GraphQL Galaxy

GraphQL Galaxy 2020

<p>GraphQL is an immensely powerful tool and while there are tons of resources out there on how to leverage it, there doesn't seem to be much open discussion around Day 2 (maintenance in production) operations of GraphQL. In this talk, we'll be focusing around observability and the various techniques and tools we can use to get a better understanding of how our graphQL services are running in production. More specifically we'll be focusing on combining ApolloServer and OpenTelemetry.</p><p><br /></p><h3>Transcript</h3><p><br /></p><h4>Intro</h4><p><br /></p><p>Oh, hey guys. How's everyone doing?</p><p>Thank you for being here. My name is Ashley Narcisse. I'm an engineer at Apollo GraphQL and I work with a awesome team of individuals that are building tools to help you developers make data more accessible.</p><p>[00:45] Now, speaking of information, accessibility, I have a question for you. Have you ever wondered what's really happening in production? Like, especially for your GraphQL services.</p><p>I don't know about you, but I certainly have. It's something that couldn't shake for a long time. The fact that GraphQL often times felt like a black box. At least until I discovered a lot of the toolings that are in Apollo Studio. And that really, really, really helped me start to paint a better picture of all the different aspects of your graph. Now, there are a lot of features in Apollo Studios that I won't go within, but it's one feature that I will go into.</p><p>[01:29] So I lied. GraphQL comes with a tracing spec that  this little nifty configuration right here, you can ship that information over into Apollo Studio. Now this was really the starting point of the thing. Wow. All right, cool. I'm sorry. I understand what's happening. I no longer have this like black box imagination that, "It just works." And can't really paint a picture as to the sheer breadth of different operations and the concentrations of what data's my clients are requesting.</p><p>We're going to dive into how to tool our Apollo Server with OpenTracing.</p><p><br /></p><h4>About Observability</h4><p><br /></p><p>[02:08]</p><p>- Whoa, whoa, whoa. You're not just going to skip over that observability part, right? I know you.</p><p>- I feel like they can kind of like Google the definition for it.</p><p>- Nah man, they can't just Google that.</p><p>- Yeah, you're right.</p><p>- Don't worry, I got it.</p><p>[02:26] Observability is a term borrowed from mechanical engineer or control theory. And it pretty much boils down to, "Can you understand what's happening inside your system or any particular state that it can arrive to?" A lot of APMs out there describe observability as having three pillars, logs, metrics and tracing.</p><p>And while the first two do fall in the category of things that you can't predict, you can describe them as known unknowns, right? Things that you know can potentially go wrong. But tracing is getting a bit closer. Observability boils down to really getting all the right data at the right level of abstractions to get the right context as a request that occurs to your system propagates throughout your entire infrastructure. Observability can really be boiled down to understanding the unknown unknowns.</p><p><br /></p><h4>How to tool Apollo Server with OpenTracing</h4><p><br /></p><p>[03:17] I appreciate, you know that? My dawg. Now OpenTracing is a spec published  the Cloud Native Computing Foundation, which is a way to help provide a vendor agnostic format of creating this tracing data. Now it works really, really well with distributed systems and microservices, which is one of the things that GraphQL also does a really, really good job of helping abstract for our end clients.</p><p>This is perfect. And here's why, we're able to go beyond the GraphQL tracing spec and convert over to a vendor agnostic format, while also enriching the information that is being published from our GraphQL Servers. And if you have any providers that already support OpenTracing, it's plug and play. It's demo time, let's go.</p><p><br /></p><h4>Demo</h4><p><br /></p><p>[04:14] So we're starting off with an initialized instance of Jaeger client, and we're going to pull in some of our OpenTracing tooling to initialize that tracer as the global tracer for our system. We're also going to export that so we can use it as area of our code.</p><p>So here we have an instance of Apollo Server, particularly this implementations on Vercel on the serverless. But we're going to go ahead and import the dependencies that will need to wire this up.</p><p>[04:46] Primarily, Apollo OpenTracing is the notable package that we're using. And we're also going to pull in the tracer that we initialize in the tracer file. When initializing the open tracer and adding it to the plugins array in the configuration, it requires a minimum of two properties, which are a server and the local. Both of these take tracer objects, which is what we're going to pass along to it.</p><p>At that point, we have a feature parity with the same GraphQL tracer that we also can leverage in Apollo Studio, but we're going to expand on this information  on field result to further instrument other layers of our code.</p><p>[06:25] So we're going to hop into Jaeger and execute a search so we can pull up our tracing. We can go to the requests that we see, and here are the traces for that render mutation that was executed.</p><p>If we expand the details view for this trace and read the tags a little bit better, we'll see that there are the spans that are tracking the render, which is the field resolution. As well as the outbound IO to this local host API that I have also running on my machine.</p><p>[07:01] We're just beginning to scratch the surface on this. But I do hope that this talk has given you a few leads on how you can improve the insights that you're obtaining from your systems, while also to help continue the conversation forward. The code for this demo will be available at this URL right here, and you can also reach out to me on Twitter.</p><p>And on that note, thank you. Stay safe and I'm sending good vibes away.</p><p>  <a href="https://www.froala.com/wysiwyg-editor?pb=1"> </a></p>

