Life is hard and so is learning GraphQL

Last given at the localhost conference on October 12, 2019.

Learning Resources

🛠 Querying Data with GraphQL
A section from the Gatsby documentation where they explain what GraphQL is, why they specifically chose it to query their data and how it works in the context of Gatsby.

🛠 GraphQL Glossary
A comprehensive list of important GraphQL words and acronyms curated by Apollo.

🛠 Facebook's Graph API Documentation
Covers commonly misinterpreted definitions (nodes, edges, fields - for instance) quite well and good introduction of thinking in terms of graphs.

🛠 HowToGraphQL.com
Offers a solid overview of GraphQL concepts, plus it walks you through implementations in many different programming languages. Warning: Very backend-heavy.

🛠 A Frontend Developer’s Guide to GraphQL
A GitHub repo by Peggy Rayzis with the slides and resources from the talk she gave at Fluent Conf. She also wrote an accompanying article for CSS Tricks.

🛠 GitHub's GraphQL API
For those who like to "just try it out", you can experiment with data that you're already familiar with if you're using GitHub regularly.

🛠 https://so-you-want-to-learn-graphql.netlify.com/
Shameless plug, Sara and I are working on a sort of choose-your-own-adventure type of website for use case-driven learning. If you want to contribute, check out the GitHub repo.

From the Official GraphQL Documentation

⭐️ Learn
Comprehensive (and slightly excessive) collection of GraphQL concepts - however, it reads a bit dry.

⭐️ Code
Thorough list of languages, frameworks and libraries supporting GraphQL.

⭐️ Community
A variety of resources, from newsletters to podcasts, you can check out. Disclaimer: This is not an exhaustive (or particularly diverse) list.

Readings

📖 Does GraphQL reduce the need for documentation?
Technical writer Chris Ward investigates the self-documenting aspects of GraphQL and whether or not they could replace the need for docs.

📖 GraphQL is the King. Long Live the King! (R.I.P. REST)
The article where S.C. Barrus refers to GraphQL as "another in a line of technologies that were emerging from the hipster catacombs at Facebook."

📖 Use Case Driven Documentation
Tyner Blain introduces the concept of use case driven docs and where it fits in the development cycle.

📖 JavaScript Monads Made Simple
“Once you understand monads, you immediately become incapable of explaining them to anyone else.”

Quoted Tweets

🐦 @rstankov
🐦 @NikkitaFTW

Mentioned Talks

🎤 Andrew Johnston at API the Docs London
A look at how Shopify builds out their documentation using graphql-docs and the Jekyll static site generator.

🎤 Michelle and Faduma at London Node User Group
Around the 17 minute-mark, Michelle and Faduma discuss successful use cases for GraphQL.

Other Companies, Organizations & Tools Mentioned

🐻 BerlinJS
⚛️ React
⚛️ Gatsby
🛠 Apollo
🛠 GraphiQL
⚰️ Graphcool