Abstract

GraphQL has taken the web by storm, with some calling it a “REST killer.” What can we make of this? What value is provided by migrating or developing a new or existing service to GraphQL? What are the pitfalls, pain points, or areas where migrating might not make sense? This talk intends to provide answers to each of these questions while also serving as a gentle introduction to what GraphQL does and how you can begin using it today.

Details

The talk will begin with an illustration of a traditional REST architecture (i.e. CRUD endpoints) and how it scales to the needs of one to many consumers/clients. From this basis, we can begin to construct the argument for why GraphQL exists, and the problems it attempts to solve.

We can then shift into what GraphQL is and the value it provides for an application. We will describe the query language, explain how GraphQL can be integrated into a backend architecture (relatively language agnostic), and some fairly brief implementation details and guidelines for getting started.

With the value of GraphQL made apparent, we can then revisit the initial “problems of REST” and illustrate how the introduction of a GraphQL data layer mitigates these problems and the great value migrating can have for an application. We’ll wrap up with some brief demos of GraphQL, GraphiQL (the interactive tool to explore and craft queries), and a simple application demoing GraphQL implemented with Serverless, as well as Apollo on the frontend.

Intended Audience

The talk is intended to be a relatively shallow dive into GraphQL, so the technical depth will be fairly limited. As such, this talk is applicable to a wide swath of people, including those in the frontend field (e.g. using GraphQL in my React, Vue, etc. application) as well as those doing backend development (e.g. GraphQL would be a great data layer for the next iteration of our API).