GraphQL Observability

Ashley Narcisse

<p>Developing a real-world full-stack app often involves tedious threading of data across multiple layers of the stack. This is particularly undesirable during prototyping phases where the main goal may be just to demonstrate an idea or design. It’s also risky when going to production since data inconsistencies between the layers can lead to bugs.</p><p>Nexus Schema is a library for building code-first, type-safe GraphQL APIs and can greatly help with this velocity and type-safety dilemma. In this talk, we'll look at how to build GraphQL APIs faster and with the benefits of type safety using Nexus Schema.</p><p>  <a href="https://www.froala.com/wysiwyg-editor?pb=1"> </a></p>

Build Your GraphQL APIs Faster with Nexus Schema

Ryan Chenkie

GraphQL 2021 Wishlist- The top GraphQL Opportunities & Challenges for 2021

Tanmai Gopal

<div><div><div><div><div><p>Let’s explore how the urql GraphQL client came to be and what makes it stand out. We will explore how various challenges were solved in new ways from first principles. Expect a look at future standard features such as Offline Support, an overview of small design choices that are baked into urql, and some features that are already standard and have first-party support such as authentication and file upload.</p></div></div></div></div></div><div><div><div></div></div></div><p>  <a href="https://www.froala.com/wysiwyg-editor?pb=1"> </a></p>

But Can Your GraphQL Client Do This? — A Deep-Dive Into urql

Kadi Kraman

<div><div><div><div><div><p>New features in TypeScript that can improve our GraphQL workflow.</p></div></div></div></div></div><div><div><div></div></div></div><p>  <a href="https://www.froala.com/wysiwyg-editor?pb=1"> </a></p>

The Next Generation of GraphQL and TypeScript

Dotan Simha

<div><div><div><div><div><p>During our work with many different clients from all shapes and sizes, The Guild had to come up with all kinds of innovative solutions to help customers achieve the most out of GraphQL and help adopt it more easily. During that talk I will mention how you could use GraphQL in places you though it wasn’t possible, share open source tools to help you and provide new perspectives about why GraphQL is a great technology.</p></div></div></div></div></div><div><div><div></div></div></div><p>  <a href="https://www.froala.com/wysiwyg-editor?pb=1"> </a></p>

GraphQL Anywhere - Our Journey With GraphQL Mesh and Schema Stitching

Uri Goldshtein

<p>Off late GraphQL workloads see wide adoption in enterprise workloads as GraphQL provides a consistent and flexible way for UI to consume data from the APIs. For API developers like me, seeing GraphQL servers abstracting away the data filtering and the access patterns associated with backend APIs is a complete paradigm shift. Traditional API design tasks, like data modeling, access patterns required to implement high-performance Data APIs, are still relevant when implementing GraphQL applications?</p><p>This talk will walk you through the learnings as a backend API developer building a hello world GraphQL application to implement a globally distributed GraphQL API for a real-world e-commerce application. We will look into scaling and resiliency required for building high-performance GraphQL APIs. Also, look into how database capabilities play an essential role in implementing a successful GraphQL application.</p><p>  <a href="https://www.froala.com/wysiwyg-editor?pb=1"> </a></p>

