Authenticating GraphQL APIs with OAuth 2.0
There are many different ways to handle authentication in GraphQL, but one of the most common is to use OAuth 2.0 - and more specifically JSON Web Tokens (JWT) or Client Credentials.
GraphQL
OpenAI as a GraphQL Debugging Tool
OpenAI helps deploy a StepZen endpoint by debugging a GraphQL query response error and schema.
Introducing stepzen request - Command Line GraphQL Client
Sometimes you need a tool like curl to send a GraphQL request quickly. At StepZen, we released the new CLI command - stepzen request - to give you this capability.
Explore 10 Free, Public GraphQL APIs
Learn more about GraphQL by exploring these popular endpoints provided by innovative communities and companies.
Accessing Snowflake Using GraphQL
This blog explores how to use StepZen to build a GraphQL API that accesses a Snowflake warehouse.
StepZen Community Update January 2023
Welcome to 2023! At StepZen, we worked hard in 2022 to make building GraphQL APIs for all your Data as easy as possible. Let's look back and ahead!
Why StepZen Joined The GraphQL Foundation Last Year
Last year, StepZen joined the GraphQL Foundation as a Service Provider and a member. But why did we join? What does it mean to be a member of the GraphQL Foundation? And what does it mean for you as a developer using GraphQL?
Creating GraphQL API for OpenAI Text and Image Processing
Projects like OpenAI have provided impressive examples of stand-alone services using this technology, such as DALL·E 2 and chatGPT. This blog shows us how to add GPT-3 text and image generation into an existing GraphQL API with StepZen.
Announcing GraphQL Support for Snowflake
StepZen now supports Snowflake as a data source! With StepZen and Snowflake, you can build modern data-heavy applications in the cloud.
APIs Are Where Fun Happens
GraphQL APIs go from being gateways to backends to being gateways for applications to do magic.
StepZen & SingleStore Connect: Quickly & Easily Deliver GraphQL APIs for Data in SingleStoreDB
Now a technology partner in SingleStore Connect, StepZen helps developers build GraphQL APIs to deliver the fast operational analytics computed by SingleStoreDB.
Error Handling in GraphQL With "Errors as Data"
Error handling in GraphQL is a topic that's often discussed in the GraphQL community. In this blog post, we'll be looking at the different ways to handle errors in GraphQL and, specifically, how to use the "errors as data" approach as an alternative.
How to Build a Headless CMS using Notion and StepZen
In the first of a two part series, we walk through building a GraphQL API on top of Notion in order to use it as a headless CMS.
StepZen Community Update December 2022
What's new with StepZen this month? We have a big announcement to make, as we launched subscriptions. With SingleStore we announced a new partnership, and lots of new integrations are added.
Subscriptions across any backend, not just databases - now available on the StepZen managed cloud
GraphQL supports subscriptions. StepZen makes it really easy, but unlike other systems, any query can be converted to a subscription. The query does not have to be against a single database. This blog describes how easy it is in StepZen to run subscriptions and announces its availability for the StepZen managed cloud service.
How to Reduce Security Risks in API Architectures: GraphQL Architecture Master Class
You know how to secure REST endpoints. But are you worried about securing GraphQL? Is GraphQL less secure than REST? What do developers need to know? Should developers design the API first, secure it second? We hope you walk away with ideas and best practices for the ever-important topic of API security.
Handling Authentication in GraphQL with JWT and Auth0
The expiration of access tokens is a security feature of the OAuth Authorization process. Using a custom GraphQL directive, StepZen lets developers continuously keep these tokens secure and up to date.
Subscriptions across any backend, not just databases
GraphQL supports subscriptions. StepZen makes it really easy, but unlike other systems, any query can be converted to a subscription. The query does not have to be against a single database. This blog describes how easy it is in StepZen to run subscriptions.
GraphQL Architecture Master Class: Build Quicker. Run Better.
