GraphQL

How to Check if a Value is Empty in GraphQL

Leonardo Losoviz

Is it possible to check if a value returned by a GraphQL query is empty or not? This article explains how to tackle this problem in GraphQL.

GraphQL As A Migration Strategy For REST APIs

Roy Derks

Moving from a traditional API architecture like REST towards GraphQL can be a challenge. When moving to GraphQL using StepZen, you can make this straightforward while also leveraging the investments in your current REST APIs.

Tiny Decisions to Make When Designing a GraphQL API

Leonardo Losoviz

There are several resources advising best practices for designing schemas for GraphQL APIs. These will lead us most of the way in the design of the schema, but often we may also bump into issues that are not generic. This article describes what to consider for several decisions the author had to make when designing a GraphQL API.

Why GraphQL Directives Are Out of This World

Lucia Cerchie

GraphQL directives add additional configuration to GraphQL schemas. If you use them with an eye to reducing the amount of code you have to write, you can save time and effort. In this article we explain why we gravitate towards them.

Spotify OAuth 2.0 Tokens in 3 Steps

Joey Anuff

In combining data from Spotify and Google's Knowledge Graph API using StepZen's @materializer directive, we encounter a common headache with mixed APIs: their diversity of authorization requirements. In this post, Joey illustrates a simple way to handle the basic Client Credentials Flow using a different custom directive - @sequence.

Building A Data Layer for Microservices With GraphQL And StepZen

Roy Derks

GraphQL is the perfect technology to bring your microservices together. With StepZen you can create this datalayer in a declaritive way using GraphQL directives, without having to write any resolvers.

GraphQL Is Built for Federation, But Don’t Do It Wrong

Dan Debrunner,

Anant Jhingran

Federation and schema stitching are some of the terms used for describing how GraphQL APIs can be combined into a unified layer. This article explores what’s needed to build a unified GraphQL layer, and the various approaches to building the federation layer that many businesses need in order to optimize build-time and runtime for developers and teams.

OpenAPI and GraphQL: Bridging the Gap

Lucia Cerchie

A common problem in API design is how to make the needs of backend and frontend developers meet. We explore how GraphQL and StepZen make this easier.

Caching the GraphQL Introspection Query in a CDN

Leonardo Losoviz

When a GraphQL schema is static (i.e. it doesn't change based on runtime conditions), there is a performance gain to be had by caching the results of an introspection query the first time it's accessed, and retrieving the cached response from then on. This blog describes how to produce this cache by routing the request through a CDN.

Availability: Keeping Systems Up & Running

Sridhar Rajagopalan

In the world of software architecture there are many “-ilities” that we must take into consideration with every project. Here we discuss StepZen's approach to availability and overall considerations for ensuring the system is up and running.

StepZen and Google Cloud Form Strategic Partnership to Provide Full Lifecycle API Management for GraphQL APIs

Anant Jhingran

StepZen is proud to partner with Google Cloud to enable next-generation API Management for GraphQL. Together we provide the best approach for developers to build and manage GraphQL and REST APIs - a set of building blocks, assembled, and delivered as-a-service.

Mashing up the Spotify & Knowledge Graph APIs Using GraphQL Studio

Joey Anuff

With StepZen's pre-built schemas for Spotify and Knowledge Graph APIs, and a custom GraphQL directive (@materializer), this mashup takes advantage of the knowledge base of 500B+ facts on 5B+ entities to add album, artist, and track descriptions in fields in a Spotify_Track schema. The new fields fill themselves with data from the Knowledge Graph using StepZen’s @materializer directive.

Announcing the Advent of GraphQL Challenge

Lucia Cerchie

Spend a few minutes a day from Dec 1-25 to learn to build an API with StepZen, consume it from a Next frontend, and deploy it to Netlify!