Going from Zero to Building Multi-Region GraphQL Applications

Nikhil Chandrappa

GraphQL at Scale - Panel Discussion

Nick Schrock

Dan Schafer

Danielle Man

Taz Singh

<div><div><div><div><div><p>WordPress has been around for a really long time and is the most popular CMS on the web. Consuming its REST API however to build modern static sites leaves a lot to be desired. In this talk, we’ll live code a site that consumes WordPress over GraphQL and see the power of GraphQL in making mature and familiar services, easy to consume.</p></div></div></div></div></div><div><div><div></div></div></div><p>  <a href="https://www.froala.com/wysiwyg-editor?pb=1"> </a></p>

Using GraphQL on WordPress

Sid Chatterjee

<div><p>GraphQL was originally not designed as a database language yet it's quickly becoming a popular choice to interact with databases. What if databases natively support GraphQL  default? What are the advantages of native GraphQL support? How is a GraphQL query handled behind the scenes in FaunaDB and what database guarantees does such an approach provide?</p></div><p>  <a href="https://www.froala.com/wysiwyg-editor?pb=1"> </a></p>

Native GraphQL, GraphQL as a Database Query Language

Brecht De Rooms

<div><div><div><div><div><p>Data is knowledge and knowledge is power. One of the greatest powers we have as developers is the ability to access and manipulate raw data with ease. But it takes a lot of context to know how to write a SQL query or use an API or make a CURL request. A lot of our energy in the GraphQL community is spent moving the specification forward and improving developer tools around it, but we don't spend much time talking about what GraphQL can do to help people in our organizations beyond our developers –– our designers, product managers, business leaders, customer success engineers, etc. In this talk, I will share the outcomes of some research we did at Apollo on GraphQL accessibility, and my vision for how GraphQL can connect humans to data that impacts them much more effectively, there giving them an ability to answer their own questions.</p></div></div></div></div></div><div><div><div></div></div></div><p>  <a href="https://www.froala.com/wysiwyg-editor?pb=1"> </a></p>

GraphQL for Everyone - Danielle Man

<p>As with any technology choice, choosing GraphQL as an API style involves tradeoffs. Some tell us GraphQL is here to replace everything else, others tell us using GraphQL is a mistake. In this talk, we'll explore why both these things are false, and how everything is context dependent.</p><p>  <a href="https://www.froala.com/wysiwyg-editor?pb=1"> </a></p>

It Depends — Examining GraphQL Myths and Assumptions

Marc-André Giroux

<p>One of the benefits of GraphQL is that it enables a single entry point into any number of back end service or databases. More and more companies are adopting cloud technologies – leading to more jobs, more money, and more opportunities in cloud computing. When GraphQL is integrated with a cloud back end, enabling secure and direct access to dozens of databases and managed services, the limitations are endless. The problem is often that building out these implementations from scratch, and getting them right, is hard. In this talk, I’ll show how you can build cloud-based GraphQL back ends connecting to multiple databases (SQL and NoSQL), serverless functions, machine learning services, and microservices using TypeScript, AppSync, and AWS CDK – and do so in fewer lines of code than you’d expect. We’ll also look at how subscriptions, security, caching, and authentication are all handled, enabling you to build APIs that can simultaneously connect to tens of millions of clients at once to offer true real-time applications at scale. By the end of the talk, you should feel comfortable knowing that you can become a cloud engineer using an existing GraphQL skillset.</p><p>  <a href="https://www.froala.com/wysiwyg-editor?pb=1"> </a></p>