We designed a GraphQL Architecture Master Class as a series of webinars to explore some of the issues, questions, and concerns we hear from developers and architects. We thank all of those we've worked with over the years - it is through exploring challenges and use cases that we distill tips, tricks, and perspectives. We hope you walk away with ideas and best practices for your GraphQL implementations.
Compose Data from Fauna and GitHub using GraphQL and StepZen
Today's app developer is fetching data from multiple sources - databases, APIs (first and third-party) - with all sorts of specifications. With GraphQL becoming popular to federate data, this post looks at how to compose data from Fauna and GitHub using GraphQL and StepZen.
GraphQL vs. REST
GraphQL is a popular and feature-rich solution for accessing data and building APIs, but not every application needs it. What makes GraphQL stand out and how is it different from REST? When does it make sense to use which? Read on to find out.
Access Fast Operational Analytics with an Easily-built and Scalable GraphQL API using SingleStore and StepZen
SingleStore and StepZen are a powerful combination that simplifies data access for developers. Application programmers can use StepZen to quickly build and deploy a GraphQL API to deliver the fast operational analytics computed by SingleStoreDB.
The Case for a Federated Data Access Layer with GraphQL
While data catalog and SQL federation have a role to play, GraphQL leads to faster time to value across a larger and heterogeneous set of backends.
Implementing Cursor-based Pagination For Every GraphQL API
Pagination maintains the application's efficiency by receiving data in subsequent requests. Let's see how it works in GraphQL and how to implement it using StepZen.
Generate a GraphQL API For Amazon RDS PostgreSQL With StepZen
With StepZen, you can build and deploy GraphQL APIs in the cloud, which works well for other cloud-based services, such as an AWS RDS PostgreSQL database.
How to Deploy a GraphQL API in a Contained Environment with StepZen and Docker Compose
How to orchestrate a StepZen-based application together with its dependent data source and the StepZen service providing the GraphQL API endpoint services using Docker Compose.
GraphQL as the New API Gateway?
GraphQL gives you many of the benefits you get from an API gateway at no additional cost. Then why is using GraphQL as the API gateway in your API architecture not yet very common? Let's explore the tradeoffs.
Join us for Hacktoberfest 2022 by contributing to StepZen
Hacktoberfest 2022 is about to start! Join us for the latest edition of Hacktoberfest by contributing to StepZen. Contributors will receive StepZen goodies and Hacktoberfest swag.
Using StepZen to Power the StepZen CLI
Ongoing change in the StepZen backend data model made our existing REST API obsolete. Instead of rewriting the REST API to match the backend changes, we built a GraphQL API on top of a PostgreSQL database to match the new backend data model.
How to Use Access Control Policies to Manage Introspection
GraphQL APIs allow for introspection to view the schema. However, a best practice is to turn off introspection in production. Access Control policies allow for this.
GraphQL Optimization: Batching and Combining Requests
We'll wrap up our series on GraphQL optimization techniques with a focus on how to employ batch and combine techniques for minimizing backend requests when an application is using GraphQL.
How is GraphQL Different from Programming Languages? Part2
Even if not a programming language itself, GraphQL servers and clients depend on a programming language. This second of two posts continues an argument that the GraphQL spec needs to support some features found in programming languages.
GraphQL Makes Data Liquid — What It Means for Data Protection
GraphQL makes enterprise data “liquid” from a consumption perspective. But with such liquidity comes the possibility of opening new vulnerabilities. In this article, we explore challenges for data rights, data protection, and data sovereignty and describe mechanisms that can mitigate them.
GraphQL Optimization: Caching & Prefetching Fields
In Part 3 of our GraphQL Optimization series, we'll focus on two well-known techniques - caching and prefetching - as how we think about them in the context of GraphQL optimization.
Announcing Winners in the StepZen GraphQL Challenge Hackathon
The winners of our 6-week hackathon, "The StepZen GraphQL Challenge", are announced! Congratulations, and thanks for your participation.
