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Learning GraphQL: Declarative Data Fetching for Modern Web Apps
Why is GraphQL the most innovative technology for fetching data since Ajax? By providing a query language for your APIs and a runtime for fulfilling queries with your data, GraphQL presents a clear alternative to REST and ad hoc web service architectures. With this practical guide, Alex Banks and Eve Porcello deliver a clear learning path for frontend web developers, backend engineers, and project and product managers looking to get started with GraphQL.
You’ll explore graph theory, the graph data structure, and GraphQL types before learning hands-on how to build a schema for a photo-sharing application. This book also introduces you to Apollo Client, a popular framework you can use to connect GraphQL to your user interface.
Explore graph theory and review popular graph examples in use today Learn how GraphQL applies database querying methods to the internet Create a schema for a PhotoShare application that serves as a roadmap and a contract between the frontend and backend teams Use JavaScript to build a fully functioning GraphQL service and Apollo to implement a client Learn how to prepare GraphQL APIs and clients for production200 pages, Paperback
Published August 31, 2018
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193 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 24 of 24 reviews
September 7, 2021
Although the book does offer a proper introduction to GraphQL, a lot of the code used was deprecated and I had to spend quite a bit of time to make it work.
The last two chapters are especially bad - some steps are missed and the readers are left to google themselves out of the vague explanations. It feels like the author just ran out of patience and could not finish the book in the same clear and thorough way in which the book was started.
Overall, it's an ok book. But before committing to it, I would advise considering other options first.
The last two chapters are especially bad - some steps are missed and the readers are left to google themselves out of the vague explanations. It feels like the author just ran out of patience and could not finish the book in the same clear and thorough way in which the book was started.
Overall, it's an ok book. But before committing to it, I would advise considering other options first.
October 23, 2020
I've been learning GraphQL in an ad-hoc (i.e., on-the-job) fashion over the past year. And while I've done OK, this would have been helpful to read beforehand. That being said, it was reassuring to compare what I've learned with what's written hear and realize: "oh good, I'm not off-base."
Porcello provides an accessible overview, with well-presented concrete examples to introduce GraphQL's core concepts. Those examples are straightforward enough that you don't need to do any mental gymnastics to see what they're illustrating -- but they're also describing complex-enough scenarios that they don't feel trivial (a common complaint that I have from these kinds of books). And that there is why I'd recommend this one. (Oh... and there's a sense of humor in here too, which I always appreciate.)
I've got a couple of nit-picky critiques that go a bit like:
1. It's unevenly edited -- which... not the author's fault. But there was at least one sentence where an "and" and a "but" are reversed and it totally changes the sentence's meaning (and conflicts with the code example!)
2. A couple of spots where certain subjects are arguably over-simplified which... I get that that's for the sake of moving things along. But that one's another pet peeve of mine with "these kinds of books".
Porcello provides an accessible overview, with well-presented concrete examples to introduce GraphQL's core concepts. Those examples are straightforward enough that you don't need to do any mental gymnastics to see what they're illustrating -- but they're also describing complex-enough scenarios that they don't feel trivial (a common complaint that I have from these kinds of books). And that there is why I'd recommend this one. (Oh... and there's a sense of humor in here too, which I always appreciate.)
I've got a couple of nit-picky critiques that go a bit like:
1. It's unevenly edited -- which... not the author's fault. But there was at least one sentence where an "and" and a "but" are reversed and it totally changes the sentence's meaning (and conflicts with the code example!)
2. A couple of spots where certain subjects are arguably over-simplified which... I get that that's for the sake of moving things along. But that one's another pet peeve of mine with "these kinds of books".
January 15, 2019
Very nice book that goes into quite a lot of details about GraphQl
I feel that in a small number of pages, it tackles a lot of subject and it also build an app little by little, explainig the concepts along the way
However, there are a lot of mistakes in the code written in the book. Hopefully, there is the github codebase that is correct and that you can rely on to develop the same app on your own. But the book was almost useless as there are tons of misspelling, wrong copy paste and various errors
This is the reason I am putting 4 starts only.
Another thing is that you better know to code in React as the book is not about React but it uses React quite a lot for the frontend.
