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ember-apollo-client

Use @apollo/client and GraphQL from your Ember app.

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This addon is battle tested: it has been used to build several large apps. As such, we've solved real-world problems such as reliable testing and preventing resource leaks by unsubscribing from watch queries.

Installation

ember install ember-apollo-client

This should also automatically install ember-fetch and graphql.

Install the Apollo Client Developer tools for Chrome for a great GraphQL developer experience!

Compatibility

For compatibility with Ember versions below 3.4, use version 1.x. For compatibility with Apollo Client v1 or v2, use version 1.x or 2.x of this addon.

Configuration

Runtime configuration

In your app's config/environment.js, configure the URL for the GraphQL API.

let ENV = {
  ...
  apollo: {
    apiURL: 'https://test.example/graphql',
    
    // Optionally, set the credentials property of the Fetch Request interface
    // to control when a cookie is sent:
    // requestCredentials: 'same-origin', // other choices: 'include', 'omit'
    
    // Optionally, define which service a query manager should use by default:
    // defaultQueryManagerService: 'my-custom-apollo-service',
  },
  ...
}

Additional configuration of the ApolloClient can be done by extending the Apollo service and overriding the clientOptions property. See the Apollo Service API for more info.

Build time configuration

In your app's ember-cli-build.js, you can set build time options for broccoli-graphql-filter to keep or remove file extensions in .graphql files.

module.exports = function(defaults) {
  let app = new EmberApp(defaults, {
    emberApolloClient: {
      keepGraphqlFileExtension: false
    }
  });

  return app.toTree();
};

keepGraphqlFileExtension = true, defaults to true – If false, creates files called my-query.js instead of my-query.graphql.js, so that you can import them as ./my-query instead of ./my-query.graphql.

Example:

import myQuery from 'my-app/queries/my-query.graphql';

Dependencies

This addon uses ember-auto-import to import dependencies.

This addon does not exposes any dependencies directly to your application, so if you desire any additional graphql or apollo dependencies, install them with npm/yarn and import as desired.

Here are some useful packages:

Make sure to use ember-auto-import in your application to import these additional packages.

Peer Dependencies

This addon has a peer dependency of:

Usage

Fetching data

GraphQL queries should be placed in external files, which are automatically made available for import:

app/gql/queries/human.graphql

query human($id: String!) {
  human(id: $id) {
    name
  }
}

You can also use the graphql-tag package to write your queries within your JS file:

import gql from "graphql-tag";

const query = gql`
  query human($id: String!) {
    human(id: $id) {
      name
    }
  }
`;

Note: Inline queries like the one above are compiled at runtime. This is both slower than external files (which are precompiled) and involves shipping extra dependencies in your vendor.js. For the time being, we recommend using external files for your queries.

If you are looking for an opportunity to contribute, enabling precompilation of inline queries would be a fantastic feature to work on.

Within your routes, you can query for data using the queryManager computed macro and watchQuery:

app/routes/some-route.js

import Route from "@ember/routing/route";
import { queryManager } from "ember-apollo-client";
import query from "my-app/gql/queries/human.graphql";

export default Route.extend({
  apollo: queryManager(),

  model(params) {
    let variables = { id: params.id };
    return this.apollo.watchQuery({ query, variables }, "human");
  }
});

This performs a watchQuery on the ApolloClient. The resulting object is a POJO.

If a subsequent query (such as a mutation) happens to fetch the same data while this query's subscription is still active, the object will immediately receive the latest attributes (just like ember-data).

Please note that when using watchQuery, you must unsubscribe when you're done with the query data. You should only have to worry about this if you're using the Apollo service directly. If you use the queryManager computed macro in your routes, or in your data-loading components or class that extend Ember.Object, all active watch queries are tracked and unsubscribed when the route is exited or the component and Ember.Object is destroyed.

You can instead use query if you just want a single query with a POJO response and no watch updates.

If you need to access the Apollo Client ObservableQuery, such as for pagination, you can retrieve it from a watchQuery result using getObservable:

import Route from "@ember/routing/route";
import { getObservable, queryManager} from "ember-apollo-client";

export default Route.extend({
  apollo: queryManager(),

  model() {
    let result = this.apollo.watchQuery(...);
    let observable = getObservable(result);
    observable.fetchMore(...) // utilize the ObservableQuery
    ...
  }
});

See the detailed query manager docs for more details on usage, or the Apollo service API if you need to use the service directly.

