Pass through GraphQL variables to second function in an elegant manner - graphql

Question

I'm working with GraphQL and having some trouble finding the best way to pipe variables from the query to the result.
I have a schema like so:
type Fragment {
# The id of the fragment
id: String!
# The key of the fragment
key: String!
# The type of component
component_type: String!
# The params used to build the fragment
params: JSON
# Component data
data: JSON
children: [JSON]
items: [JSON]
}
The fragment is meant as a "cms" fragment. I want to pass some query data through to another backend after this resolves.
My query looks like this:
query getFragmentsWithItems($keys: [String!]!
$platform: PlatformType
$version: String
$userInfo: UserInput
$userId: Int
) {
fragmentsWithItems(keys: $keys, platform: $platform, version: $version, userInfo: $userInfo, userId: $userId) {
key
data
children
params
items
}
}
Here's the problem: I have some query data in the data field from the Fragment. That data is not available until that Fragment has resolved. I want to take that data and send it to a different backend. I want to do this with GraphQL, and I was hoping to do something like:
Fragment: () => {
async query(obj, args, context, info, {modles}) => {
const items = await models.getItems(obj.query_string);
}
}
But I need the user_info and user_id that I passed to the original query. Apparently that is only accessible from the info argument which is not meant to be used.
The other path I've taken is to have a manual resolver that does something like so:
const resolveFI = ({ keys, platform, version, userInfo, userId, models }) => {
if (!keys || !keys.length) {
return Promise.resolve(null);
}
return models.release.get({ platform, version }).then(release =>
Promise.all(
keys.map(key =>
models.fragments.get({
key,
platform,
version,
release: release.id
})
)
).then(data => {
const promises = [];
data.rows.forEach(r => {
if (r.data.query_data) {
const d = {
// Can just ignore
filters: r.data.query_data.filters || {},
user_info: userInfo,
user_id: userId
};
promises.push(
new Promise(resolve => {
resolve(
models.itemSearch.get(d).then(i => ({ items: i.items, ...r }))
);
})
);
}
...etc other backends
This works, however a manual promise chain seems to defeat the purpose of using GraphQL.
The last thing I tried was making items a non-scalar type, something like:
type Fragment {
items: ItemSearchResult(user_info: UserInput) etc
But since I can't pipe the actual result from Fragment to the ItemSearchResult that doesn't work.
I realize this is pretty long-winded so I'm open to edits or clarifying.
I'm looking to see if I've missed a better approach or if I should just bag it and have the client apps do the item query after they get the Fragment data back.

Answer 1

It's not that you're not supposed to use info -- it's just a tremendous pain in the butt to use ;) In all seriousness, it's meant to be used for optimization and more advanced use cases, so you shouldn't hesitate to use it if a better solution doesn't present itself. There are libraries out there (like this one) that you can use to parse the object more easily.
That said, there's a couple of ways I imagine you could handle this:
1.) Inside your query resolver(s)
getFragmentsWithItems: async (obj, args, ctx, info) => {
const fragments = await howeverYouDoThat()
const backendCalls = fragments.map(fragment => {
// extract whatever data you need from the fragment
return asyncCallToBackEnd()
})
await backendCalls
return fragments
}
Unfortunately, if you have a lot of different queries returning fragments, you'll end up with redundancy.
2.) Inside the resolver for an existing field (or an additional one) on the Fragment type.
If you go this route, and you need args passed to the query field, you can extract them using the info. Alternatively, you can also mutate the context object inside your query resolver and attach those arguments to it. Then, all resolvers "below" the query resolver (like the resolvers for your Fragment fields) can access those arguments through the context.
3.) Apollo Server lets you define a formatResponse function when configuring its middleware. This essentially provides a hook to do whatever you want with the response before it's returned to the client. You could parse the response inside that function and make the calls to the other backend from there.