Modeling User-Defined Settings in the GraphQL Schema

Leonardo Losoviz

The GraphQL Working Group is tackling union of scalars as inputs, under RFC: GraphQL Input Union, as the first step in supporting dynamic settings in GraphQL. Here our guest blogger, Leo, explores ways to handle dynamic settings while we wait for the RFC: GraphQL Input Union to be resolved.

OpenAPI and GraphQL: The Chunnel Problem

Anant Jhingran

GraphQL APIs are excellent for frontend developers, providing acceleration for application development and an improved developer experience. However, new challenges for the security of these APIs arise. Here we explore finding the right balance for GraphQL API technology on a continuum between safety and progress.

Translate JSON to GraphQL SDL in a Few Clicks

Lucia Cerchie

Learn how to use StepZen's JSON2SDL tool. Paste JSON in, copy SDL out.

How StepZen Balances Shipping Quickly and Running a Reliable Service

Sridhar Rajagopalan

The ability to delivery continuously and get changes of all types into production and into the hands of our users, safely and quickly, is an imperative for modern startups and established enterprises alike. This article describes how we balance shipping quickly and running a reliable service at StepZen.

Analyze Sentiment of Your Blog Comments with StepZen GraphQL Studio

Anthony Campolo

In this example, we use Google's Cloud Natural Language API and the Dev.to API to analyze the sentiment of blog comments.

Make a Custom Portfolio Site Generator with StepZen's Developer Publishing Pack

Lucia Cerchie

Eliminate the pain of re-coding your portfolio site every time it needs an update by using StepZen's dynamic, low-code solution that deploys to Netlify.

Meet StepZen GraphQL Studio

Bill Maggs

Announcing the launch of StepZen GraphQL Studio. This intuitive and streamlined GraphQL IDE delivers a suite of popular and useful APIs that StepZen has transformed into flexible GraphQL schemas that can be used individually or in combinations, and makes GraphQL significantly easier to adopt and use for any size project.

A New Workflow for API Mash-Ups: Postman, StepZen, and the YouTube Data API

Joey Anuff

With StepZen and Postman workspaces side-by-side, I was able to achieve something remarkable: a localhost and live endpoint serving custom-aggregated YouTube-Data-as-GraphQL, after barely a day-and-a-half of experimentation.

Logging Event Listeners with GraphQL and React Hooks

Samuel Hill

Handling event listeners and DOM tracking in a react application. React Hooks take control of state management, and when implemented properly, can empower a product team to analyze features and functionality of a web platform with ease.

Schema Stitching & Federation: Not the Best Solutions for GraphQL Microservices

Roy Derks

There are different ways to bring together GraphQL microservices, like schema stitching and Federation. But these solutions aren't the most optimal when you want to create a data layer or gateway for GraphQL. Instead, StepZen offers a true SDL-first approach that works for all microservices.

Designing GraphQL APIs - Best Practices & Learnings from REST API Design

Lucia Cerchie,

Carlos Eberhardt

We'll look at API design and how to create a clean API. This theme has roots in the early days of REST API design and continues through GraphQL API design. Let's take a look at how a GraphQL layer can be a mode of communication, as well as a way to martial multiple endpoints. You'll also learn a few pointers on creating clean GraphQL APIs in general.

GraphQL APIs: Great for Adoption, But Are They Secure?

Anant Jhingran

Why GraphQL Is Perfect as Data Layer for Microservices

Roy Derks

GraphQL and microservices architectures are perfectly compatible. You can use GraphQL as a data layer and combine data from all these services into one universal API. And StepZen can be used as this API data layer.

What Does It Mean For GraphQL To Be A Runtime, Anyway?

Lucia Cerchie

Learn what it means for GraphQL to be a runtime under the hood.

Creating Static Documentation For GraphQL APIs Using GraphQL SDL

Roy Derks

Documentation is important to make your API understandable to your users. Writing documentation for GraphQL APIs is a bit different, as you'll learn in this article.