GraphQL Subscriptions

GQL Subscriptions allow a client to subscribe to specific queries they are interested in tracking. The syntax for doing this is similar to query / watchQuery, but there are a few main differences:

Creating your subscription

app/gql/subscriptions/new-human.graphql

subscription {
  newHuman() {
    name
  }
}

Subscribing from inside a route

app/routes/some-route.js

import Route from '@ember/routing/route';
import { queryManager } from 'ember-apollo-client';
import query from 'app/gql/subscriptions/new-human';
import { addListener, removeListener } from '@ember/object/events';

const handleEvent = event => alert(`${event.name} was just born!`);

export default Route.extend({
  apollo: queryManager(),

  model() {
    return this.get('apollo').subscribe({ query }, 'human');
  },

  setupController(controller, model) {
    addListener(model, 'event', handleEvent);
  },

  resetController(controller, isExiting, transition) {
    if (isExiting) {
      removeListener(controller.model, 'event', handleEvent);
    }
  }
});

The big advantage of using the queryManager is that when you navigate away from this route, all subscriptions created will be terminated. That said, if you want to manually unsubscribe (or are not using the queryManager) subscription.unsubscribe() will do the trick.

Enabling Websockets

While this library should work w/ any back-end implementation, here's an example with Authenticated Phoenix + Absinthe:

my-app/services/apollo.js

import ApolloService from 'ember-apollo-client/services/apollo';
import { inject as service } from '@ember/service';
import { Socket } from 'phoenix';
import { createAbsintheSocketLink } from '@absinthe/socket-apollo-link';
import AbsintheSocket from '@absinthe/socket';

class OverriddenApollo extends ApolloService {
  @service
  session;

  link() {
    const socket = new Socket("ws://socket-url", {
      params: { token: this.get('session.token') },
    });
    const absintheSocket = AbsintheSocket.create(socket);

    return createAbsintheSocketLink(absintheSocket);
  }
}

Note: This will switch all gql communication to use websockets versus http. If you want to conditionally use websockets for only subscriptions (a common pattern) this is where Apollo Link Composition comes in. Specifically, the split function is what we're after (note we are using apollo-utilities, a helpful npm package):

my-app/services/apollo.js

import ApolloService from 'ember-apollo-client/services/apollo';
import { inject as service } from '@ember/service';
import { Socket } from 'phoenix';
import { split } from '@apollo/client';
import { getMainDefinition } from '@apollo/client/utilities';
import { createAbsintheSocketLink } from '@absinthe/socket-apollo-link';
import AbsintheSocket from '@absinthe/socket';

class OverriddenApollo extends ApolloService {
  @service
  session;

  link() {
    let httpLink = super.link();

    const socket = new Socket("ws://socket-url", {
      params: { token: this.get('session.token') },
    });
    const socketLink = createAbsintheSocketLink(AbsintheSocket.create(socket));

    return split(
      ({ query }) => {
        const { kind, operation } = getMainDefinition(query);

        return kind === 'OperationDefinition' && operation === 'subscription';
      },
      socketLink,
      httpLink
    );
  }
}

Note: You will need to add the following dependencies to your project:

yarn add -D @apollo/client
yarn add -D @absinthe/socket
yarn add -D @absinthe/socket-apollo-link

Mutations and Fragments

You can perform a mutation using the mutate method. You can also use GraphQL fragments in your queries. This is especially useful if you want to ensure that you refetch the same attributes in a subsequent query or mutation involving the same model(s).

