Writing a GraphQL DSL in Kotlin

I’ve recently spent some time testing a GraphQL endpoint against a few queries. At the moment I’m keeping my queries as multi-line strings but I was wondering: How hard would it be to build a GraphQL query DSL in Kotlin? I thought this could be a good opportunity to become more familiar with Kotlin DSL capabilities. Here’s what I’ve got so far. A GraphQL DSL in Kotlin The above snippet produces the following result: The GraphQL resulting from the DSL The main challenges I have faced up to this point have been around supporting: any string to be used as the root field of the query (e.g. ) "allUsers" nested selection of fields a map-like syntax for field arguments (I’ve settled for the method for now) [to](https://kotlinlang.org/api/latest/jvm/stdlib/kotlin/to.html#to) Any String is a Field As you can see from the above example, it is possible to start the root field declaration using a string, followed by the fields selection: I’ve achieved that thanks to the support. Read on to find out how I have implemented it. Invoke operator overloading String.invoke to the rescue The incredibly powerful helps me define my own implementation of on a . extensions support invoke String String.invoke overload This way, any String instance can be turned into a by passing a block to the operator . Additionally, Kotlin’s compact syntax, saves us from having to explicitly use the open and close parenthesis, making the result a little more readable. Field.Builder invoke () Select-ing sub-fields Inside the declared root field, a sequence of instructions informs the current field builder about which sub-fields we are interested in. The way this is achieved is by letting the compiler know that we are in the context of a and that any method specified in the block has to be resolved against it. This is possible thanks to . select Field.Builder function literals with receiver Function literals with receiver This is probably the most useful feature Kotlin has to offer when it comes to building DSLs. The block argument has been declared as .As we can see from the docs: Field.Builder.() -> Unit receiver object_._ […] Kotlin provides the ability to call an instance of a function type with receiver providing the Function literals with receiver — Kotlin reference What this means is that I can invoke the having the current instance as receiver resulting in the invocations to be being resolved against it. block Field.Builder select Field arguments When it comes to specifying field arguments, I’ve had to settle for that not-so-pretty to syntax. I still think it’s a good compromise considering that Kotlin doesn’t offer much more when it comes to map-building syntax. The to method that allows for that comes from the standard library. Note that the keyword is what allows for the simplified notation . [infix](https://kotlinlang.org/docs/reference/functions.html#infix-notation) receiver method argument Finally, a slightly more complicated definition of accepts instances of allowing for the syntax to be used when specifying field arguments. The explicit String type as the left type helps keeping it all a little more robust. String.invoke Pair _to_ Wrapping up As you can see, I’m not a DSL expert (at all!) but this is a fun experiment to play with. You can follow my work at the repo. Please, feel free to contribute by opening issues or pull requests. graphql-forger I hope you have enjoyed the post and learnt something new about Kotlin. Originally published at alediaferia.com on March 18, 2019.