How (Not) To Build Your Own GraphQL Server

Roy Derks

There are many different flavors in creating the perfect GraphQL server, ranging from SDL-first to code-first or even generated solutions. This article explores different approaches and a solution to create a GraphQL API without writing any code.

The State of Introspection for REST and GraphQL APIs

Anant Jhingran

You can always read docs; make SQL, cURL, or GraphQL calls; and learn the backend capabilities by trying them. Why bother about introspection? It is the way for a program to build something extraordinary on top of it. It could be Swagger docs, GraphiQL, a database optimization program, a change management tool, or another programmatic approach.

Categorizing GraphQL Directives into Schema or Query Type

Leonardo Losoviz

Our guest blogger Leo is back to explore a hot topic around GraphQL directives. Looking at how directives are cateorized as query-type or schema-type and how important their functionalities are. So let's discuss the pros and cons and query-type directives that modify return values.

Mixing Data from Storyblok CMS using StepZen's Custom @graphql and @rest Directives

Anthony Campolo

Sometimes we need to mix and match data from CMSs and other data sources. With StepZen, you can easily mix data from an external CMS with your own project by incorporating StepZen’s custom directives.

StepZen Stickers: The Code Behind the Fun

Lucia Cerchie

You can send a GraphQL query on stepzen.com/stickers and receive awesome swag-- learn how we built the page!

Bridging GraphQL Queries Between Relay and non-Relay Schemas

Leonardo Losoviz

In this post, we learn how to allow an application to use two different GraphQL servers in a similar fashion. We adapt an application based on WPGraphQL to also work with the plugin GraphQL API for WordPress. This task involves adapting all field names and parameters in the GraphQL queries, converting from WPGrapQL's to the GraphQL API for WP's schema.

Hacktoberfest 2021: Announcing StepZen's Goals

Lucia Cerchie,

Anthony Campolo

Learn about the GitHub repositories we've opened up to Hacktoberfest 2021 contributions.

How to Connect A GraphQL API and A MySQL Database in Your GraphQL Layer

Lucia Cerchie

Learn how to add a GraphQL API and a MySQL database to your StepZen data layer.

Turn Any Data Source into GraphQL With StepZen: A Learn With Jason Episode

Helen Whelan

In a recent episode of "Learn With Jason", StepZen's Carlos Eberhardt and Netlify's Jason Lengstorf discussed the pros and cons of GraphQL for developers, and showed us how StepZen works to easily let you build a GraphQL API on a number of data sources!

Hacking GraphiQL to Invoke it From the Outside

Leonardo Losoviz

GraphiQL provides an editor to compose GraphQL queries, and a way to visualize the response, and browse the schema. In this article, Leonardo Losoviz explores some clever ways to modify the content inside the GraphiQL editor via JavaScript, allowing website visitors to execute a different GraphQL query by clicking an HTML button.

Why Backend Developers Should Fall in Love with GraphQL too

Anant Jhingran

As the backend developer or API provider, you do not want just to build out APIs, you want to build out APIs that are intuitive and easy to explore, test drive and learn. Here we argue that GraphQL is the right solution, not just for the frontend developer, but for the people whose jobs are to corral and carefully expose backends.

Refreshing OAuth 2.0 Access Tokens Using StepZen's Custom GraphQL Directive @sequence

Samuel Hill

The expiration of access tokens is a security feature of the OAuth Authorization process. Using a custom GraphQL directive, StepZen lets developers continously keeping these tokens secure and up to date.

Accessing SQL and NoSQL Databases with a GraphQL API

Anant Jhingran

To speed app development, the divide between the frontend and the backend must be bridged. Databases providing GraphQL interfaces will bridge a part of the divide. But a middleware that speaks GraphQL on the top and native languages on the bottom will round out the solution.

Manipulating Data in GraphQL Part 2 - Using StepZen

Brian Rinaldi

How to build a GraphQL API that uses StepZen's custom rest, dbquery and sequence directives to complete a complex sequence of queries within in a single GraphQL query request.