The following example shows both mutations and fragments in action:

app/gql/fragments/review-fragment.graphql

fragment ReviewFragment on Human {
  stars
  commentary
}

app/gql/mutations/create-review.graphql

#import ReviewFragment from 'my-app/gql/fragments/review-fragment.graphql'

mutation createReview($ep: Episode!, $review: ReviewInput!) {
  createReview(episode: $ep, review: $review) {
    review {
      ...ReviewFragment
    }
  }
}

app/routes/my-route.js

import Route from "@ember/routing/route";
import { inject as service } from "@ember/service";
import mutation from "my-app/gql/mutations/create-review.graphql";

export default Route.extend({
  apollo: service(),

  actions: {
    createReview(ep, review) {
      let variables = { ep, review };
      return this.get("apollo").mutate({ mutation, variables }, "review");
    }
  }
});

Query manager API

Apollo service API

You should not need to use the Apollo service directly for most regular usage, instead utilizing the queryManager computed macro. However, you will probably need to customize options on the apollo service, and might need to query it directly for some use cases (such as loading data from a service rather than a route or component).

The apollo service has the following public API:

Unsubscribing from watch queries

Apollo Client's watchQuery will continue to update the query with new data whenever the store is updated with new data about the resolved objects. This happens until you explicitly unsubscribe from it.

In ember-apollo-client, most unsubscriptions are handled automatically by the queryManager computed macro, so long as you use it.

If you're fetching data elsewhere, such as in an Ember Service, or if you use the Apollo service directly, you are responsible for unsubscribing from watchQuery results when you're done with them, you can use unsubscribe:

import Service from "@ember/service";
import { unsubscribe } from "ember-apollo-client";
import { inject as service } from '@ember/service';

export default Service.extend( {
  apollo: service(),
  result: null,

  init() {
    this._super(...arguments);
    this.result = this.apollo.watchQuery(...);
  },

  willDestroy() {
    unsubscribe(this.result)
  }
});

queryManager as decorator

The queryManager computed macro can be used as a decorator when using Ember v3.10.0 or above.

import Route from '@ember/routing/route';
import { queryManager } from 'ember-apollo-client'
import query from 'my-app/gql/queries/human.graphql';

export default class MyAwesomeRoute extends Route {
  @queryManager apollo;

  model({ id }) {
    let variables = { id };
    return this.apollo.watchQuery({ query, variables });
  }
}

queryManager options

The queryManager computed macro can accept an options hash with the name of the service to use as apollo. If your application has a custom apollo service or multiple apollo services that extends from ember-apollo-client/services/apollo, you can use this option to specify which apollo service to use.

// imports ...

export default class MyAwesomeRoute extends Route {
  @queryManager({ service: 'my-custom-apollo-service' }) apollo;

  // ...
}

Use with Fastboot

Ember Apollo Client works with FastBoot out of the box as long that SSR is enabled. In order to enable SSR, define it on apollo service:

Example:

class OverriddenApolloService extends ApolloService {
  clientOptions() {
    const opts = super.clientOptions();
    return {...opts, ssrMode: true };
  }
}

Since you only want to fetch each query result once, pass the ssrMode: true option to the Apollo Client constructor to avoid repeated force-fetching.

Skipping queries for SSR

If you want to intentionally skip a query during SSR, you can pass ssr: false in the query options. Typically, this will mean the component will get rendered in its loading state on the server. For example:

actions: {
  refetchModel() {
    this.get('apollo').query({
      query,
      variables,
      // Don't run this query on the server
      ssr: false
    });
  }
}

Using With TypeScript

When using TypeScript (with ember-cli-typescript in your Ember app) you will quickly run into an error like:

Cannot find module './users.graphql'.

This error happens when you import a *.graphql file, e.g. import query from './users.graphql';. The quick solution is to use // @ts-ignore, but that is only a patch for the one place you've used the import.

To define basic types for those imports, you need to add the following to types/global.d.ts:

// Apollo GraphQL imports
declare module '*.graphql' {
  const doc: import('graphql').DocumentNode;
  export default doc;
}

Note: The graphql module above is included when you ember install ember-apollo-client.

Testing

This addon is test-ready! All promises from the apollo service are tracked with Ember.Test.registerWaiter, so your tests should be completely deterministic.

The dummy app contains example routes for mutations and queries:

The tests also contain a sample Star Wars GraphQL schema with an pretender setup for mock data.

Development

Installation

Linting

Running tests

Running the dummy application

For more information on using ember-cli, visit https://ember-cli.com/.

Contributors

A special thanks to the following contributors:

Contributing

See the Contributing guide for details.

License

This project is licensed under the MIT License.