StepZen Instant-on Subgraph Support for Apollo Federation
How to quickly enable GraphQL subgraphs created in StepZen for Apollo Federation. Whether you build new subgraphs, or proxy existing subgraphs (no need to to modify them), StepZen can significantly accelerate development and connect well-designed subgraphs to the Apollo Federation layer.
Easy Attribute-based Access Control for any GraphQL API
GraphQL APIs are excellent for frontend developers, providing a simpler interface and more capabilities with a single request. However, this does raise security questions. Here we look at a StepZen feature designed to help address those security concerns.
Join Data from PostgreSQL Declaratively in GraphQL Without Writing SQL
SQL is the go-to way to interact with relational databases such as PostgreSQL. But you need knowledge about SQL to write raw SQL queries for joining data. With StepZen you can declaratively join tables when building GraphQL instead.
How is GraphQL Different from Programming Languages? Part 1
Even if not a programming language itself, GraphQL servers and clients depend on some programming language. Does GraphQL need to support features found in programming languages? This post argues that they should share a common behavior as much as possible.
GraphQL Optimization: Deduplication & Reuse
In this - Part 2 - of our GraphQL Optimization series, we'll begin an exploration of different techniques. Today we focus on deduplication and reuse, which can help reduce the number of backend requests for an operation.
Reading the Medium RSS feed with GraphQL
RSS feeds have been around for a long time. Could it be time to update them to a more modern format? Here we explore how to convert any RSS feed (or SOAP API) to GraphQL.
GraphQL Optimization: It’s More Than N+1
Because we believe that optimization of GraphQL is important to opening up the aperture for rapid frontend development, in a short series of posts we will explore tips and tricks for optimizing your GraphQL.
How to Use GraphQL for a Firebase Realtime Database With StepZen
The Firebase Realtime Database is a NoSQL database hosted in the cloud. It does not offer a GraphQL API out of the box, but it has a REST API that you can convert to GraphQL with StepZen.
Should GraphQL allow Recursive Fragments?
We welcome Leo back to the StepZen blog to explore the pros and cons of allowing recursive fragments in the GraphQL Spec.
Living on the Edge: Using Vercel’s Middleware and GraphQL
Learn to use GraphQL with StepZen and Edge Middleware with Vercel to create a performant web app.
Compare REST with GraphQL For Performance Testing Using StepZen and k6
For many companies, performance is the main reason to go with GraphQL. But is that a valid argument? In this post we'll compare performance of GraphQL and REST with k6 using StepZen.
StepZen Community Update July 2022
What's new with StepZen this month? The final week of the StepZen GraphQL Challenge on Devpost.com is approaching, we launched new analytics on the StepZen Dashboard, and StepZen became part of the GraphQL Foundation.
StepZen is Now Part of The GraphQL Foundation
We are excited to announce that StepZen has joined the GraphQL Foundation. As a Service Provider and a member of the Foundation, we look forward to collaborating and contributing to this vibrant community.
Create and Deploy a GraphQL API From Your Phone
Learn to convert a REST endpoint to GraphQL and deploy it from your phone.
What I Learned from Reading the GraphQL Spec - Part 2
There's much to learn from the GraphQL spec. We're pleased to welcome Leo back to the StepZen blog with part 2 of this series where he documents his learnings about the polymorphic input union type, the order of directives, variables, adding "extensions" to output custom data, support for emojis 😢, and more.
How To GraphQL - Tutorials to Get You Started
Check out some of StepZen's YouTube content offerings to level up your GraphQL knowledge.
GraphQL and NoSQL Databases: The Type Mismatch
The problem of type mismatches is an important issue to address for GraphQL and it has many features that make the mismatch problem less severe. This blog explores how for example the paradigm mismatch between a NoSQL database and GraphQL, or between REST and SQL can be bridged. All signs point to GraphQL becoming the default, strongly typed API layer for accessing all sorts of backends.
Consuming the Deepgram API: The GraphQL Edit
Learn how to use Deepgram and StepZen to convert the Deepgram REST API into your own GraphQL API and translate audio to text.
