GraphQL fragments made simple ⚡️

npm install fraql graphql graphql-tools graphql-tag

FraQL solves several things:

• ☀️ Isolation: fragments don't rely on name anymore
• ✨ Mocking: generate data & props from fragments
• 🤯 Collocation: put GraphQL in your components

Example

import gql from 'fraql'

// Create fragment without naming it.
const fragment = gql`
  fragment _ on Article {
    title
    description
  }
`

// Just use it in your queries!
const query = gql`
  query Articles {
    articles {
      id
      ${fragment}
    }
  }
`

⚡️ See live example on CodeSandbox

Motivation

Putting data next to your component is a good practice. It is built-in Relay and Lee Byron explains the advantages into his talk about the IDEA architecture.

I tried to do it by myself, but relying on fragment names is not an easy task. FraQL solves this issue by bringing isolation, fragments do not rely on their names.

The second problem solved by FraQL is the mocking. Generating a set of data for complex components is a pain. FraQL solves it by generating data right from your fragments!

Usage with React

Reference fragments into components

FraQL exports a default tag function that is a drop-in replacement for graphql-tag. By using it you can create reusable fragments easily.

FraQL is not a framework, but it comes with good practices. It is recommended to create a static property fragments on your components that contains a map of component properties. For each one, you specify the associated fragment.

You may have noticed that the name of the fragment is "_". FraQL transforms your fragment into an inline fragment. You can pick any name you want, because it will be dropped the transformation anyway.

import React from 'react'
import gql from 'fraql'

const ArticleCard = ({ article }) => (
  <div>
    <h1>{article.title}</h1>
    <p>{article.description}</p>
  </div>
)

// Create a map of fragments and reference them on a static property "fragments".
ArticleCard.fragments = {
  article: gql`
    fragment _ on Article {
      title
      description
    }
  `,
}

export default ArticleCard

Use fragments into your queries

With FraQL, using a fragment into a query is obvious, just put the fragment where you want to use it.

Importing gql from fraql is not required for queries. In this case this is just a pass-through to graphql-tag. The magic behind FraQL only happens when you use it on a fragment.

import React from 'react'
import gql from 'fraql'
import { Query } from 'apollo-client'
import ArticleCard from './ArticleCard'

// Build your query by using your fragment.
const ARTICLES = gql`
  query Articles {
    articles {
      id
      ${ArticleCard.fragments.article}
    }
  }
`

const ArticleList = ({ articles }) => (
  <div>
    <Query query={ARTICLES}>
      {({ data }) =>
        data.articles &&
        data.articles.map(article => (
          <ArticleCard key={article.id} article={article} />
        ))
      }
    </Query>
  </div>
)

export default ArticleList

⚡️ See live example on CodeSandbox

⚡️ See React example in this repository

Mocking

Tools like StoryBook allows you to develop your components into an isolated environment. But you still have to write a set of data for displaying your components. Each time you modify your component, you have to modify this set of data, it is a real pain to maintain!

If all your components have fragments, you get mocking for free!

1. Generate introspection

Mocking data from a fragment requires knowing all schema types. That's why you have to generate a introspection result from your schema in order to use mocking.

FraQL exposes a method introspectSchema to simplify this operation. The only thing you have to do is create a script that dumps your introspection result into a JSON file.

// Example of script that generates an introspection result into "schema.json".
const { writeFileSync } = require('fs')
const { introspectSchema } = require('fraql/server')
const schema = require('./myGraphQLSchema') // Your schema defined server-side

const data = introspectSchema(schema)
fs.writeFileSync('schema.json', JSON.stringify(data))

2. Create a mocker

FraQL exposes a method createMockerFromIntrospection that creates a mocker from your schema.json.

It is recommended to create one mocker and to use it wherever you need to generate data.

// mocker.js
import { createMockerFromIntrospection } from 'fraql/mock'
import introspectionData from './schema.json'

export default createMockerFromIntrospection(introspectionData)

3. Mock your fragments

You can now mock fragments using mockFragment or mockFragments methods.

Single fragment

import gql from 'fraql'
import mocker from './mocker'

const fragment = gql`
  fragment _ on Article {
    id
    title
    author {
      name
    }
  }
`

const data = mocker.mockFragment(fragment)
// {
//   id: '4b165f7d-2ee1-4f09-8fd7-fc90d38a238a',
//   title: 'Hello World',
//   author: {
//     name: 'Hello World',
//   },
// }

Multiple fragments (components)

import React from 'react'
import gql from 'fraql'
import mocker from './mocker'
import ArticleCard from './ArticleCard'

// Generate all props directly from fragments.
const props = mocker.mockFragments(ArticleCard.fragments)

// Create an element using generated props.
const articleCard = <ArticleCard {...props} />

⚡️ See StoryBook example in this repository

Recipes

Compose fragments

One of the principles of React is component composition. It is recommended to do the same with your GraphQL fragments.

