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GraphQL is definitely much more complicated to use for users than a REST api, which is the well known standard for everyone. For complex APIs that are used by
by the_duke 8y ago
GraphQL is definitely much more complicated to use for users than a REST api, which is the well known standard for everyone.
For complex APIs that are used by consumers for many tasks, it can make sense though.
If you are using GraphQL internally, you might as well expose a version of it to customers.
See for example Github, which has a GraphQL API.
- fiddlerwoaroof 8y ago"standard": random endpoints returning JSON can be easy to use, once you're familiar with them, but you have to learn each endpoint separately. Hopefully GraphQL (or something like JSONAPI) will bring us a real standard interface to apis.
- sgrove 8y agoThere's also openapi [1], but there's a real social/process challenge in keeping it in sync with the actual implementation. The tools that build on it are great, but there's a lot of surface area to cover when bolting on computer-understanding to an existing api. GraphQL's approach of mandating introspection means more work in some areas, and far less in others. Searching for the data available in a REST api can be a big issue, for example, depending on the state of the documentation.