How to Federate Graphs in StepZen

Assembling GraphQL Backends into a Single Graph with @materializer

StepZen creates a GraphQL endpoint by assembling subgraphs. When doing federation, each subgraph represents a GraphQL backend. In StepZen, you import the GraphQL backends using the stepzen import graphql command, and then stitch them together using StepZen's @materializer directive.

Demonstrated here by bringing a customer subgraph, and an order subgraph together.

See also Building Graphs and Graphs-of-Graphs to learn how StepZen is built on the concept of graph-of-subgraphs.

How to Build a Graph and a Graph-of-Graphs in StepZen

Assembling a GraphQL API from Various Data Sources - REST, SQL, NoSQL, SOAP/XML, GraphQL

The concept of a graph-of-graphs is core to how GraphQL is implemented in StepZen. Each subgraph is built by either letting StepZen introspect the backend and generate the schema, or by writing your schema using simple declarative resolvers - @rest, @dbquery and @graphql. The subgraphs are connected into one graph using @materializer. We demonstrate this here in the partial build-out of an e-commerce GraphQL API.

For an overview to StepZen's approach to Federation, see How to Federate Graphs in StepZen.

REST versus GraphQL

Choosing between GraphQL and REST for your applications? In this video, Viktor compares GraphQL vs REST in a number of dimensions to help you decide what's right for your application. And a short demo of an application built using GraphQL to showcase how it can make the experience better for end users.

• single HTTP endpoints in GraphQL versus multiple HTTP endpoints in REST
• one network call per query in GraphQL versus one network call per entity in REST
• client-defined response content in GraphQL versus server-defined response content in REST
• no built-in access control in GraphQL versus access control on the HTTP level in REST
• typed-schemas required in GraphQL versus schemas-optional in REST
• support for real-time data in GraphQL

GraphQL & Graph Data: Two Sides of the Same Coin? (Webinar Replay)

Are 5 letters all these technologies have in common? Or does the fact that each has the concept of a graph — albeit different models of the graph — make them close cousins? Two industry veterans explored data architecture and the relationship between GraphQL and Graph databases in this webinar.

OpenAPI and GraphQL: Bridging the Gap

This video originally recorded for the ASC 2021 API Specifications Conference.

OpenAPI specs are fantastic complete descriptions of REST endpoints. However, how REST APIs are specified and how they get exposed as GraphQL is different. There are many reasons for this gap--performance, lack of consistent specs, non standard way of filtering, type inconsistencies etc. This talk highlights some of these issues and practical ways of briding the gap. Successfully doing so enables the investment in REST to be carried over to the GraphQL world.

Build an API With the GraphQL Studio (Webinar Replay)

In this workshop, you'll learn about the StepZen GraphQL Studio, and how to use it to build a GraphQL API starting with pre-built schemas for popular SaaS APIs. Also, how you can pick up the development of your API on your local machine and mix and match SaaS APIs with your own data sources.

Turn Any Data Source into GraphQL With StepZen

StepZen allows you to combine multiple backends into a single GraphQL API. In this fun and informative episode of "Learn With Jason", StepZen's Carlos Eberhardt shows us how it works.

Building a GraphQL API in Minutes, Deploy to StepZen in Seconds

With StepZen you can build a GraphQL API for any data source in minutes, and deploy it to the cloud in seconds. Get up and running right away 👉🏼 Getting Started .

How-to Playlist on YouTube

StepZen: A Quick Intro to Building GraphQL Declaratively

StepZen enables GraphQL APIs to be built declaratively, which leads to simpler code and better runtime performance. In this video, we create a GraphQL API out of two backends (a REST endpoint that contains Customer data and a MySQL endpoint that contains Order data). The declarative code is automatically generated through StepZen's introspection capabilities, and one command deploys it to the StepZen cloud.

Why GraphQL is Perfect for Microservices

Roy Derks at a GraphQL Berlin Meetup in Dec 2021: GraphQL and microservices architectures are perfectly compatible. You can use GraphQL as a data layer for these microservices and combine data from all these services into one universal API. See also Why GraphQL Is Perfect as Data Layer for Microservices (blog)

Rethinking GraphQL Implementation With StepZen

An SDL-first Directives-driven Approach

(11 min.) Getting GraphQL right involves lots of concerns--how to build it, secure it, deploy it, and make it perform. Because GraphQL APIs in StepZen are constructed by declaring resolvers using directives, the API is built faster, and cleaner. And because StepZen understands the resolvers (in contrast with other approaches), it leads to a better runtime API.

5 Easy Steps to Turn a REST API into GraphQL

StepZen makes it possible to GraphQL-enable any REST API in just minutes. In this video, we turn the DEV API into GraphQL from scratch. The entire process takes only minutes, even hand-coded.

Leverage 20 Years of REST Investment with GraphQL (Webinar Replay)

Having standardized making data available through web URLs, REST APIs are the most commonly used APIs across the web. But frontend and backend teams are looking to GraphQL to accelerate their work. You don't have to choose. You can leverage your REST investment with GraphQL.

Build a GraphQL Endpoint - Start with API Templates

This example uses three templates from the API Templates Gallery: location from IP-API; weather in the context of location (OpenWeatherMap API), and Shopify (for customer info). Some templates are configured with keys so you can use right away. You are prompted to provide your credentials for others (e.g. Shopify).

Decoupling Frontends and Backends with GraphQL (Webinar Replay)

The needs of the frontend and the backend don’t always coincide, leading to a lot of extra code to make an API meet the needs of the frontend (e.g. the backend for frontend pattern). At this CFE workshop, Anant Jhingran explores how GraphQL bridges the divide between the backend and frontend developers.

Data Resides in Databases. Apps Need GraphQL. Bridge the Gap. (Webinar Replay)

Databases store the world's data. Yet, the data is often complex, unintuitive. and not easily accessible or programmable. Here we see how to bridge the gap between an app developer's view of data and the database implementation & leverage GraphQL to make connecting apps to business data easy.

Jamstack SF Meetup - The "A" in Jamstack

"Realizing the Potential of the A in Jamstack." Recording of the livestream of StepZen's presentation and demo at the Jamstack San Francisco Meetup, February 2021.

3 Steps to a Live GraphQL API with API Templates

Save weeks of development time - import template schemas with pre-defined types, backends, and connectors and combine them into a single GraphQL schema. Deploy your GraphQL endpoint right away so that you work with a running API.

Jamstack and StepZen - Building an API of APIs

StepZen makes it possible to easily Integrate APIs & Data for Jamstack Sites and Apps. The GraphQL API you build in StepZen is an API of APIs - different backends and ways of connecting to them are made uniform in the context of your GraphQL API.

StepZen Type System Abstracts Backends

Want to focus on the data you need, and not so much on where it lives in the backend? See how StepZen abstracts multiple backends in a type and routes queries to the right backend.

Build a GraphQL Endpoint - Write Your Schema (SDL)

Learn how to build your unified GraphQL API by writing GraphQL schema files (SDL). Then upload and deploy your schemas to StepZen, resulting in a live GraphQL endpoint.

StepZen Type System Links Data Across Backends

Using the Product and Tag types, Anant runs the queries to demonstrate how linked types enable a single GraphQL request to access related information across multiple backend services.