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GraphQL Revisited

Key Takeaways

1. GraphQL is an open-source data query and modification language for APIs leveraged by several prominent tech shops such as Facebook (original creator), Github, Pinterest, Intuit, Coursera, Paypal, Yelp, and Shopify to name a few. It has gotten a lot of positive attention from the engineering community and supporters have termed it as ‘Better REST,’ asserting a range of benefits over traditional REST.
2. With all the buzz around GraphQL, do developers need to make an active shift towards it and deprecate REST endpoints completely? It depends on many factors, which are discussed in this article. While GraphQL is an extremely powerful and flexible API strategy, it is not a silver bullet for all your data CRUD needs. You should evaluate your application needs and developer skills to make the right call.
3. GraphQL adoption (switching from REST) usually requires a major rewrite of the API and Client layer for your application. While there are material benefits to make the switch, depending on the size and complexity of your app, this can be a massive undertaking in terms of time and resources. There is also a learning curve with GraphQL and its best practices which should be taken into account before taking the leap.
4. At the same time, GraphQL can remarkably simplify/optimize your data access and modification needs for both client and server-side engineers, regardless of the languages or environment you’re in. If you’re writing an app from scratch and/or not afraid to try something new, GraphQL presents itself as a great option with many compelling reasons to use it. It can vastly improve the performance of your app and developer experience.
5. If you decide to leverage GraphQL, don’t rush on your graph schema design. Measure twice and cut once. Mapping a good GraphQL schema is a non-trivial task. So take your time and try to get it right the first time around; it will save you from a lot of inconvenience down the line.
6. GraphQL is seeing increased adoption in the Blockchain and Cryptocurrency space. Due to the distributed nature of blockchains, querying on-chain data is a hard problem and it is being simplified using GraphQL. With Graph APIs, viewing data across different crypto exchanges, markets, assets, and on-chain data can all be done in a single query.

Introduction

GraphQL is a data-query language created by Facebook that went open source in 2015. It provides a completely understandable description of the data in the API and enables clients to function in a declarative style to fetch exactly what they need — nothing less, nothing more. In this article, we will summarize how it works, why you should use it, what are some of its drawbacks and how it is increasingly being adopted in the Crypto space.

Source: DZone