You have probably heard about GraphQL, but you might not be entirely sure how and whether it differs from REST. You're in luck, then! Today, we'll ...
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Its worth noting that graphql lives on top of the HTTP protocol as well (its nothing more than a post request) and therefore it benefits from all the security benefits that come with it including https, the ability to send authorization headers, etc. Also graphql servers can return status codes other than 200. For example if you use Apollo server, it will return a status code of 400 if your graphql query is malformed.
Wow!
Thank you for this input👏
Wrong on so many levels. REST is not an RPC protocol, which is what you described, admittedly that is what most people call REST but that is not what the original specification says.
Look into HATEOS that is more what the original was supposed to be, but even the RPC is not just CRUD operations. Which is all GraphQL is.
REST payloads should include things like where to get the next values if it is a list type request, it should show how to get details if it is a summary dataset, it should also have a reference link to get the same answer again, or refresh it if the data could be changing.
GraphQL is nice and pretty cool, but it is also pretty hard to write all the connections for a complicated dataset, and it is not free.
It was also done in more of an RPC approach before in the OData specification which could do the same things, excluding fields, etc. But again both of these have to be written to best take advantage of this, most GraphQL services I have seen, still get everything from the database/storage and then limit the payload, which is an optimization, but might not actually be the place where the most time would have been saved.
GraphQL is essentially a smart "aggregator" playing the role of data orchestrator( See dev.to/jacobsee/microservice-coord...)
The main difference from REST comes to 2 essential mechanisms:
1) Parsing and validation of request "shape" via schema parsing
2) Forwarding request fragments to different endpoints(microservices/data providers) and collect and aggregate the various data into the "shape" requested in #1
As result, technically-speak, GraphQL should be able to use other protocols besides HTTP protocol. Though current spec or implementation mainly uses HTTP.
YES! Thank you for this great post!
I really liked seeing this specifically called out.
You are most welcome.
I’m glad you like it!
Fantastic comparison I know so many people who keep asking what the difference between the two is and why they should even learn GraphQL.
Thank you Andrew😊
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Keep it up 👍
Awesome🎉🎉🎉🙌
Nice article.
Also check 'restql' to does the same for rest apis on python,
useful for anyone who dont want to upgrade to graphql instantly but want to enjoy this structure.
That's awesome!
I will check it out asap
Thank you Haseeb
Thanks a lot for this Shadrack
You are welcome Akwasi
Thanks.
Excelent post.
Thank you Pedro!
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