Manipulating Data in GraphQL Part 1 - Dynamic Variables

Leonardo Losoviz

Using the export directive to pass dynamic data from one query to the next and manipulate it in order to complete a complex sequence of requests via a single GraphQL query.

Build a Mobile Login with React Native, Google Sign-In & FaunaDB

Samuel Hill

Create a Login UI/UX experience with the Google Sign-In API on a React Native mobile app. Once a user successfully logs in, we are writing a mutation in StepZen to pass the login credentials to FaunaDB.

Bridging the Gap Between GraphQL and Databases

Anant Jhingran

While databases are still a critical part of the application stack, there is a gap between the way data is provided and the way frontend applications want to consume it. GraphQL can bridge that gap by being a middle layer between the frontend and the backend.

Leverage Your REST Ecosystem With GraphQL

Anant Jhingran,

Lucia Cerchie

Implementing GraphQL doesn't mean abandoning your REST ecosystem-- far from it! Learn how adding a GraphQL layer capitalizes on the power of REST.

Unconventional Ways of Using GraphQL

Leonardo Losoviz

GraphQL is flexible enough to allow for some creative solutions. In this article, Leonardo Losoviz explores some out-of-the-box ways to use GraphQL for resource based endpoints, schema stitching and manipulating content.

Execute Multiple Sequential GraphQL Queries with the @sequence Directive

Anthony Campolo

StepZen's custom sequence directive allows for multiple queries to be executed in a sequence, one after the other to return a single result. In this example we will see how to use the sequence directive to query three APIs.

Connect A GraphQL API to Your StepZen Data Layer

Lucia Cerchie

Learn how to add any GraphQL API to your StepZen data layer, by autogenerating your GraphQL schemas and deploying them to your StepZen endpoint.

Tips for Creating a GraphQL Schema for an Existing Application

Leonardo Losoviz

Tips for mapping an existing application's data model into a GraphQL schema, using WordPress as an example.

Converting API and Database Data to File-based Data for Jamstack Sites

Brian Rinaldi

We can leverage StepZen to pull data from a variety of data sources and convert that data into Markdown, YAML and JSON data files using the new stepzen-content-pull npm package.

How To Layer a GraphQL API on a MySQL Database With a Single Command

Lucia Cerchie

Learn how to layer a GraphQL API, accessible via a StepZen endpoint, on your MySQL database.

Decoupling Frontends and Backends with GraphQL

Anant Jhingran

GraphQL allows frontend developers to interact using their concepts and for the GraphQL layer to mediate with the backend implementations. GraphQL as the frontend API, as well as a few other constructs — interfaces, routing, and declarative specifications — give developers the tools to leverage the powerful backend-for-frontend pattern for decoupling.

Exploring Promising New Feature Proposals for the GraphQL Spec

Leonardo Losoviz

There are some very promising proposals to improve the GraphQL spec under consideration. Leonardo Losoviz takes a deeper look at five of the most promising ones and what they'd mean for the future of GraphQL.

How To Use Fragments To Clean Up Your GraphQL Schemas

Lucia Cerchie

Here, we show you how to use fragments to clean up repeated code in your GraphQL schema.

What Are Scalar Types in GraphQL?

Lucia Cerchie

Learn what scalar types are in GraphQL and what custom GraphQL scalar types StepZen provides to you.

StepZen and Eve Porcello: A Conversation About GraphQL

Lucia Cerchie

An interview with Eve Porcello, who shares her view on the state of GraphQL and the JAMstack.

Improving the Development Experience with GraphQL

Leonardo Losoviz

One of GraphQL's key benefits over REST is the ways that improves the developer experience. This post explores the key benefits GraphQL offers over REST in terms of developer experience.

How To Generate QR Codes with GraphQL Mutations Using Google Sheets

Lucia Cerchie

Learn how to use StepZen and GraphQL mutations to generate QR Codes with Google Sheets.

