GraphQL-to-REST API Connectors Is Apollo’s ‘Biggest Thing’
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NEW YORK — The release of Apollo GraphQL Connectors during Apollo’s GraphQL Summit 2024 conference here marks one of Apollo’s most significant innovations to date in simplifying API integration.
With the introduction of Apollo Connectors for REST APIs, developers can integrate REST APIs into a federated GraphQL schema incrementally or all at once. Yes, you could previously integrate REST APIs with GraphQL but it involved manually implementing code — and let’s just say it was a finicky process.
@apollographql ´s @debergalis: «Connectors really changes the perspective of what @GraphQL is for you and for your teams. it’s the biggest thing we’ve ever shipped. » #graphqlsummit @thenewstack pic.twitter.com/bsa6Y8SZbB
— BC Gain (@bcamerongain) October 9, 2024
As “the biggest thing we’ve ever shipped,” as Matt DeBergalis, CTO and co-founder of Apollo GraphQL, described it, Connectors offers a way to translate a REST API (more APIs coming) into the GraphQL language. Previously without a Connector, in order to achieve this, you would need a small piece of middleware code called a GraphQL Server. “You only have to create it once for each API, but it requires intricate, specific knowledge to complete,” DeBergalis said.
Eliminate Complexity
In other words, as mentioned below, the process is otherwise a more time-consuming process without a Connector.
“Connectors eliminate this complexity. They simplify the process by removing much of the upfront design work related to shaping your GraphQL layer. Connectors take a more pragmatic approach, eliminating the need to write the server altogether,” DeBergalis said. “This also gets rid of the extra network hop, performance costs, and everything associated with running a server in production.”
Designed to reduce the amount of code that a DevOps team member might have to write, Connectors allow all APIs to be combined into an Apollo Supergraph comparatively quickly. “This approach unlocks an extraordinary amount of value, as many businesses have APIs, but their value depends on how easily they can be utilized,” DeBergalis said. “How usable are these APIs? How exposed are they? How quickly can they be combined together? The companies that can achieve this will be the ones that ship and innovate faster.”
Just as GraphQL has emerged as the modern, standards-based way to connect REST APIs, GraphQL is also not going to eventually replace REST APIs. REST APIs also have functionality that GraphQL may not be able to provide. While both support fetching data from a backend system, they solve different problems and approach data from different ends of the spectrum.
To wit, GraphQL provides a strongly typed schema definition language to describe data that lives across any number of systems in a way that is intuitive and useful to clients. By contrast, REST encourages a more resource-oriented approach to organizing and...