044 Let’s get GraphQL! (Smart API access from CFML), with Mark Drew

October 10, 2017 By Michaela Light Leave a Comment

Mark Drew talks about “Let’s get GraphQL! (Smart API access from CFML) ” in this episode of ColdFusion Alive podcast with host Michaela Light.

Contents

Show notes
Mentioned in this episode
Listen to the Audio
Bio
Links
Interview transcript
- Read more

Show notes

History of API use: SOAP, REST, GraphQL, oh my!
Why GraphQL?
- Why Facebook invented it 2012
- Open source version released in 2015 + spec released
What exactly is GraphQL
- A query language for APIs
- For example, if you look at a single tweet, obtained from Twitter's API, you will so a stack of information that you don't need! If only there was a way to query this data to get just what you need.

GraphQL – A language specification that solves the same problem that SQL did for Relational Databases.
Fundamentals of GraphQL
- Hierarchical
  - Parse the graph of data – parents → children → grandchildren
- Product-centric
- Strong-typing
- Client-specified Queries
- Introspective
  - The API is self-documented
Language Concepts
- Fields and subfields
  - types and fields, not endpoints. Access the full capabilities of your data from a single endpoint. GraphQL uses types to ensure Apps only ask for what’s possible and provide clear and helpful errors
- Edges
- Nodes
- Filters
- Arguments
- Fragments
- Variables
- Mutations
  - CRUD operations
- Versioning
  - Add new fields and types to your GraphQL API without impacting existing queries. Aging fields can be deprecated and hidden from tools. By using a single evolving version, GraphQL APIs give apps continuous access to new features and encourage cleaner, more maintainable server code.
How about in CFML?
- Client libs
- Java Server Libs
- IDL based on the GraphQL apec
- Must strip extra whitespace from the query you submit
Who are actually using it and why?
- Github
- Facebook
- Intuit
- Pinterest
- Coursera
- Shopify
- Sky TV
Faster to run
Good for mobile apps
Apollo tools and server
How was cf.Objective for you?
What are you looking forward to at CFCAMP and NCDevCon?

Mentioned in this episode

Listen to the Audio

Bio

Mark Drew

Mark Drew has been programming CFML since 1996, and even though he has had forays into Perl, ASP and PHP he is still loving every line of code he has crafted with CFML. His career has concentrated on eCommerce, Content Management and Application Scalability for various well-known brands in the UK market such as Jaeger, Hackett, Hobbs, Dyson, B&W, Diesel amongst others. He founded CMD, a London based web development consultancy.

Links

Twitter
LinkedIn
CFML Slack
Mark (at) CMDHQ.com

Interview transcript

Michael: Welcome back to the show. I'm here with Mark Drew from Command MD, a web development consultancy in London, he's the founder. That's a bit like George Washington founded United States except it's a little bit smaller.

Mark: Just a tad, just a tad, we'll soon be quite as … you know give me 400 years and …

Michael: There we go yeah.

Mark: And I'm sure we'll be quite as big as the United State.

Michael: Exactly, so we're going to be looking at getting graphical with GQraphQL. We’ll look at the history of A.P.I. use, and where GraphQL fits into that. Why you should use it, who's using it, what exactly is the fundamentals of it, some of the subtle language concepts, and mutations that we can look at in there. And also, how you'd use it from ColdFusion, and how to get started on that. We'll have a quick demo in the middle of the episode, so you can see that.

Mark: And we [inaudible] [00:58] demo gods that everything goes well.

Michael: Always praise the demo gods. And we'll also check in on how C.F. objective was, and what's coming up at the C.F. camp for Mark. So, welcome Mark.

Mark: Well, thank you nice to see you again I should say. Are these in order?

Michael: Yes, they probably are moderately in order. We do shuffle randomly sometimes, but you know you're not alone because otherwise you're going to be like but we have not seen him before yes. So, thank you, thank you for having me on.

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