Load Testing GraphQL Performance With k6 and StepZen
For many companies, performance is the main reason to go with GraphQL. In this post we'll compare the performance of REST and GraphQL, for a GraphQL-ized REST API converted with StepZen.
Announcing the StepZen GraphQL Challenge Hackathon
We're announcing our 6-week hackathon, "The StepZen GraphQL Challenge"! The challenge brings developers together online to learn and uplevel GraphQL skills.
A New Architecture for APIs
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.
StepZen Community Update June 2022
What's new with StepZen this month? The launch of REST2GraphQL.io, DataStax Astra connection and a sneak peek at our upcoming GraphQL Hackathon. Here's the roll-up.
3 New GraphQL Developer Tools to Increase Coding Productivity
This blog shows three low-code ways to increase your GraphQL development productivity.
Convert REST to GraphQL: A New Low-Code Approach
Convert a REST endpoint to GraphQL by providing the values for the REST endpoint, headers, and parameters in a simple Web interface. No CLI download and no StepZen account required.
Building a Weather Application Using Vue, StepZen, and Express
In this tutorial, we build a weather application using StepZen, Vue, and Express. We see how that combines multiple data sources, APIs in our case, to produce a single endpoint that can be queried by a client to get weather data.
How Portable is My Spotify Playlist?
In this blog, we walk through a project to build a personal playlist exporter that migrates playlists off of Spotify. It involves setting up the Spotify OAuth flow in Remix and transforming multi-call REST sequences into concise, single-call GraphQL requests.
A New Postman Collection of GraphQL APIs for the SaaS Services You Love
Announcing StepZen's Postman Collection of pre-built SaaS APIs provided in the StepZen GraphQL Studio!
StepZen Community Update May 2022
What's new with StepZen this month? PlanetScale integration, a new community tutorial, StepZen for federation, and a sneak peek for product updates. Here's the roll-up.
Building a Stock Trading App Using StepZen and AlpacaDB
This tutorial describes how to use StepZen to transform two REST endpoints from the AlpacaDB Trading API and build a single GraphQL endpoint. Then learn how to consume that GraphQL endpoint in Svelte to create a personal stock trading app.
GraphQL: Mapping Error Messages to Generic Error Codes
Leo makes the case for supporting generic error codes in the GraphQL spec, arguing that it would help enforce the correctness of all required validations by GraphQL servers. And in preparation for doing the work, he tracks down all the errors that can be produced.
How to Eliminate Duplicated Requests with GraphQL
Learn how to use StepZen to execute queries conditionally and avoid making unnecessary requests.
Instant GraphQL API for PlanetScale with StepZen
PlanetScale is one of the most popular cloud-based, serverless databases with MySQL support. Using StepZen you can get an instant GraphQL API for your PlanetScale database, that gets deployed for you in the cloud.
How GraphQL Helps on Your Journey to a Single Global Truth of Data
Our customers often have data lakes or data warehouses — one place where analytical workloads are executed against a global truth of data. Many have a master data management (MDM) strategy for "slower moving data." But data lakes and MDMs are not the whole story. A GraphQL data layer — a graph of graphs — can help you achieve a single global truth for all your data.
Why the Future of GraphQL is Declarative Assembly
It is possible to build a GraphQL system where both the setup and the execution of interactions are declarative. This blog describes how building subgraphs and composing a supergraph from them can all be done declaratively - leading to simpler and cleaner code to write and maintain, and delivering all the benefits of a better runtime.
What I Learned from Reading the GraphQL Spec - Part 1
The information I've gathered from the spec includes what is described there and also what is not there (but we could reasonably expect). I've also retrieved some information from GraphQL's GitHub repo, where we can appreciate what features are currently missing in GraphQL and which ones will eventually be supported.
StepZen Community Update April 2022
What's new with StepZen this month? Web3, HarperDB integration, converting REST APIs to GraphQL from your terminal, etc. Here's the roll-up.
