API in a way that it’s able to provide clients with their exact data needs. This happens because the only way for a client to download data is by hitting endpoints that return fixed data sets. One of the most common limitations of REST out-of-the-box is that of overfetching and underfetching. Let’s cover some of the basic advantages that help GraphQL stand out. To get into the details of GraphQL, refer to our post on What is GraphQL? Advantages of GraphQL APIs Anchor Maintained and developed primarily via the GraphQL Foundation, GraphQL has had incredible adoption across a variety of verticals and use cases with organizations like Twitter, Expedia, Shopify, and Hygraph to name a few. GraphQL is an open-source data query and manipulation language for APIs, and a runtime for fulfilling queries with existing data. GraphQL APIs Anchor What is GraphQL? Anchor The body contains information that a client wants to send to a server, such as the payload of the request. Headers provide information to clients and servers for purposes like caching, AB Testing, authentication, and more. When working with data, a RESTful API uses HTTP methods to perform CRUD (Create, Read, Update and Delete) operations. PUT updates/replaces every resource in a collection.GET reads a representation of a specified source.Working with REST APIs AnchorĪ REST request is made up of the endpoint, HTTP method, Header, and Body.Īn endpoint contains a URI (Uniform Resource Identifier) that helps in identifying the resource online.Īn HTTP method describes the type of request that is sent to the server. REST APIs allow for modifications and additions from the client-side to the server, drawing certain parallels with GraphQL Mutations, which we’ll cover more on. They work by returning information about the source that was requested - and is translated into an interpretable format. When a client calls REST APIs the server transfers the resources in a standardized representation. The data formats supported by REST API include JSON, XML, and YAML. Unlike SOAP, a REST API is not constrained to an XML format and can return multiple data formats depending on what is needed. ![]() REST, or RESTful APs, are Web Service APIs that follow the REST standards. It was introduced as a successor to SOAP APIs. REST (Representational State Transfer) is an architectural style that conforms to a set of constraints when developing web services. REST APIs Anchor What is a REST API? Anchor To make a more informed decision, let’s take a look at REST and GraphQL, and understand some of the reasons for choosing GraphQL. GraphQL is a syntax for requesting data and lets you specify precisely what you need.ĭepending on your use cases, you will need to choose between GraphQL or REST API, or a combination of both. To overcome these, Facebook developed GraphQL as an open-source data query and manipulation language for APIs. Traditionally and when used “out of the box”, REST has had limitations like multiple network requests and overfetching data. ![]() However, it isn’t always a “replacement”, and making the decision to opt for GraphQL comes with several considerations. GraphQL is gaining momentum as a successor to REST APIs. Note: This article is mostly server-side related.
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