laurelherting / graphql-apollo

Working with Express-GraphQL, Apollo, & MongoDB

GRAPHQL-APOLLO

An example repo using apollo, react, mongod, and express-graphql

Getting Up and Running

Server and Client side have separate package.json and yarn.lock files

Server: Install

From the root project folder, run yarn

Server: Running the project

The credentials for mlab.com must be exported as shell environment variables.

$ export MLAB_USERNAME=''
$ export MLAB_PASSWORD=''

This must be done every time a new terminal window is opened and used for the server side.

• Open up a tab in the terminal and start MongoDB
• Open up a tab in the terminal. From the root project folder, run: yarn start

Server: Debugging

Requires the Node.js V8 inspector extension

To debug the server enter a debugging line in the server codebase.

Example: ./server/schema/schema.js

resolve(parent, args) {
  debugger;
  return Book.findById(args.id);
},

Then run yarn run debug to run the server in debug mode. Open Chrome and the inspector (dev tools). Click the green Node.js V8 inspector extension icon. Use breakpoints as necessary to move through the code and inspect.

Client: Install

From the Client folder, run: yarn

Client: Running the project

Apollo and webpack-dev-server will be run in watch mode

Open up a tab in the terminal. From the Client project folder, run: yarn start

Express-GraphQL Notes

The GraphQL schema docs are located in: server/models

GraphiQL Notes

• Open up a tab in the terminal and start MongoDB
• Open up a tab in the terminal. From the root project folder, run: yarn start An in-browser IDE for writing, validating, and testing queries

Apollo Notes

Schema

The Client side schema file is located at: client/src/components/BookList.js

Node

.nvmrc added to both Server and Client side for node version consistency

Additional information

The Client side was originally created without create-react-app (though was available at this time) and Relay. Relay was replaced with Apollo for its flexibility within the environment. A connection with MongoDB depicts this. After working with Apollo's more lightweight and flexible approach, a future application(requiring more complex data) will be developed using Relay.