All that being said, I feel much more aware of what is GraphQL in detail now and so I think this book did a very good job teaching it in a comprehensive way.
I feel that in a small number of pages, it tackles a lot of subject and it also build an app little by little, explainig the concepts along the way
However, there are a lot of mistakes in the code written in the book. Hopefully, there is the github codebase that is correct and that you can rely on to develop the same app on your own. But the book was almost useless as there are tons of misspelling, wrong copy paste and various errors
This is the reason I am putting 4 starts only.
Another thing is that you better know to code in React as the book is not about React but it uses React quite a lot for the frontend.
All that being said, I feel much more aware of what is GraphQL in detail now and so I think this book did a very good job teaching it in a comprehensive way.
March 29, 2019
I wanted to know more about GraphQL and this book provided a good introduction of its ecosystem.
It goes into details into:
- why it was invented in response to REST: overfetching (too much data send back in responses when you only need a few fields), underfetching (the need to send a query for a list, send multiple queries for items), lack of flexibility (the need to write new endpoints to cope with new features in applications)
- how it's used: schema, queries, mutations, subscriptions (the ability offered with GraphQL for clients to be notified by servers of data changes), introspection...
- how it's implemented: clients and servers implementations with Apollo, going into details about client side caching
The final chapter ("GraphQL in the Real World") was of great addition. It focuses on topics such as security (how to deal with queries complexity and depth), mocking (which can be of great help in project where frontend and backend codes are written at the same time), or how GraphQL schema can define a contract between all parts (and teams) of an application. I only wished it mentioned its drawbacks, since GraphQL has been there long enough to gather feedback on production. This article was of great help for this: https://medium.freecodecamp.org/five-...
Another theme lacking in this book is discussion around API versioning, which is current in mobile app development, and how GraphQL approches this problem.
Overall, this book is a great primer to GraphQL ecosystem.
It goes into details into:
- why it was invented in response to REST: overfetching (too much data send back in responses when you only need a few fields), underfetching (the need to send a query for a list, send multiple queries for items), lack of flexibility (the need to write new endpoints to cope with new features in applications)
- how it's used: schema, queries, mutations, subscriptions (the ability offered with GraphQL for clients to be notified by servers of data changes), introspection...
- how it's implemented: clients and servers implementations with Apollo, going into details about client side caching
The final chapter ("GraphQL in the Real World") was of great addition. It focuses on topics such as security (how to deal with queries complexity and depth), mocking (which can be of great help in project where frontend and backend codes are written at the same time), or how GraphQL schema can define a contract between all parts (and teams) of an application. I only wished it mentioned its drawbacks, since GraphQL has been there long enough to gather feedback on production. This article was of great help for this: https://medium.freecodecamp.org/five-...
Another theme lacking in this book is discussion around API versioning, which is current in mobile app development, and how GraphQL approches this problem.
Overall, this book is a great primer to GraphQL ecosystem.
July 12, 2023
Це перша спеціалізована книга, яку я відмічаю на goodreads. Почуваю себе трохи читером, так як вона була необхідна мені для роботи, але ще зарахується до річного челенджу. Хех.
Я працюю бізнес аналатиком і до того ніколи не поглиблювалася в процес обробки запитів між сервісами. Але з проєкта я пішла і прийшла на продукт, де основна задача це робота з GraphQL. Мені сподобалося, що тут достатньо детально пояснюють всі деталі запитів і новачку типу мене, буде зрозуміло, що і як працює.
Цікава примітка, для аналітика є обов'язковим прочитати 1-4 глави, а далі йде вже достатньо технічна частина, корисніша для розробника, тому інші глави вже опціонально.
Я працюю бізнес аналатиком і до того ніколи не поглиблювалася в процес обробки запитів між сервісами. Але з проєкта я пішла і прийшла на продукт, де основна задача це робота з GraphQL. Мені сподобалося, що тут достатньо детально пояснюють всі деталі запитів і новачку типу мене, буде зрозуміло, що і як працює.
Цікава примітка, для аналітика є обов'язковим прочитати 1-4 глави, а далі йде вже достатньо технічна частина, корисніша для розробника, тому інші глави вже опціонально.
February 11, 2019
Schema First Design Methodology (enable teams to get to work):
- Define types.