Building a Highly Scalable Cloud API Gateway

Nader Dabit

<div><div><div><div><div><p>Kurt Kemple, Marc-André Giroux, Mandi Wise, Tejas Shikhare</p></div></div></div></div></div><div><div><div></div></div></div><p>  <a href="https://www.froala.com/wysiwyg-editor?pb=1"> </a></p>

Panel Discussion by Apollo Team: GraphQL Durability

Kurtis Kemple

Mandi Wise

Tejas Shikhare

<div><p>If you have existing GraphQL APIs or plan on building them in the future, join us for a 5-minute session to show you how to quickly secure them using Tyk.</p></div><p>  <a href="https://www.froala.com/wysiwyg-editor?pb=1"> </a></p>

Secure Your GraphQL Endpoints With Tyk in 5 Minutes

Matt Tanner

<p>GraphQL is a query language for APIs, but what if your API doesn't support GraphQL? There's a lot of information on how you can use GraphQL to make your APIs more readable or even more content on using GraphQL as a data layer for your existing APIs. This all makes perfect sense, but what if you actually want to know how to transform existing services to GraphQL? In this talk I'll demonstrate how you can use your existing services to create GraphQL schemas using Abstract Syntax Trees and TypeScript.</p><p>This is not a talk to show how to wrap services with GraphQL, in this talk I'll show data models to use an AST to transform existing services to GraphQL. Also, thinking patterns and best class approaches will be shown.</p><p>  <a href="https://www.froala.com/wysiwyg-editor?pb=1"> </a></p>

Let's Talk GraphQL With Your Services

Roy Derks

<div><div><div><div><div><p>Apps are hard enough to build without having to worry about layers and layers that sit between your users and the database. In this talk we examine trends in serverless computing, and their impact on modern databases and API layers.</p></div></div></div></div></div><div><div><div></div></div></div><p>  <a href="https://www.froala.com/wysiwyg-editor?pb=1"> </a></p>

The Diminishing API Layer

Tejas Dinkar

Lighting Talks - Day 1 - GraphQL Galaxy 2020

Ryan Severns

GraphQL + JAMStack - Panel Discussion

Alex Lobera

Scott Moss

Lighting Talks - Day 2 - GraphQL

<div><div><div><div><div><p>With StackHawk, engineering teams can run security tests against GraphQL backed applications to find and fix vulnerabilities before they hit production. With automated testing on every PR, you can be confident that your GraphQL API is secure. Join StackHawk co-founder Ryan Severns for a quick overview of GraphQL security with StackHawk.</p></div></div></div></div></div><p>  <a href="https://www.froala.com/wysiwyg-editor?pb=1"> </a></p>

Security Testing for GraphQL Backed Applications

Relational Database Modeling for GraphQL

Adron Hall

<p>A hands-on workshop about handling authentication and authorization in GraphQL. During this 3 hour workshop you’ll learn how to add authentication to a GraphQL server using JWTs, and handle query responses with user roles. As a bonus we’ll be adding an authentication server with Auth0.</p><p>The contents:</p><ul><li>        - Authentication with JWTs</li><li>        - Handling query responses and user roles</li><li>        - Auth0</li></ul><p>Prerequisites:</p><ul><li>        - JavaScript (preferably TypeScript)</li><li>        - GraphQL</li></ul><p>  <a href="https://www.froala.com/wysiwyg-editor?pb=1"> </a></p>

Server-side Authentication in GraphQL

<p>In this workshop, we will start with a fully featured Apollo Server, that calls multiple data sources. We’ll gradually introduce GraphQL Mesh into that code, seeing all the different benefits. Commits  commit we will add type-safety and remove manual code until the last commit, where we will remove all the manual code and stay with just a simple configuration. That way you’ll learn about all the different ways you could use GraphQL Mesh and decide where and how it can best serve you in your existing applications.</p><p>  <a href="https://www.froala.com/wysiwyg-editor?pb=1"> </a></p>

The biggest GraphQL conference in the cloud