// ArticleTitle.js
import React from 'react'
import gql from 'fraql'

const ArticleTitle = ({ article }) => <h2>{article.title}</h2>

ArticleTitle.fragments = {
  article: gql`
    fragment _ on Article {
      title
    }
  `,
}

export default ArticleTitle

// ArticleCard.js
import React from 'react'
import gql from 'fraql'
import ArticleTitle from './ArticleTitle'

const ArticleCard = ({ article }) => (
  <div>
    <ArticleTitle article={article} />
    <div>{article.text}</div>
  </div>
)

ArticleCard.fragments = {
  article: gql`
    fragment _ on Article {
      ${ArticleTitle.fragments.article}
      text
    }
  `,
}

export default ArticleCard

Use without gql

FraQL offers a drop-in replacement for graphql-tag but sometimes you don't use gql to define your fragments. As mentioned in graphql-tag documentation there are lots of other ways to do it (using Babel, Webpack, etc..).

FraQL exposes a function toInlineFragment that transforms a GraphQL fragment into an inline fragment.

import { toInlineFragment } from 'fraql'
import gql from 'graphql-tag'
import fragment from './myFragment.gql'

const inlineFragment = toInlineFragment(fragment)

const query = gql`
  query {
    articles {
      ${inlineFragment}
    }
  }
`

Mix named and inline fragments

Sometimes you may want to have the best of the two worlds, use a named fragment in one query and an inline fragment in another.

For this specific use-case FraQL exposes the original document:

import gql from 'fraql'

const fragment = gql`
  fragment BaseArticleInfos on Article {
    title
    text
  }
`

const query = gql`
  query Articles {
    articles {
      ...BaseArticleInfos
    }
  }

  ${fragment.originalDocument}
`

Use custom mocks

Mocking feature of FraQL is build on top of graphql-tools, it means you can customize all your mocks.

You can define global mocks when you create the mocker:

import introspectionData from './schema.json'

const mocker = createMockerFromIntrospection(introspectionData, {
  mocks: {
    Article: () => ({
      title: 'My article title',
    }),
  },
})

And you can override them into mockFragment and mockFragments:

import ArticleCard from './ArticleCard'

const props = mocker.mockFragments(ArticleCard.fragments, {
  mocks: {
    Article: () => ({
      title: 'Another title',
    }),
  },
})

API

fraql / gql

The default export of fraql is a drop-in replacement for graphql-tag that automatically converts fragments into inline fragments.

import gql from 'fraql'

const inlineFragment = gql`
  fragment _ on Article {
    title
  }
`

const query = gql`
  {
    articles {
      id
      ${inlineFragment}
    }
  }
`

toInlineFragment(fragmentDocument)

Converts a fragment into an inline fragment usable in requests.

import gql from 'graphql-tag'
import { toInlineFragment } from 'fraql'

const fragment = gql`
  fragment ArticleTitle on Article {
    title
  }
`

const inlineFragment = toInlineFragment(fragment)

const query = gql`
  {
    articles {
      id
      ${inlineFragment}
    }
  }
`

introspectSchema(schema)

Generates introspection data from a schema.

import { introspectSchema } from 'fraql/server'
import schema from './graphqlSchema'

const introspectionData = introspectSchema(schema)

createMockerFromIntrospection(introspectionData, { mocks } = {})

Generates a mocker from an introspection result generated using introspectSchema.

You can specify mocks, using the same format as graphql-tools.

import { createMockerFromIntrospection } from 'fraql/mock'
import introspectionData from './schema.json'

const mocker = createMockerFromIntrospection(introspectionData)

mocker.mockFragment(fragment, { mocks } = {})

Generates mock data from one fragment.

You can specify mocks, using the same format as graphql-tools.

const fragment = gql`
  fragment _ on Article {
    title
  }
`

const data = fraqlMocker.mockFragment(fragment)
// { title: 'Hello World' }

mocker.mockFragments(fragments, { mocks } = {})

Generates mock data from a map of fragments.

You can specify mocks, using the same format as graphql-tools.

const fragments = {
  article: gql`
    fragment _ on Article {
      title
      author {
        name
      }
    }
  `,
  book: gql`
    fragment _ on Book {
      title
    }
  `,
}

const data = fraqlMocker.mockFragment(fragments)
// {
//   article: {
//     title: 'Hello World',
//     author: {
//       name: 'Hello World',
//     },
//   },
//   book: {
//     title: 'Hello World',
//   }
// }

Inspiration & Thanks

• Thanks to Relay for bringing the collocation idea
• Thanks to Lee Byron for his awesome talk about IDEA Architecture
• Thanks to Apollo for the awesome tools they provide to the GraphQL community

License

MIT