4 ms·

Show HN: WunderGraph – The simplicity of RPC with the power of GraphQL

32 points by jensneuse 4y ago

jensneuse 4y ago
Hey HN, we've just updated our landing page. We'd love to get some feedback, thank you!
lylejantzi3rd 4y ago
I haven't looked at this yet, but I do have to say you have nailed the tagline. The simplicity of RPC with the power of GraphQL? Yes, please!
- jensneuse 4y ago
  Thank you, will tell the team!
ctvo 4y ago
The tagline got me. I went to the website. The landing page told me little beyond what's already known about GraphQL. I went to the documentation. Clicked through a few overview links. Spent 5-10 minutes in total. I have no idea how this is RPC with the power of GraphQL. Edit: It's just buzzwords all over. The title of the homepage is "The Serverless API Developer Platform" I don't even know what that has to do with the tag.
- jensneuse 4y ago
  Thanks for the feedback. You've definitely got a point that we need to improve other parts of the website, and the docs definitely need an overhaul as well.
tasubotadas 4y ago
Damm... We went full circle now. From (SOAP)RPC to REST to GraphQL back to RPC :D . Code generation for RPC brings so many bad memories back. Personally, I will be sticking to RESTful interfaces as they are easy to understand and maintain.
SoftwareDev5 4y ago
Pretty "typical" of what I expect of a saas marketing page, but that is to say very good. I don't have the source code, but I can trust you are treating the code great. Would love to see the code though, is your landing page also open source?
adamredwoods 4y ago
Why is the source code in the examples under a dot-folder? These are hidden by default, not sure why that was chosen. https://github.com/wundergraph/wundergraph/tree/main/examples/webhooks https://github.com/wundergraph/wundergraph/tree/main/example...
- KRAKRISMOTT 4y ago
  Probably generated code.
- jensneuse 4y ago
  WunderGraph is framework and language agnostic, so it can sit alongside any kind of app. That's why we chose a special naming convention to make it clear this folder is different than the rest. We've never had any issues reported from our users.
dgreensp 4y ago
Sometimes I imagine what it would look like if an old-school piece of technology like Sqlite had a buzzy marketing homepage. "The power of SQL meets the simplicity of a file. In your pocket." And the entire page would be a dozen taglines in large font at that exact same level of specificity. This seems very similar to Apollo at the pitch level: GraphQL/graph-based backend architecture, free tools, sell backend software and services. The logo is even extremely similar to Apollo's. Apollo sells software to enterprises that have adopted GraphQL and do a lot of GraphQL. When you move away from that, the app framework/BaaS "market" is very crowded. Everybody wants a piece of the backend these days--the privilege of running some short or generic code for you in a datacenter for a fraction of a penny, with the promise that it's "easier" that way. Bouncing each user request between five different data centers (Auth0, application server, datastore, etc) is actually kind of slow, though. I think it should be more clear from the landing page what is novel here; what differentiates it; what is a killer feature or moment of delight you can't get elsewhere; who is it for.
- jensneuse 4y ago
  Thank you for this feedback, very helpful.
  - dgreensp 4y ago
    I’m glad, actually! I had some more direct feedback that I didn’t submit. It wasn’t clear at first, for example, if it uses GraphQL or offers an alternative that is as powerful (the answer seems to be “GraphQL or TypeScript,” whatever that means). It says it’s a framework for any backend, but then the diagram has a special WunderGraph server in the middle of it. Most people haven’t thought about different ways to structure a backend, and even I (as someone who worked for Apollo, though right before it became Apollo) am not totally sure what it means to compose APIs using a graph. Or “transform a database into a toolkit.” A lot of full-stack developers still have only a vague notion of what Apollo does, I think. Also, does this new thing enable best practices and make them easier? Or is it trying to supersede best practices with new practices? I think a lot of education is in order.
dns_snek 4y ago
Who is this for, what's a typical expected use case? Is it for organizations with dozens of micro services, databases and authentication/authorization providers that want to integrate everything through a single API Gateway? It seems more complex than GraphQL and even that's overkill for 95%+ of projects.

