Communication with GraphQL Server in JS with Pokemon Schema

First of all, I want to tell you I created the tool graphql-zeus it is GraphQL client on top of the fetch function. What it means? Basically, you point Zeus to the GraphQL schema and it generates libraries for you.

Sounds fun? It is even more fun because you don't have to know gql the query language of GraphQL because Zeus provides you with its own GraphQL query like autocompleted syntax.

Create a project folder:

mkdir zeus-tutorial
cd zeus-tutorial

Let's start then. First, you will have to init a new npm package:

npm init

click enter enter enter etc.

Install dev dependencies.

npm i -D @babel/core @babel/node @babel/preset-env

Install dependencies.

npm i node-fetch

Then Create .babelrc file

echo '{ "presets": ["@babel/preset-env"] }' >> .babelrc

Then Create the src directory

mkdir src

and create a index.js file

touch src/index.js

Add script to your package.json

{
  "scripts": {
    "start": "babel-node src/index.js"
  }
}

Your whole package.json should look like this:

{
  "name": "zeustutorial",
  "version": "1.0.0",
  "description": "",
  "main": "main/index.js",
  "scripts": {
    "start": "babel-node src/index.js"
  },
  "author": "Aexol <[email protected]> (http://aexol.com)",
  "license": "ISC",
  "devDependencies": {
    "@babel/core": "^7.5.5",
    "@babel/node": "^7.5.5",
    "@babel/preset-env": "^7.5.5"
  },
  "dependencies": {
    "node-fetch": "^2.6.0"
  }
}

Now it is high time to generate some code from GraphQL. Go ahead install graphql-zeus.

install graphql-zeus

npm i -g graphql-zeus

Generate files from pokemon schema

zeus https://graphql-pokemon.now.sh/ ./src

Hurray! You should have definition files generated in ./src folder. Now go and open some editor of choice - I prefer VSCode but it is up to you. I can guarantee it works with VSCode though.

Open package directory with editor. Open src/index.js In the first part of the series, we will write simple query loading first ten pokemon names and images and display it in the terminal.

import { Chain } from './graphql-zeus';

const chain = Chain('https://graphql-pokemon.now.sh');

const run = async () => {
  const { pokemons } = await chain.Query({
    pokemons: [
      {
        first: 10,
      },
      {
        name: true,
        image: 'true',
      },
    ],
  });
  console.log(pokemons);
  return pokemons;
};
run();

In zeus everything is typed so when you write chain. You should see Query and when you open {} parentheses you should see all the possible queries.

In zeus everything is autocompleted so you don't have to learn gql syntax.

And run it with being in the project folder