- Agree on 80% of the schema before building anything.
- Mocking is an important part of schema-first development. Apollo provides strong tooling to spin up a mock server in 4 lines of code. (1) import Apollo, (2) import type definitions, (3) Define apollo server configuration with mocks: true, (4) server.listen(). You can then customize the mock server data as needed.
- Define types.
- Agree on 80% of the schema before building anything.
- Mocking is an important part of schema-first development. Apollo provides strong tooling to spin up a mock server in 4 lines of code. (1) import Apollo, (2) import type definitions, (3) Define apollo server configuration with mocks: true, (4) server.listen(). You can then customize the mock server data as needed.
April 18, 2019
Quite a decent beginner;s book on GraphQL. I felt like while it doesn't go into the super deep details it breaches a lot of topics, which personally I found more useful as I can always just google the concepts more (and get into them as deep as I want). The example server is built by Node.js and the example client with React, but you can get by, and understand the apps with pretty basic JS knowledge. (React might be a bit hard to read /strange, if you've never encountered with it before)
March 31, 2020
GraphQL isn't a big piece of tech and shouldn't require a big book to go with it. This is one of the reasons I liked this book. It's short and to the point and about one third is about Apollo's implementation of GraphQL, which if you are not using it, makes this book even shorter.
I wish it was covering Relay though. That would have been nice. A GraphQL book that covers many server and client libraries would end up being a big book though.
I wish it was covering Relay though. That would have been nice. A GraphQL book that covers many server and client libraries would end up being a big book though.
January 3, 2023
Es un libro un poco más avanzado y me pareció cool que expliquen conceptos sobre grafos, que es la idea subyacente de GraphQL, sin embargo también esta muy enfocado en cómo crear tu servidor/cliente en JavaScript.
Los conceptos en este libro me quedaron un poco más claros, y por ahora será mi libro de consultas cuando tenga alguna duda sobre la filosofía de GraphQL.
Los conceptos en este libro me quedaron un poco más claros, y por ahora será mi libro de consultas cuando tenga alguna duda sobre la filosofía de GraphQL.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
December 24, 2024
This book is an excellent choice for people who have no idea what GraphQL is. However, if you have already started and working on a GraphQL project, this book might not be very helpful, though you could still learn a few things you didn’t know. If you want to understand the fundamentals, this book is perfect for you!
August 18, 2019
This is a good introductory book for its topic. It provides a decent overview of graph theory to prime the reader for GraphQL and then walks through a number of building blocks using concrete examples so one can better understand how to build a GraphQL API.
March 8, 2022
Didn't answer some key questions I had about best practices, but does a good job of explaining the shift in mentality from REST. Directed me to some Slack/Discord channels where I could get more specific help.
February 12, 2024
I guess it’s handy for those trying to decide whether to use GraphQL to see an implementation, but I would have preferred a little more on how to do more complicated things with GraphQL, because its capabilities seem rudimentary.
September 19, 2018
Too much UI, not enough db query generation info
November 29, 2018
A decent introduction worth checking out. Even as one fairly new to GraphQL, I found it a bit on the basic side and didn't learn as much as I had hoped.
June 10, 2019
All you need about GraphQL, for web developers/full stack engineers IMO.
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November 10, 2019books for tooling are impossible to read, read like 50 pages then it got way too code heavy to not just read the docs.
March 11, 2020
Good and informative!
March 26, 2020
By the same authors as *Learning React* (also by O'Reilly) and this is a better book than that one.
November 3, 2022
Very basic book, there is very little content that you cannot find on the official docs so the book provide little value.
December 30, 2022
A good intro but I felt like I often had to 'fill in the blanks' myself.
October 17, 2023
This book is beginner friendly. It is good for anyone who wants to have an overview of Graphql
May 3, 2021
Super solid book for beginners who want to learn GraphQL. This is a small sized book tha summarized the all important aspects of GraphQL and having some introductory what is Graph is. I highly recommend this book to everyone who wants to try GraphQL in their technology stack.
September 13, 2020
Truly a good one to get started with. I would happily recommend this book for beginners wanting to learn GraphQL.
Displaying 1 - 24 of 24 reviews