GRAPHQL RUBY REST WRAPPER

ALL THE FUNCTIONALITY OF GRAPHQL, WITH A REST API

I've recently become interested in learning more about GraphQL. I've been very impressed with its ability to craft custom queries, and its in-built documentation. As I read more about it, however, I found most ruby-related resources were concerned with either:

Building a GraphQL scheme from scratch, and more rarely,
Using the graphql-client gem to make queries to external GraphQL clients

I found I was most interested in whether GraphQL functionality could be extended to apply to a REST-based API. The main benefits of this being that:

GraphQL custom queries and self-documentation could be used for any REST-based api, meaning the use of GraphQL would not be limited by the design of the API endpoint
GraqphQL could be used without the need to redesign REST based API structure

App Functionality

The setup of the GraphQL types is set up to mirror the json structure of the JSON structure of the API endpoint. If the JSON API uses a nested system, each level is represnted by a new data type.

GraphQL uses resolvers. These are functions that can be added to certain queries that fire when a query is made. For example, when the WeatherStationType query is made, the WeatherStation resolver will run. This makes a call to the api, retrieves the response, and parses it as JSON. As long as the JSON structure fits the structure set out in the WeatherStationType the information will be returned in the form of a GraphQL query.

There you have it, all the handy functionality of GraphQL, minus all the hassle of migrating a REST-based API to a GraphQL structure!

To run the App

Clone the repo to your local machine
bundle install
rails s to start server
Navigate to the /graphiql route
Start using Graphiql to make your own custom queries

Notes

As GraphQL makes a single query to retrieve all data, we can now query multiple endpoints in a single query. Feel free to try it out! I've set up one endpoint for some weather station data, and another to retrieve a NY Times bestseller list. Wildly varying enpoints. Try making a query that includes information from both at once.

To Come

Add in id querying functionality
Add in CRUD methods
Create a frontend in React to display results