Designed by Facebook in the year 2012, GraphQL is a query language, a syntax that is used to load data from a server to the client.
The word 'graph' of GraphQL signifies that our query can crawl towards the Rest API and get a particular matter, and 'QL' stands for Queried Language. GraphQL was designed to make the queries smarter, which wasn't possible with the Rest API.
Though introduced by Facebook, GraphQL is not linked to any specific database or storage engine. Instead, they are backed by your existing code and data. GraphQL was officially published only towards the end of 2015. It is now used by applications like Pinterest, Twitter, Sky, Shopify, Yelp, and many more. The image below represents how GraphQL works:
Though GraphQL is better than Rest API yet it has not been able to replace Rest API completely in terms of efficiency and quick response. Most of the apps do not require GraphQL. Though it's an advantage, it is not a necessity. Platforms like Facebook, Pinterest use GraphQL where millions of queries are directed every day. GraphQL is considered to be efficient due to the following reasons:
Agile Organizations
It is a term used to describe organizations that are ready to customize their workplace and environment based on the needs of their customers or clients. They are open to learning from experience, and they prefer to adopt a style of public communication that involves collaboration and sharing.
They can perform their duties, i.e., the ability to develop and deliver products way quicker. Almost all of the agile organizations claim themselves to be customer-centric. They heed to customers’ reports and base their output according to their needs.
Most of the agile organizations are focused on long-term business investment. Some agile organizations include Google, Amazon, Adobe, Netflix, Spotify and Pinterest.
Case Studies
GraphQL is used by teams of all sizes in many various environments and languages to power mobile apps, websites, and APIs.
Here are various companies where GraphQL has been successfully implemented:
While these were some prominent examples, there are many organizations around the globe that are utilizing GraphQL.
How does GraphQL benefit agile organizations?
Although there are multiple benefits of GraphQL for agile organizations, some of them are listed below:
The introduction of GraphQL is a boon for agile organizations. The features of GraphQL, which involve flexibility and specificity, have benefited these organizations as their role mainly focuses on customers and quick responses.
Agile companies are exposed to a million queries each day, and it is quite difficult for them to process all the queries. It is both time-consuming as well as costly. This is where the importance of GraphQL comes into picture. It allows querying of multiple data sources and that too from a single endpoint. This way, it enables the user to access a lot of data from just one course with a single query.
For customer-centric companies, this GraphQL also promotes client-based applications. The vital feature of GraphQL is its speed, as it provides only the data asked. As agile organizations are known for their prompt response towards their customers, this feature is a matter of great advantage for them.
Outcomes of using GraphQL
The use of GraphQL results in smooth running and that too in an organized manner. The schemas of GraphQL are predictable and answer in the exact order as the queries. This makes them manageable, making work a lot easier.
The increased clarity of the code and documentation allows it to optimize production speed. The readability of GraphQL is highly superior and can be picked by any developer.
GraphQL is not linked to any programming language, making it flexible. This allows step by step change. This feature is beneficial to those organizations that generally avoid getting into an uncharted development territory. The linkup with GraphQL enables the organizations to include additional features and projects.
Conclusion
Agile organizations make decisions quickly, constantly turning but always supporting their customer-centric principal place. GraphQL, with its advantages, has made the lives of agile organization developers easy. 93% of companies who are currently using GraphQL in production a majority is using it for external facing applications, according to medium.com.
GraphQL has turned out to be a boon for the content creators. It has encouraged agile organizations to take up the paths they refrained from taking earlier.
With GraphQL, applications run faster because the queries are specific to what is asked. They do not support unnecessary data, which is cost-effective too. Developers are quite delighted since it leads to a reduction in the need for response parsing. GraphQL has simplified processes for all users by offering a single view of content which comes from multiple sources. Organizations that have utilized this technology have become more agile. While the ones which are still thinking to adopt GraphQL can undergo a transformation when they introduce it.
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