clarsen/graphql-request

📡 Minimal GraphQL client supporting Node and browsers for scripts or simple apps

graphql-request

📡 Minimal GraphQL client supporting Node and browsers for scripts or simple apps

Features

• Most simple and lightweight GraphQL client
• Promise-based API (works with async / await)
• Typescript support (Flow coming soon)

Install

npm install graphql-request

Quickstart

Send a GraphQL query with a single line of code. ▶️ Try it out.

import { request } from 'graphql-request'

const query = `{
  Movie(title: "Inception") {
    releaseDate
    actors {
      name
    }
  }
}`

request('https://api.graph.cool/simple/v1/movies', query).then(data =>
  console.log(data)
)

Usage

import { request, GraphQLClient } from 'graphql-request'

// Run GraphQL queries/mutations using a static function
request(endpoint, query, variables).then(data => console.log(data))

// ... or create a GraphQL client instance to send requests
const client = new GraphQLClient(endpoint, { headers: {} })
client.request(query, variables).then(data => console.log(data))

Examples

Authentication via HTTP header

import { GraphQLClient } from 'graphql-request'

async function main() {
  const endpoint = 'https://api.graph.cool/simple/v1/cixos23120m0n0173veiiwrjr'

  const graphQLClient = new GraphQLClient(endpoint, {
    headers: {
      authorization: 'Bearer MY_TOKEN',
    },
  })

  const query = /* GraphQL */ `
    {
      Movie(title: "Inception") {
        releaseDate
        actors {
          name
        }
      }
    }
  `

  const data = await graphQLClient.request(query)
  console.log(JSON.stringify(data, undefined, 2))
}

main().catch(error => console.error(error))

TypeScript Source

Passing more options to fetch

import { GraphQLClient } from 'graphql-request'

async function main() {
  const endpoint = 'https://api.graph.cool/simple/v1/cixos23120m0n0173veiiwrjr'

  const graphQLClient = new GraphQLClient(endpoint, {
    credentials: 'include',
    mode: 'cors',
  })

  const query = /* GraphQL */ `
    {
      Movie(title: "Inception") {
        releaseDate
        actors {
          name
        }
      }
    }
  `

  const data = await graphQLClient.request(query)
  console.log(JSON.stringify(data, undefined, 2))
}

main().catch(error => console.error(error))

TypeScript Source

Using variables

import { request } from 'graphql-request'

async function main() {
  const endpoint = 'https://api.graph.cool/simple/v1/cixos23120m0n0173veiiwrjr'

  const query = /* GraphQL */ `
    query getMovie($title: String!) {
      Movie(title: $title) {
        releaseDate
        actors {
          name
        }
      }
    }
  `

  const variables = {
    title: 'Inception',
  }

  const data = await request(endpoint, query, variables)
  console.log(JSON.stringify(data, undefined, 2))
}

main().catch(error => console.error(error))

TypeScript Source

Error handling

import { request } from 'graphql-request'

async function main() {
  const endpoint = 'https://api.graph.cool/simple/v1/cixos23120m0n0173veiiwrjr'

  const query = /* GraphQL */ `
    {
      Movie(title: "Inception") {
        releaseDate
        actors {
          fullname # "Cannot query field 'fullname' on type 'Actor'. Did you mean 'name'?"
        }
      }
    }
  `

  try {
    const data = await request(endpoint, query)
    console.log(JSON.stringify(data, undefined, 2))
  } catch (error) {
    console.error(JSON.stringify(error, undefined, 2))
    process.exit(1)
  }
}

main().catch(error => console.error(error))

TypeScript Source

Using require instead of import

const { request } = require('graphql-request')

async function main() {
  const endpoint = 'https://api.graph.cool/simple/v1/cixos23120m0n0173veiiwrjr'

  const query = /* GraphQL */ `
    {
      Movie(title: "Inception") {
        releaseDate
        actors {
          name
        }
      }
    }
  `

  const data = await request(endpoint, query)
  console.log(JSON.stringify(data, undefined, 2))
}

main().catch(error => console.error(error))

Cookie support for node

npm install fetch-cookie

require('fetch-cookie/node-fetch')(require('node-fetch'))

import { GraphQLClient } from 'graphql-request'

async function main() {
  const endpoint = 'https://api.graph.cool/simple/v1/cixos23120m0n0173veiiwrjr'

  const graphQLClient = new GraphQLClient(endpoint, {
    headers: {
      authorization: 'Bearer MY_TOKEN',
    },
  })

  const query = /* GraphQL */ `
    {
      Movie(title: "Inception") {
        releaseDate
        actors {
          name
        }
      }
    }
  `

  const data = await graphQLClient.rawRequest(query)
  console.log(JSON.stringify(data, undefined, 2))
}

main().catch(error => console.error(error))

TypeScript Source

Receiving a raw response

The request method will return the data or errors key from the response. If you need to access the extensions key you can use the rawRequest method:

import { rawRequest } from 'graphql-request'

async function main() {
  const endpoint = 'https://api.graph.cool/simple/v1/cixos23120m0n0173veiiwrjr'

  const query = /* GraphQL */ `
    {
      Movie(title: "Inception") {
        releaseDate
        actors {
          name
        }
      }
    }
  `

  const { data, errors, extensions, headers, status } = await rawRequest(
    endpoint,
    query
  )
  console.log(
    JSON.stringify({ data, errors, extensions, headers, status }, undefined, 2)
  )
}

main().catch(error => console.error(error))

TypeScript Source

More examples coming soon...

• Fragments
• Using graphql-tag

FAQ

What's the difference between graphql-request, Apollo and Relay?

graphql-request is the most minimal and simplest to use GraphQL client. It's perfect for small scripts or simple apps.

Compared to GraphQL clients like Apollo or Relay, graphql-request doesn't have a built-in cache and has no integrations for frontend frameworks. The goal is to keep the package and API as minimal as possible.

So what about Lokka?

Lokka is great but it still requires a lot of setup code to be able to send a simple GraphQL query. graphql-request does less work compared to Lokka but is a lot simpler to use.

Help & Community

Join our Slack community if you run into issues or have questions. We love talking to you!