json-graphql-server-cj-fork v2.2.0

json-graphql-server

Get a full fake GraphQL API with zero coding in less than 30 seconds.

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This is a fork of json-graphql-server with three new additions:

Configuring Relationships

Relationships using atypical naming can now be defined in a config object passed into the main function. This allows for defining relationships that don't follow the strict ${type}_id format.

You can now have something like this:

import { jsonGraphqlExpress } from 'json-graphql-server';

const data = {
   "posts": [
       {
           "id": 1,
           "title": "Lorem Ipsum",
           "views": 254,
           "author_id": 123,
       },
       {
           "id": 2,
           "title": "Sic Dolor amet",
           "views": 65,
           "author_id": 456,
       },
   ],
   "users": [
       {
           "id": 123,
           "name": "John Doe"
       },
       {
           "id": 456,
           "name": "Jane Doe"
       }
   ],
};

jsonGraphqlExpress(data, {
    relationships: {
         posts: {
             author_id: {
                 ref: 'users',
                 field: 'Author',
                 foreignField: 'AuthoredPosts'
             }
         }
     }
});

Which will generate type definitions like:

type Post {
    id: ID!
    title: String!
    views: Int!
    author_id: ID!
    Author: User
}

type User {
    id: ID!
    name: String!
    AuthoredPosts: [Post]
}

Filter Nested References

List of references are now defined as:

type User {
    id: ID!
    name: String!
    Posts(filter: PostFilter): [Post]
}

and resolvers have been updated so that the passed in args will further filter the relations.

Many to Many Relationships

Many to Many relationships are now supported without the need for an intermediary. These are defined similar to many-to-one relationships, with the use of the _ids suffix for fields and an array of ids.

For example:

const data = {
    posts: [
        {
            id: 1,
            title: 'Lorem Ipsum',
            views: 254,
            user_ids: [123, 456],
        },
        {
            id: 2,
            title: 'Sic Dolor amet',
            views: 65,
            user_ids: [456],
        },
    ],
    users: [
        {
            id: 123,
            name: 'John Doe',
        },
        {
            id: 456,
            name: 'Jane Doe',
        },
    ],
};

jsonGraphqlExpress(data);

Which yields a type definition of the format:

type Post {
    id: ID!
    title: String!
    views: Int!
    user_ids: List[ID]!
    Users: [User]
}

type User {
    id: ID!
    name: String!
    Posts: [Post]
}

The aforementioned relationship config and field filtering work for these many-to-many relationships as well.

Motivation

I'd love to learn GraphQL, but it seems that I first have to read a book about GraphQL Types and Queries, then install a gazillion npm packages.

• About every developer

Start playing with GraphQL right away with json-graphql-server, a testing and mocking tool for GraphQL. All it takes is a JSON of your data.

Inspired by the excellent json-server.

Example

Create a db.js file.

Your data file should export an object where the keys are the entity types. The values should be lists of entities, i.e. arrays of value objects with at least an id key. For instance:

module.exports = {
    posts: [
        { id: 1, title: "Lorem Ipsum", views: 254, user_id: 123 },
        { id: 2, title: "Sic Dolor amet", views: 65, user_id: 456 },
    ],
    users: [
        { id: 123, name: "John Doe" },
        { id: 456, name: "Jane Doe" }
    ],
    comments: [
        { id: 987, post_id: 1, body: "Consectetur adipiscing elit", date: new Date('2017-07-03') },
        { id: 995, post_id: 1, body: "Nam molestie pellentesque dui", date: new Date('2017-08-17') }
    ]
}

Start the GraphQL server on localhost, port 3000.

json-graphql-server db.js

To use a port other than 3000, you can run json-graphql-server db.js --p <your port here>

Now you can query your data in graphql. For instance, to issue the following query:

{
    Post(id: 1) {
        id
        title
        views
        User {
            name
        }
        Comments {
            date
            body
        }
    }
}

Go to http://localhost:3000/?query=%7B%20Post%28id%3A%201%29%20%7B%20id%20title%20views%20User%20%7B%20name%20%7D%20Comments%20%7B%20date%20body%20%7D%20%7D%20%7D. You'll get the following result:

{
    "data": {
        "Post": {
            "id": "1",
            "title": "Lorem Ipsum",
            "views": 254,
            "User": {
                "name": "John Doe"
            },
            "Comments": [
                { "date": "2017-07-03T00:00:00.000Z", "body": "Consectetur adipiscing elit" },
                { "date": "2017-08-17T00:00:00.000Z", "body": "Nam molestie pellentesque dui" },
            ]
        }
    }
}

The json-graphql-server accepts queries in GET and POST. Under the hood, it uses the express-graphql module. Please refer to their documentations for details about passing variables, etc.

Note that the server is GraphiQL enabled, so you can query your server using a full-featured graphical user interface, providing autosuggest, history, etc.

