GraphQL is Everywhere!

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Chris Coyier on

I find GraphQL extremely fun and empowering tech to work with, even as a novice just getting started. You’ve probably heard the elevator pitch before: it allows you to ask for exactly the data you need whenever you need it (probably at the component level), and it arrives as lovely JSON data for your usage.

I see it used as part of modern website builds all the dang time. The overall vibe is, “I want to do whatever I want on the front end, and that actually allows for more back-end choices as well.” And by “whatever” on the front end, that generally means a fancy SPA-ish JavaScript-powered thing or a static-site generator-ish thing.

Here’s a quick smattering of articles that are everywhere these days. Instead of the actual article titles, I’ll rename with the stack parts.

GraphQL is certainly in the new-and-hip category, but as ever, everything old is new again. Check out Query by Example, a language from the 1970’s:

.....Name: Bob
..Address:
.....City:
....State: TX
..Zipcode:

Resulting SQL:

SELECT * FROM Contacts WHERE Name='Bob' AND State='TX';