Turn a WordPress Blog into a Mobile App Using StepZen and React Native

David Griffin

See how freelance developer, David Griffin, turned a WordPress blog with Cloudinary assets into a mobile app using StepZen and React Native.

Why Headless CMS Needs Page Management

Joel Varty

As we look ahead to a joint Agility CMS and StepZen webinar to discuss how you can power up your Jamstack sites with GraphQL APIs and Headless CMS, we are thrilled to welcome Joel Varty to the StepZen blog to share his perspective on page management in Headless CMSs.

Exploring GraphQL Directives in the Wild

Leonardo Losoviz

GraphQL directives are one of GraphQL's most powerful features, enabling custom capabilities that are not yet supported by the GraphQL spec, and offering a glimpse of what GraphQL may look like in the future.

Make A React App With a GraphQL API in One Command

Lucia Cerchie

Make a React app with a GraphQL API in a single command using npx-create-stepzen-app

How Different Are REST and GraphQL After All?

Leonardo Losoviz

The usual debate is REST versus GraphQL, but are the two really that different after all? Let's look at the similarities and differences to understand which is best for your project.

7 Key Considerations for Building & Running Your Frontend APIs

Anant Jhingran

Frontend developers are asked to build engaging online experiences. They need data from the backends. They must perform actions against backends. GraphQL APIs are fast becoming the language of modern app development. But who builds those APIs? Are they built quickly or are frontend developers left waiting? Who runs and manages the APIs?

How to Set Up a GraphQL Endpoint on a Database

Anant Jhingran

To build today's web apps, you likely need data from a database. At the same time, GraphQL is playing an increasingly important role in modernizing data access to accelerate web development. See how your GraphQL view of your data can match the implementation - a set of database tables and joins.

Build the RedwoodJS Example Todo App with Airtable as Backend

Anthony Campolo

The RedwoodJS Example Todo is one of two canonical RedwoodJS applications, each of which use Prisma Client to connect to a PostgreSQL database. However, we can easily swap out Prisma and connect to another database. This article describes another option - how to use StepZen to swap in Airtable for the database in the Example Todo app.

A Visual Guide to GraphiQL and GraphQL Voyager

Leonardo Losoviz

Walk through how to use two popular GraphQL clients, GraphiQL and GraphQL Voyager, via screenshots to explore their features and usage.

Deploy a StepZen GraphQL API in Your Netlify Build

Sridhar Rajagopalan

Using the StepZen Netlify build plugin, the deployment of a single GraphQL endpoint, built on StepZen, is simple and seamless, and happens within your Netlify build.

Building Fullstack eCommerce Apps with RedwoodJS, Shopify, and StepZen

Anthony Campolo

Build a site that pulls data from the Shopify API using StepZen and connects it to Redwood's API side which is auto-configured with a GraphQL handler that can be deployed with serverless functions enabling secure API routes.

What You Need to Know About GraphQL Directives

Brian Rinaldi

GraphQL directives are a powerful aspect of the GraphQL spec that you may not even be aware of. They provide extensibility to to a GraphQL API. This post looks at what GraphQL directives are, how they are used and some examples of directives in use.

GraphQL Hackathon: It's a Wrap

Helen Whelan

Along with the mintbean.io team, we wrapped a GraphQL:Learn 'n Hack Hackathon last week. Developers had a blast building with GraphQL and we loved working with everybody. Here are some of the projects that developers built.

How to Build a GraphQL API Connected to A MySQL Database Using StepZen

Lucia Cerchie

Here, we give you an in-depth look at how you can easily use StepZen to connect your MySQL database to a GraphQL API.

Building a Jamstack Blog with Next.js, WordPress, and Cloudinary

Anthony Campolo

This example showcases Next.js ability to statically generate blog post by querying a GraphQL API built with StepZen that returns blog posts from WordPress and images from Cloudinary.

