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Apollo GraphQL Support

Apollo is a comprehensive state management library for JavaScript that enables you to manage both local and remote data with GraphQL. Use it to fetch, cache, and modify application data, all while automatically updating your UI.

Apollo Client helps you structure code in an economical, predictable, and declarative way that's consistent with modern development practices

superplate comes with optional Apollo GraphQL feature plugin. In this example, we'll demonstrate using Apollo GraphQL with SpaceX-API.

We'll define the shape of the query we'll use to fetch launchesPast from SpaceX-API.

components/apolloExample/graphql.ts
import { gql } from "@apollo/client";
export const GET_LAUNCHES = gql`  query GetLaunches($limit: Int) {    launchesPast(limit: $limit) {      mission_name      links {        mission_patch_small      }      rocket {        rocket_name      }    }  }`;

We'll use Apollo Client's useQuery hook to execute our GET_LAUNCHES query and obtains data, loading, and error properties from the result within the component. Depending on the state of those properties, we render a launch, a loading indicator, or an error message.

components/apolloExample/index.tsx
import React from "react";import { useQuery } from "@apollo/client";
import { GET_LAUNCHES } from "./graphql";import { GetLaunches, GetLaunchesVariables } from "__generated__/GetLaunches.ts";
export const ApolloExample: React.FC = () => {  const { data, loading, error } = useQuery<GetLaunches, GetLaunchesVariables>(    GET_LAUNCHES,    {      variables: { limit: 1 },    }  );
  if (loading) return <p>Loading..</p>;  if (error) return <p>ERROR: {error.message}</p>;  if (!data) return <p>Not found</p>;
  const { links, mission_name, rocket } = data;
  return (    <>        <div>Last Space-X Launch</div>        <div>            <img src={links.mission_patch_small} />            <div>                <h3>{mission_name}</h3>                <div>                    <h4>Rocket:</h4>                    <span>{rocket.rocket_name}</span>                </div>            </div>        </div>    </>  );};

Since we are using TypeScript in the project, also import the necessary types that are generated from SpaceX-API schema definitions:

components/apolloExample/index.tsx
import { GetLaunches, GetLaunchesVariables } from "__generated__/GetLaunches.ts";

Generating schema types#

To generate the types automatically we set API service endpoint to apollo config file.

Refer to documentation for detailed usage →

apollo.config.js
module.exports = {  client: {    service: {      name: "SpaceX",      url: "https://api.spacex.land/graphql/",    },  },};

Then run the following command which defined in package.json.

package.json
  "scripts": {    "apollo:download-schema": "apollo client:download-schema schema.graphql",    "apollo:generate-types": "rm -rf __generated__ && apollo client:codegen --target typescript --outputFlat",    "apollo:sync": "npm run apollo:download-schema && npm run apollo:generate-types"  },
npm run apollo:sync

Running this command will download a schema from Apollo or a GraphQL endpoint in JSON and generate static types into __generated__ folder in project root directory automatically.

__generated__/GetLaunches.ts
export interface GetLaunches_launchesPast_links {  __typename: "LaunchLinks";  mission_patch_small: string | null;}
export interface GetLaunches_launchesPast_rocket {  __typename: "LaunchRocket";  rocket_name: string | null;}
export interface GetLaunches_launchesPast {  __typename: "Launch";  mission_name: string | null;  links: GetLaunches_launchesPast_links | null;  rocket: GetLaunches_launchesPast_rocket | null;}
export interface GetLaunches {  launchesPast: (GetLaunches_launchesPast | null)[] | null;}
export interface GetLaunchesVariables {  limit?: number | null;}

tip

All this work will be handled automatically by CLI, so you don’t need to do anything extra as long as you choose Apollo GraphQL feature plugin during the project creation phase.

warning

Apollo GraphQL plugin currently exludes __generated__/globalTypes.ts at tsconfig.json. Typescript doesn't accept empty global files when isolatedModules is set to true which is mandatory for react projects. If you're going to have non empty globalTypes.ts, you may consider removing it from exclude. There is currently an issue and a related pr to not produce globalTypes.ts if it's empty.

Adding Apollo GraphQL to your project later#

If you want to add Apollo GraphQL to your existing project first install the dependencies

npm install @apollo/client graphqlnpm install -D apollo

Follow here to generate types