Install

npm install -g json-graphql-server

Generated Types and Queries

Based on your data, json-graphql-server will generate a schema with one type per entity, as well as 3 query types and 3 mutation types. For instance for the Post entity:

type Query {
  Post(id: ID!): Post
  allPosts(page: Int, perPage: Int, sortField: String, sortOrder: String, filter: PostFilter): [Post]
  _allPostsMeta(page: Int, perPage: Int, sortField: String, sortOrder: String, filter: PostFilter): ListMetadata
}
type Mutation {
  createPost(data: String): Post
  updatePost(data: String): Post
  removePost(id: ID!): Boolean
}
type Post {
    id: ID!
    title: String!
    views: Int!
    user_id: ID!
    User: User
    Comments: [Comment]
}
type PostFilter {
    q: String
    id: ID
    title: String
    views: Int
    views_lt: Int
    views_lte: Int
    views_gt: Int
    views_gte: Int
    user_id: ID    
}
type ListMetadata {
    count: Int!
}
scalar Date

By convention, json-graphql-server expects all entities to have an id field that is unique for their type - it's the entity primary key. The type of every field is inferred from the values, so for instance, Post.title is a String!, and Post.views is an Int!. When all entities have a value for a field, json-graphql-server makes the field type non nullable (that's why Post.views type is Int! and not Int).

For every field named *_id, json-graphql-server creates a two-way relationship, to let you fetch related entities from both sides. For instance, the presence of the user_id field in the posts entity leads to the ability to fetch the related User for a Post - and the related Posts for a User.

The all* queries accept parameters to let you sort, paginate, and filter the list of results. You can filter by any field, not just the primary key. For instance, you can get the posts written by user 123. Json-graphql-server also adds a full-text query field named q, and created range filter fields for numeric and date fields. The detail of all available filters can be seen in the generated *Filter type.

GraphQL Usage

Here is how you can use the queries and mutations generated for your data, using Post as an example:

Usage with Node

Install the module locally:

npm install --save-dev json-graphql-server

Then use the jsonGraphqlExpress express middleware:

import express from 'express';
import jsonGraphqlExpress from 'json-graphql-server';

const PORT = 3000;
const app = express();
const data = {
    // ... your data
};
app.use('/graphql', jsonGraphqlExpress(data));
app.listen(PORT);

Usage in browser with XMLHttpRequest

Useful when using XMLHttpRequest directly or libaries such as axios.

Install with a script tag

Add a script tag referencing the library:

<script src="../lib/json-graphql-server.min.js"></script>

It will expose the JsonGraphqlServer as a global object:

<script type="text/javascript">
    window.addEventListener('load', function() {
        const data = [...];

        const server = JsonGraphqlServer({
            data,
            url: 'http://localhost:3000/graphql'
        });

        server.start();

        const xhr = new XMLHttpRequest();
        xhr.open('POST', 'http://localhost:3000/graphql', true);
        xhr.setRequestHeader('Content-Type', 'application/json');
        xhr.setRequestHeader('Accept', 'application/json');
        xhr.onerror = function(error) {
            console.error(error);
        }
        xhr.onload = function() {
            const result = JSON.parse(xhr.responseText);
            console.log('data returned:', result);
            alert('Found ' + result.data.allPosts.length + ' posts');
        }
        const body = JSON.stringify({ query: 'query allPosts { allPosts { id } }' });
        xhr.send(body);
    });
</script>

Use with a bundler (webpack)

npm install json-graphql-server

import JsonGraphqlServer from 'json-graphql-server';

const data = [...];

const server = JsonGraphqlServer({
    data,
    url: 'http://localhost:3000/graphql'
});

server.start();

const xhr = new XMLHttpRequest();
xhr.open('POST', 'http://localhost:3000/graphql', true);
xhr.setRequestHeader('Content-Type', 'application/json');
xhr.setRequestHeader('Accept', 'application/json');
xhr.onerror = function(error) {
    console.error(error);
}
xhr.onload = function() {
    const result = JSON.parse(xhr.responseText);
    console.log('data returned:', result);
    alert('Found ' + result.data.allPosts.length + ' posts');
}
const body = JSON.stringify({ query: 'query allPosts { allPosts { id } }' });
xhr.send(body);

Usage in browser with fetch

import fetchMock from 'fetch-mock';
import JsonGraphqlServer from 'json-graphql-server';

const data = [...];
const server = JsonGraphqlServer({ data });

fetchMock.post('http://localhost:3000/graphql', server.getHandler());

fetch({
    url: 'http://localhost:3000/graphql',
    method: 'POST',
    body: JSON.stringify({ query: 'query allPosts { allPosts { id } }' })
})
.then(response => response.json())
.then(json => {
    alert('Found ' + result.data.allPosts.length + ' posts');
})

Adding Authentication, Custom Routes, etc.

json-graphql-server doesn't deal with authentication or custom routes. But you can use your favorite middleware with Express:

import express from 'express';
import jsonGraphqlExpress from 'json-graphql-server';

import OAuthSecurityMiddleWare from './path/to/OAuthSecurityMiddleWare';

const PORT = 3000;
const app = express();
const data = {
    // ... your data
};
app.use(OAuthSecurityMiddleWare());
app.use('/graphql', jsonGraphqlExpress(data));
app.listen(PORT);

Deployment

Deploy with Heroku or Next.js.

Roadmap

• CLI options (https, watch, delay, custom schema)
• Subscriptions
• Client-side mocking (à la FakeRest)

Contributing

Use Prettier formatting and make sure you include unit tests. The project includes a Makefile to automate usual developer tasks:

make install
make build
make test
make watch
make format

License

Admin-on-rest is licensed under the MIT Licence, sponsored and supported by marmelab.