32 points by jensneuse 4y ago

Hey HN, we've just updated our landing page. We'd love to get some feedback, thank you!

I haven't looked at this yet, but I do have to say you have nailed the tagline. The simplicity of RPC with the power of GraphQL? Yes, please!

jensneuse 4y ago
Thank you, will tell the team!

ctvo 4y ago

The tagline got me. I went to the website. The landing page told me little beyond what's already known about GraphQL. I went to the documentation. Clicked through a few overview links. Spent 5-10 minutes in total. I have no idea how this is RPC with the power of GraphQL. Edit: It's just buzzwords all over. The title of the homepage is "The Serverless API Developer Platform" I don't even know what that has to do with the tag.

jensneuse 4y ago
Thanks for the feedback. You've definitely got a point that we need to improve other parts of the website, and the docs definitely need an overhaul as well.

tasubotadas 4y ago

Damm... We went full circle now. From (SOAP)RPC to REST to GraphQL back to RPC :D . Code generation for RPC brings so many bad memories back. Personally, I will be sticking to RESTful interfaces as they are easy to understand and maintain.

SoftwareDev5 4y ago

Pretty "typical" of what I expect of a saas marketing page, but that is to say very good. I don't have the source code, but I can trust you are treating the code great. Would love to see the code though, is your landing page also open source?

adamredwoods 4y ago

Why is the source code in the examples under a dot-folder? These are hidden by default, not sure why that was chosen. https://github.com/wundergraph/wundergraph/tree/main/examples/webhooks https://github.com/wundergraph/wundergraph/tree/main/example...

KRAKRISMOTT 4y ago
Probably generated code.
jensneuse 4y ago
WunderGraph is framework and language agnostic, so it can sit alongside any kind of app. That's why we chose a special naming convention to make it clear this folder is different than the rest. We've never had any issues reported from our users.

dgreensp 4y ago

Sometimes I imagine what it would look like if an old-school piece of technology like Sqlite had a buzzy marketing homepage. "The power of SQL meets the simplicity of a file. In your pocket." And the entire page would be a dozen taglines in large font at that exact same level of specificity. This seems very similar to Apollo at the pitch level: GraphQL/graph-based backend architecture, free tools, sell backend software and services. The logo is even extremely similar to Apollo's. Apollo sells software to enterprises that have adopted GraphQL and do a lot of GraphQL. When you move away from that, the app framework/BaaS "market" is very crowded. Everybody wants a piece of the backend these days--the privilege of running some short or generic code for you in a datacenter for a fraction of a penny, with the promise that it's "easier" that way. Bouncing each user request between five different data centers (Auth0, application server, datastore, etc) is actually kind of slow, though. I think it should be more clear from the landing page what is novel here; what differentiates it; what is a killer feature or moment of delight you can't get elsewhere; who is it for.

jensneuse 4y ago
Thank you for this feedback, very helpful.
- dgreensp 4y ago
  I’m glad, actually! I had some more direct feedback that I didn’t submit. It wasn’t clear at first, for example, if it uses GraphQL or offers an alternative that is as powerful (the answer seems to be “GraphQL or TypeScript,” whatever that means). It says it’s a framework for any backend, but then the diagram has a special WunderGraph server in the middle of it. Most people haven’t thought about different ways to structure a backend, and even I (as someone who worked for Apollo, though right before it became Apollo) am not totally sure what it means to compose APIs using a graph. Or “transform a database into a toolkit.” A lot of full-stack developers still have only a vague notion of what Apollo does, I think. Also, does this new thing enable best practices and make them easier? Or is it trying to supersede best practices with new practices? I think a lot of education is in order.

dns_snek 4y ago

Who is this for, what's a typical expected use case? Is it for organizations with dozens of micro services, databases and authentication/authorization providers that want to integrate everything through a single API Gateway? It seems more complex than GraphQL and even that's overkill for 95%+ of projects.