The toolbox provides an easy-to-use interface over the Neo4j GraphQL Library .
The fundamental goal of the Neo4j GraphQL Library is to make it easier to build GraphQL APIs backed by Neo4j.
Graphs and GraphQL
It’s important to note that GraphQL is an API query language and NOT a database query language. The Neo4j GraphQL Library helps you build an API layer between the client and database, not to execute GraphQL queries directly against the database.
The Neo4j GraphQL Library focuses on the following high-level objectives:
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Reducing boilerplate
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Developer productivity
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Extensibility
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Performance
Goals of the Neo4j GraphQL Library
GraphQL First Development
GraphQL type definitions can drive the database data model, meaning you don’t need to maintain two separate schemas for your API and database.
Auto-generate GraphQL API Operations
With the Neo4j GraphQL Library, GraphQL type definitions provide the starting point for a generated API that includes:
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Query & Mutation types (an API entry-point for each type defined in the schema)
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Ordering
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Pagination
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Complex filtering
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DateTime & Spatial types and filtering
Generate Cypher From GraphQL Operations
The Neo4j GraphQL Library automatically generates a single database query for any arbitrary GraphQL request.
Single automatically generated queries:
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remove the need to implement resolvers
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reduce boilerplate code
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optimize the performance of queries
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GraphQL operations require only a single roundtrip to the database
Extend GraphQL With Cypher
To add custom logic beyond CRUD operations, you can use the @cypher GraphQL schema directive to add computed fields bound to a Cypher statement to the GraphQL schema.
Check Your Understanding
1. Neo4j GraphQL Library objectives
Which of the following are the four high-level objectives of the Neo4j GraphQL Library:
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✓ Reducing boilerplate
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❏ Database agnostic
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✓ Developer productivity
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❏ No Cypher
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✓ Extensibility
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✓ Performance
Hint
The key objectives support the fundamental goal of the Neo4j GraphQL Library to make it easier to build GraphQL APIs backed by Neo4j.
Solution
At a high level, the objectives of the Neo4j GraphQL Library are focused on:
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Reducing boilerplate
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Developer productivity
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Extensibility
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Performance
Summary
In this lesson, you explored the features of the Neo4j GraphQL Library.
In the next module, you will learn how to write GraphQL queries to query the API generated by the Neo4j GraphQL Library