Building Web3 Applications with GraphQL and StepZen
Web3 community members are Twitter-crazed and Discord-server fanatics, and everyone in the community cannot get enough of it. The craze started with Bitcoin, then the broader crypto networks, and now the technology building around these decentralized networks termed "web3".
Query data from HarperDB with GraphQL using StepZen
HarperDB is a SQL- and NoSQL-based database that you can access using their REST API, but by using StepZen you can query HarperDB using GraphQL instead. With just a few commands from the StepZen CLI you can transform the HarperDB REST API into GraphQL, as you'll learn in this post.
Build a Production-ready GraphQL API Using StepZen’s Declarative Approach
Getting your API into a production-ready state means taking several things into account, like pagination, performance, security. StepZen helps you create and deploy a GraphQL API for any datasource quickly and scalably.
Why GraphQL for Microservices?
This article explores the roles that GraphQL can play in a microservices architecture. You can save your organization time adopting GraphQL for every microservice. GraphQL can be the data layer (or API gateway) that serves as the communication layer between microservices . . .
GraphQL: On Directives Transforming the Behavior of Directives
A new PR on the GraphQL spec will bring support for directives on directives. Its motivation: to enable us to use directives @deprecate and @specifiedBy also on directives. This blog explores other potential use cases for directives that transform the behavior of an existing directive.
Convert a REST API to GraphQL and Deploy it in One Command
Learn to convert a REST endpoint into a deployed GraphQL API in one command.
What GraphQL Can Learn From Databases
Database systems use declarations that make the experience of both the setup and interactive side amazing. In contrast, most GraphQL systems make only the interactive side declarative. The setup side is complex, and worse, the execution of interactions is suboptimal. This blog explores how it is possible to build a GraphQL system where both sides are declarative.
Animating API Results (On a Budget)
Developing animated layouts for a web app can require a lot of browser reloads to get things right and that can cause quota-expensive queries. In this post we explore using Remix, Framer, and StepZen to develop layout animations without blowing past API quotas.
Performance: Measuring Latency and Throughput of GraphQL Systems
Performance is an important issue for APIs. It's well understood that user engagement with an application drops quickly with increases in latency. This blog explores the important metrics for GraphQL APIs, and introduces a GraphQL Benchmark tool that will help you track your GraphQL performance.
GraphQL: How to Alias a Nested Field as a Parent Field
Prompted by an interesting question on the GraphQL subreddit, this blog explores whether it's possible to tell the GraphQL server to flatten the shape of a response. And, if so, how to do it?
StepZen Community Update March 2022
What's new with StepZen this month? An updated "getting started" experience, new features for your StepZen dashboard, mocking capabilities, and more. Here's the roll-up.
How to Use Mocks in Your GraphQL Development Workflow
Learn how to use StepZen’s @mock directive to create a frontend development workflow.
Using Firebase, REST APIs, GraphQL, and StepZen to Build an Events Application
Handling in-person events usually involve "busy work"; a back-and-forth exchange between attendees and organizers. "Busy work" is tedious and prone to human error. The goal of this application is to limit the back-and-forth of organizers with attendees while still maintaining a secure and quick event check-in process.
Accessing MongoDB Using a GraphQL Interface
This blog explores how to build a custom GraphQL API using MongoDB Atlas’ Data API and another REST service. You can get the ease of the built-in GraphQL API with the flexibility of the hand-coded GraphQL API and build a custom MongoDB GraphQL API without having to write and maintain code.
Make a GraphQL API on Your Data in 3 Easy Steps
Announcing the launch of a simplified Getting Started Experience. With a quick-start wizard and in just three commands you can quickly turn your database or REST endpoint into a GraphQL API running securely on StepZen’s highly performant, globally distributed service.
Building a Serverless Blog with SvelteKit, StepZen, and the DEV API
SvelteKit is a new Svelte metaframework for building web applications with filesystem-based routing. It is inspired by Next.js and is well suited for connecting to a GraphQL endpoint built and running on StepZen. In this example we build a blog using SvelteKit, StepZen, and the DEV API.
