How to organize GraphQL resolver for additional fields - graphql

Question

Let's say I have a simple GraphQL type for a user:
type User {
id: ID!
name: String!
}
Query {
user(id:ID!)
}
and a resolver
user = (_, {id}, {api})=> api.getUser(id)
Now I have add a new field to the User called friends and added a new resolver for the User.friends field.
friends = ({id}, _, {api})=> api.getFriends(id)
So now I wonder when we made a query like this, how can I prevent the call to api.getUser but only call api.getFriends.
query {
user(id){
friends {
name
}
}
}
My understanding is that having a resolver defined for the user field in the Query type, it will always call this resolver first and after that all resolvers for fields in the User type.

Answer 1

This is a common problem and there is for example this solution out there: https://github.com/gajus/graphql-lazyloader
Check out the README of the project for a structured description of your problem.
Alternatively, you can implement your own class that contains a cached value making use of how GraphQL.js implements default resolvers:
class User {
constructor(id) {
this.id = id;
}
getInstance({ api }) {
if (!this.instance) {
this.instance = api.getUser(this.id);
}
return this.instance;
}
// notice how id is already a property of this class
name(args, ctx) {
return this.getInstance(ctx).then(instance => instance.name);
}
// do the same for other fields, user will only be fetched once.
friends(args, { api }) {
return api.getFriends(this.id);
}
}
const resolvers = {
Query: {
user: (args) => new User(args.id),
}
}
If you use dataloader you can even do this with even less code thanks to caching in dataloader:
// You probably have this function already somewhere in your apollo server creation
function createContext({ api }) {
return {
api,
loaders: {
user: new Dataloader((ids) => ids.map(id => api.getUser(id))),
},
}
}
const resolvers = {
Query: {
user: (parent, args) => ({ id: args.id }),
},
User: {
name: ({ id }, args, { loaders }) =>
loaders.user.load(id).then(user => user.name),
otherProp: ({ id }, args, { loaders }) =>
loaders.user.load(id).then(user => user.otherProp),
friends: ({ id }, args, { api })=> api.getFriends(id),
}
}
Dataloader will, even when called twice, only reach to the API once. An added benefit is, that it will cache the value. Ideally, you even provide a batch load function in the API to make the loader even more efficient.
Be aware, that user.fields.name now makes calls for every friend to the API. To avoid that, you could check if the property exists:
name: (parent, args, { loaders }) =>
parent.name ?? loaders.user.load(parent.id).then(user => user.name),