Getting Started With GraphQL
A simple example of a what graphQL is.
The best way to think of what GraphQL is, just think of it as short hand expressions to query Restful APIs.
This is achieved by applying an abstract layer, aka GraphQL server layer between your API endpoints and clients.
Now not all API’s inheritly support graph QL, but there is an extensive list of example api’s here : https://github.com/APIs-guru/graphql-apis .
Yelp GraphQL documentation : https://www.yelp.com/developers/graphql/guides/intro
You can also code up your own, but for this example I will be using the yelp GraphQL service.
In the example below I put the restful API that a subquery would come from. Notice that instead of querying an entire API end point and joining that data all back together you can write the shorthand graphQL query (essentially JSON format) to extract your data. The idea is efficiency behind your efforts, doing more with less code.
#https://api.yelp.com/v3/businesses/search
#https://www.yelp.com/developers/documentation/v3/business_search
{
business(id: "garaje-san-francisco") {
name
id
alias
rating
url
phone
distance
is_closed
location {
address1
address2
address3
city
state
postal_code
country
formatted_address
}
#https://api.yelp.com/v3/transactions/{transaction_type}/search
transactions
{
restaurant_reservations {
url
}
}
#https://api.yelp.com/v3/businesses/{id}/reviews
reviews{
rating
text
user{
profile_url
}
}
}
}This will produce a JSON results of :
{
"data": {
"business": {
"name": "Garaje",
"id": "tnhfDv5Il8EaGSXZGiuQGg",
"alias": "garaje-san-francisco",
"rating": 4.5,
"url": "https://www.yelp.com/biz/garaje-san-francisco?adjust_creative=J6an7peKQCWF8-n_h2R2Vg&utm_campaign=yelp_api_v3&utm_medium=api_v3_graphql&utm_source=J6an7peKQCWF8-n_h2R2Vg",
"phone": "+14156440838",
"distance": null,
"is_closed": false,
"location": {
"address1": "475 3rd St",
"address2": "",
"address3": "",
"city": "San Francisco",
"state": "CA",
"postal_code": "94107",
"country": "US",
"formatted_address": "475 3rd St\nSan Francisco, CA 94107"
},
"transactions": {
"restaurant_reservations": null
},
"reviews": [
{
"rating": 5,
"text": "My favorite taco stop in soma is Garaje! The door is a bit tricky to find initially as it's set back a bit from the sidewalk, but once you're in, you're...",
"user": {
"profile_url": "https://www.yelp.com/user_details?userid=c_XBoNWA2RRaKuz40ZNWuA"
}
},
{
"rating": 5,
"text": "I've eaten here multiple times over the course of the last 5 years and almost every time I've ordered their Zapato which is delicious. It's like a pressed...",
"user": {
"profile_url": "https://www.yelp.com/user_details?userid=gkEQ-omRKEDrSXSGzoD0tQ"
}
},
{
"rating": 5,
"text": "On strong insistence from my friend who is a foodie and has a history of giving strong advice, I was at Garaje in about 2 hours of landing at SFO, and left...",
"user": {
"profile_url": "https://www.yelp.com/user_details?userid=KoAqxqmXzpiObHBxmXDs-Q"
}
}
]
}
}
}