RRU 092: The Future of APIs, GraphQL, and Developer Tooling with Sean Grove

Dec 17, 2019

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Today the panel and Sean Grove are talking about the future of programming with GraphQL. GraphQL is a new way of building APIs that is more product and frontend focused. All of the panelists agree that it is easy to get exactly what they need with ease when using GraphQL. There are also benefits for backend developers too, since GraphQL lets you see exactly what fields your clients are using. You can also reach out to specific clients who have accessed specific fields before. This is possible because every GraphQL server is introspectable by a computer, and Sean explains how it works. This introspectivity is the basis for an idea he has that allows users to generate realistic fake data before signing up so they know exactly how their application will work before committing, and gives some examples of how it can be used. They all agree that GraphQL is very well formatted and that it provides solutions to real world problems, The conversation turns to the article How OneGraph Onboards Users Who are New to GraphQL. In particular, they discuss how the GraphiQL Explorer works versus OneGraph. GraphiQL Explorer is an extension that will look at your operations and generate a full React or Bash app from them. Sean talks about the different kinds of operations and how naming them can help you track their performance more easily. There is even a code generator that will flag unnamed queries to help you learn best practices, but won’t stop you from running your code. They talk about the benefits of using OneGraph, a single graphQL endpoint through which you can get all your data from other apps. By wrapping all the APIs in GraphQL, you get access to all the nice GraphQL tooling. They talk about how it works and some of the benefits it can have, such as helping you stay under rate limits. They talk about other interesting tools available for GraphQL and what the explosion of tools means for the GraphQL community. They talk more about how GraphQL fits into the React environment and what they think the future holds. Panelists

Thomas Aylott
Charles Max Wood

Guest

Sean Grove