In this blog post I will be covering about what is GraphQL, what are its advantages, REST vs GraphQL and what are the popular GraphQL libraries.
What is GraphQL?
GraphQL is an open source query language for API (application programming interface) developed by Facebook in 2012. Gives client ability to retrieve exact data and nothing more.
REST vs GraphQL
Advantages:
- Good fit for complex systems and microservices
- No over fetching and under fetching data
- Validation and type checking out-of-box
- Self generating API documentation
- Code sharing
- GraphQL is faster
- No versioning
Disadvantages:
- Query Complexity can lead to performance issue
- Its difficult to implement caching as the queries are unpredictable compared to REST
- Complex error handling compared to rest
GraphQL libraries/tools:
Server Side:
Clients:
Tools:
