Скачать или смотреть How to Fix the Self-Documenting Issue in Your GraphQL API

Discover how to easily resolve the `self-documenting` issue with your GraphQL API and make sure your API documentation appears seamlessly in tools like Altair.
---
This video is based on the question https://stackoverflow.com/q/66365990/ asked by the user 'Sorcy' ( https://stackoverflow.com/u/252276/ ) and on the answer https://stackoverflow.com/a/66595854/ provided by the user 'Sorcy' ( https://stackoverflow.com/u/252276/ ) at 'Stack Overflow' website. Thanks to these great users and Stackexchange community for their contributions.

Visit these links for original content and any more details, such as alternate solutions, latest updates/developments on topic, comments, revision history etc. For example, the original title of the Question was: GraphQL is not self documenting

Also, Content (except music) licensed under CC BY-SA https://meta.stackexchange.com/help/l...
The original Question post is licensed under the 'CC BY-SA 4.0' ( https://creativecommons.org/licenses/... ) license, and the original Answer post is licensed under the 'CC BY-SA 4.0' ( https://creativecommons.org/licenses/... ) license.

If anything seems off to you, please feel free to write me at vlogize [AT] gmail [DOT] com.
---
Understanding the Problem: GraphQL is Not Self-Documenting

If you've ever worked with GraphQL APIs, you may have encountered the frustrating issue where your API seems to function perfectly, yet the documentation is missing when you test it using tools like the Altair Chrome Plugin. This situation can leave developers scratching their heads, as they receive a response from the server containing introspection data, but that data fails to display properly in the testing tool.

Common Scenario

In a recent case, a developer reported that while their GraphQL API made data retrieval successful, Altair didn't show any form of documentation despite an IntrospectionQuery being requested. The developer even shared a snippet of the JSON response they received, showing that it contained the necessary schema metadata. Yet, the documentation remained elusive. The reason for this issue is often a subtle oversight in how the response is structured.

The Solution: Unwrapping the Response Object

After some investigation, the solution to this issue turned out to be surprisingly simple. The root of the problem lies in how the response object is wrapped in the JSON format. When the API sends back its response, it typically includes an additional layer in the JSON structure which can look like this: data->data->__schema instead of just data->__schema. Altair expects the latter format in order to display the documentation correctly.

Steps to Fix the Issue

Diagnose the Response Structure:

Check your API's JSON response structure using a tool like browser developer tools.

Look for the path that leads to your GraphQL schema. If you notice that it has an extra data layer, such as data->data->__schema, that is likely the issue.

Modify the Response Handling:

Adjust the way your API constructs the JSON response. Remove the extra wrapper around your data to ensure it outputs data->__schema directly.

This means changing the way you wrap or format the output before sending it.

Test Again:

Once you’ve made the adjustments, use Altair or another GraphQL IDE to test your API once more.

When you trigger the IntrospectionQuery again, you should see the complete documentation displayed without any issues.

Example of Correct JSON Structure

Here’s a simplified illustration of the ideal JSON response for your GraphQL API, focusing only on the relevant parts for clarity:

[[See Video to Reveal this Text or Code Snippet]]

Conclusion

In summary, if you're facing the situation where your GraphQL API seems functional yet lacks documentation visibility in testing tools, it's likely due to how the response is structured. By simply unwrapping the extra layer of JSON data to follow the direct path data->__schema, you’ll enable the self-documenting feature of GraphQL and enhance your development experience with better visibility of the API schema. Happy coding!