RESTful APIs Are Good, But GraphQL APIs Are Usually Better

According to the GraphQL Foundation, GraphQL is a query language for APIs and a runtime for fulfilling those queries with your existing data. Like many influential technologies, GraphQL was developed by Facebook in 2012. In their own words they “needed a data-fetching API powerful enough to describe all of Facebook, yet simple enough to be easy to learn” by their developers.

For a few years, GraphQL was used internally for their mobile applications. The first GraphQL repos were open-sourced in 2015. One of the Github repos contained the GraphQL specification and another contained a GraphQL JavaScript reference implementation. 

An Introduction to GraphQL (for Developers)

This article was originally published at Coder Society, and we’ll explore GraphQL’s core features, how to interact with a GraphQL API, and some development and operational challenges.

The Story of GraphQL

Nowadays, REST seems to be the default approach for building APIs, typically based on the familiar HTTP protocol. While REST is relatively simple to work with and enjoys widespread popularity, its use of multiple endpoints to address resources sometimes gets in the way of flexibility.

SQL to NoSQL: 7 Metrics to Compare Query Languages

Organizations who want to take advantage of the many benefits of NoSQL databases, often find that they have two challenges:

  • How to convert their RDBMS schemas to leverage the schema-less document model.
  • Learn a new API/Query to access the data.

Some also find the confusion with the NoSQL name. The abbreviation stands for 'Not only SQL', but it can also be misinterpreted it as 'No to SQL', thus accepting that in order to use NoSQL database, organizations will not only have to convert their relational data model into the document model, but also get training on whichever APIs for the NoSQL database that they will select.

Your Guide to GraphQL [Tutorials and Articles]

What Is GraphQL?

GraphQL vs the REST

Getting Started

Java

JavaScript

C#


Querying Data

Building Microservices With GraphQL

Creating a Headless CMS 

Graphcool

More Resources