A first look at how to build client side GraphQL applications using . AWS Amplify View AWS Amplify GraphQL docs . here In the rapidly evolving GraphQL ecosystem there are several popular clients available today including the , , and . GraphQL Apollo Client URQL Lokka In the process of developing a way to work more seamlessly with AWS’ managed GraphQL service , the AWS team created a new GraphQL client. AWS AppSync Because it works great with virtually GraphQL API or service, they have also decided to open source it. The AWS Amplify GraphQL client offers a simple API, designed to get up and running quicker with little configuration. any The AWS Amplify GraphQL client was along with the general availability of AWS AppSync. released at React Amsterdam The AWS Amplify GraphQL client supports , , & queries & is actively being . If you have a feature request or experience a bug, feel free to . mutations subscriptions developed submit an issue We still support our AppSync Apollo SDK for more advanced use cases such as caching & offline support. If you’re interested in those features, check out the for general GraphQL APIs or the for use with an AWS AppSync API. Apollo Client AWS AppSync Apollo SDK Let’s take a glance at the API. Setup To get started, you first need to install the AWS Amplify library: npm i aws-amplify || yarn add aws-amplify Next, you will need to add your GraphQL endpoint: import Amplify from "aws-amplify"

Amplify.configure({  API: {    graphql_endpoint: 'https:/www.example.com/my-graphql-endpoint'  }}) If you would like to set custom headers, you can just add this to the configure method as well: Amplify.configure({  API: {    graphql_endpoint: 'https:/www.example.com/my-graphql-endpoint',    graphql_headers: async () => ({      'My-Custom-Header': 'my value'    })  }}); Setting up a GraphQL API If you don’t already have one, setting up a GraphQL API can be done in just a couple of minutes with AWS AppSync, including launching a sample schema. Check out the Quickstart here: https://docs.aws.amazon.com/appsync/latest/devguide/quickstart.html If you’re setting up the client with AppSync, you’ll need the following configuration instead: let myAppConfig = {    'aws_appsync_graphqlEndpoint': 'https://xxxxxx.appsync-api.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/graphql',    'aws_appsync_region': 'us-east-1',    'aws_appsync_authenticationType': 'API_KEY',    'aws_appsync_apiKey': 'da2-xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx'}

Amplify.configure(aws_config) Queries To create a query, you need to do two things: define the query, and perform the GraphQL operation. Defining the query using template literals: const ListEvents = query ListEvents {  listEvents {    items {      id      where      description    }  }} 2. Performing the GraphQL operation: import { API, graphqlOperation } from 'aws-amplify'

const allEvents = await API.graphql(graphqlOperation(ListEvents)) Adding parameters: const oneEvent = await API.graphql(graphqlOperation(GetEvent, { id: 'some id' })) Mutations Creating mutations is pretty straightforward, we still only need two methods from Amplify: & graphqlOperation API.graphql Defining the GraphQL mutation using template literals: const CreateEvent = `mutation CreateEvent($name: String!, $when: String!, $where: String!, $description: String!) {  createEvent(name: $name, when: $when, where: $where, description: $description) {    id    name    where    when    description  }}`; Performing the GraphQL operation: import { API, graphqlOperation } from 'aws-amplify'

const eventDetails = {    name: 'Party tonight!',    when: '8:00pm',    where: 'Ballroom',    decription: 'Coming together as a team!'};const newEvent = await API.graphql(graphqlOperation(CreateEvent, eventDetails)); Subscriptions Subscriptions are pretty easy to set up as well! Again, just like the previous two examples, all you need to do is set up your subscription definition and call the GraphQL operation. Defining the subscription: const SubscribeToEvents = `subscription subscribeToEvents {  subscribeToEvents {    id    name    when    where  }}` Creating the subscription: const subscription = API.graphql(  graphqlOperation(SubscribeToEvents)).subscribe({  next: (eventData) => console.log(eventData)}); Now, whenever a new event is created in our API, the next function will fire with the new data! You can also unsubscribe by calling the unsubscribe method on the new subscription: subscription.unsubscribe() React components Many developers especially in the React ecosystem have come to prefer working with components when possible. AWS also added React components to perform these operations. These are part of the package. aws-amplify-react To get started with these components, first install : aws-amplify-react npm i aws-amplify-react || yarn add aws-amplify-react Next, we can perform a query like so: import { Connect } from 'aws-amplify-react'

const ListEvents = `query ListEvents {  listEvents {    items {      id      name      description    }  }}` // in your render method: <Connect query={graphqlOperation(ListEvents)}>     {({ data: { listEvents } }) => (       <ListView events={listEvents.items} />     )}   </Connect> Subscriptions & mutations work in the same way, to see a detailed explanation of both subscriptions & mutations check out . the documentation Conclusion In addition to GraphQL, AWS Amplify is a library that supports a lot of other functionality including authentication, storage, analytics, internationalization, & pub-sub. To learn more about AWS Amplify, check out or ping . the docs me on Twitter Thanks for reading! My Name is . I am a Developer Advocate at working with projects like and , and the founder of . Nader Dabit AWS Mobile AppSync AWS Amplify React Native Training If you enjoyed this article, and share it! Thanks for your time. please clap n number of times The opinions expressed herein are my own Images courtesy of Amazon Web Services, Inc

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