Turning a REST API into GraphQL Using StepZen

Brian Rinaldi

A step-by-step guide demonstrating how to build a GraphQL API that pulls from multiple REST endpoints using StepZen.

How To Condense Your GraphQL Queries With the @materializer Directive

Lucia Cerchie

Learn how to use StepZen’s @materializer directive to reduce the amount of code you have to write when you’re connecting your GraphQL API to a MySQL database.

Realizing the Potential of the API in Jamstack

Anant Jhingran

APIs are a powerful way to fetch and combine data during static and dynamic builds. We believe that the potential of APIs in Jamstack applications is fully realized when APIs are easy to build and run and help developers seamlessly harmonize multiple data sources.

Creating a Developer Portfolio using Next.js, GraphQL, DEV and GitHub

Brian Rinaldi

Create a developer portfolio featuring content pulled from your DEV.to blog posts and GitHub profile and projects using Next.js and StepZen.

API Templates: How to Build a GraphQL API in 3 Easy Steps

Helen Whelan

A new library of API template schemas make it easy for developers to build a unified GraphQL API starting from a template. Save weeks of development time! No need to build a GraphQL server, understand resolvers, GraphQL stitching etc.

How to use Apollo Client to Connect a React Frontend to a GraphQL API

Anthony Campolo

How to build a React frontend from scratch and query a GraphQL API with Apollo Client

Key Considerations for Hosting Your GraphQL API

Anant Jhingran

What does a developer need to think through when deciding whether to build, own, and operate a GraphQL API service?

Learn To Love Your Jamstack BFF

Brian Rinaldi

Let's explore the BFF pattern, how it applies to Jamstack applications and how to make it easier to implement.

How to Secure API Routes for Jamstack Sites

Carlos Eberhardt

Securing API routes for Jamstack sites is important. Here's one way to do it.

Exploring JavaScript Client Libraries for GraphQL

Brian Rinaldi

Exploring three popular GraphQL JavaScript client libraries that you can use to connect to a GraphQL API in the browser or in Node.js.

How to Connect Your GraphQL API with any REST Backend

Helen Whelan

We've added new capabilities that make it easy to connect your GraphQL endpoint with any REST data source, using the @rest directive.

An Improved Getting Started Experience

Brian Rinaldi

We've added two new capabilities that make it even easier to get started with StepZen — create-stepzen-app and stepzen start. Let's see how they work.

GraphQL and the Jamstack

Brian Rinaldi

A look at the intertwined evolution of the Jamstack and GraphQL and how popular Jamstack tools are built upon a GraphQL foundation.

Building Your First GraphQL API Using StepZen

Brian Rinaldi

A step-by-step guide to building a custom GraphQL API using StepZen that connects to a real MySQL backend.

Consuming GraphQL in Plain JavaScript

Brian Rinaldi

A GraphQL query is just a standard HTTP request, no special libraries needed. Let's look at how to create one in JavaScript and Node.js.

An Instant GraphQL API Using Google Sheets

Carlos Eberhardt

Wouldn't it be great if it were as easy to create a GraphQL API from a Google Sheet as it is to share a Google Sheet with someone?

How to Write GraphQL Queries

Brian Rinaldi

GraphQL queries are what allow GraphQL to be efficient in how it gets data, by allowing you to express only what you need but also exactly everything you need. In this post, we'll see how.

Why StepZen?

Anant Jhingran

StepZen's CEO shares what inspired us to create StepZen and the complex problems we are working to solve for developers.

Why Build StepZen as a Service?

Anant Jhingran,

Sridhar Rajagopalan

Two of StepZen's founders explore the benefits that made them decide to build StepZen using a Software as a Service (SaaS) model rather than a container model.

Why GraphQL?

Anant Jhingran

GraphQL is a relatively new technology but it offers enormous benefits over the traditional RESTful solutions for frontend and backend developers.

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