Working With Remix, GraphQL, and StepZen
How best to hook up a GraphQL endpoint to a Remix app, preferably with no external dependencies? That's the question I set out to answer with this project. With a few tricks culled from recent tutorials by GraphQL blogger Jamie Barton, JS live-streamer Jason Lengstorf, and advanced FE YouTuber Jack Herrington, I was surprised to learn how little time and code it takes to make it happen.
StepZen vs. Apollo vs. Hasura
The GraphQL ecosystem is maturing and adoption accelerating. Developers have choices - tools and libraries that solve different sets of problems or solve problems in different ways. Let's explore a few.
Using Nullability When Designing GraphQL Schemas
One of the main features of the GraphQL specification is its type system, including nullability. Nullability is important in the type system of GraphQL as it determines whether a field can be null or non-nullable.
Coming Soon To GraphQL: The oneof Input Object
Learn about the upcoming oneof input object in GraphQL. See how useful it will become for simplifying schemas by making queries more powerful.
Convert the Stripe API into a GraphQL Schema with the JSON2SDL Tool
StepZen’s JSON2SDL tool transforms a JSON response into GraphQL by generating a schema in GraphQL’s Schema Definition Language. In this example, we’ll look at JSON responses from the Stripe API and convert them into GraphQL schemas.
How to Check if a Value is Empty in GraphQL
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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.
StepZen and Google Cloud Form Strategic Partnership to Provide Full Lifecycle API Management for GraphQL APIs
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
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
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
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
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
Learn how to use StepZen's JSON2SDL tool. Paste JSON in, copy SDL out.
Analyze Sentiment of Your Blog Comments with StepZen GraphQL Studio
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
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
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
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
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
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
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?
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.
Why GraphQL Is Perfect as Data Layer for Microservices
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?
Learn what it means for GraphQL to be a runtime under the hood.
Creating Static Documentation For GraphQL APIs Using GraphQL SDL
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
Tips for mapping an existing application's data model into a GraphQL schema, using WordPress as an example.
How To Layer a GraphQL API on a MySQL Database With a Single Command
Learn how to layer a GraphQL API, accessible via a StepZen endpoint, on your MySQL database.
Decoupling Frontends and Backends with GraphQL
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
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
Here, we show you how to use fragments to clean up repeated code in your GraphQL schema.
What Are Scalar Types in GraphQL?
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
An interview with Eve Porcello, who shares her view on the state of GraphQL and the JAMstack.
Improving the Development Experience with GraphQL
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
Learn how to use StepZen and GraphQL mutations to generate QR Codes with Google Sheets.
Exploring GraphQL Directives in the Wild
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.
How Different Are REST and GraphQL After All?
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
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
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.
A Visual Guide to GraphiQL and GraphQL Voyager
Walk through how to use two popular GraphQL clients, GraphiQL and GraphQL Voyager, via screenshots to explore their features and usage.
What You Need to Know About GraphQL Directives
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
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
Here, we give you an in-depth look at how you can easily use StepZen to connect your MySQL database to a GraphQL API.
Turning a REST API into GraphQL Using StepZen
A step-by-step guide demonstrating how to build a GraphQL API that pulls from multiple REST endpoints using StepZen.
Realizing the Potential of the API in Jamstack
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.
How to use Apollo Client to Connect a React Frontend to a GraphQL API
How to build a React frontend from scratch and query a GraphQL API with Apollo Client
Key Considerations for Hosting Your GraphQL API
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
Let's explore the BFF pattern, how it applies to Jamstack applications and how to make it easier to implement.
Exploring JavaScript Client Libraries for GraphQL
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
We've added new capabilities that make it easy to connect your GraphQL endpoint with any REST data source, using the @rest directive.
GraphQL and the Jamstack
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
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
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
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
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 GraphQL?
GraphQL is a relatively new technology but it offers enormous benefits over the traditional RESTful solutions for frontend and backend developers.