GraphQL

[JakeHartnell]

Intro:
So what’s this GraphQL thing I keep hearing about?

Started here:
https://github.com/aruntk/grow-graphql-api
https://github.com/aruntk/grow-iot-graphql-frontend

GraphQL info:
http://graphql.org/
http://graphql.org/learn/
https://www.apollographql.com/

[aruntk]

@JakeHartnell Do you want to stick with polymer as the frontend?

[JakeHartnell]

For now. Unless it's lots of work...

Thoughts?

[aruntk]

I guess it is okay to continue with polymer for now. But In my opinion react is the better FE framework.

[JakeHartnell]

I guess it is okay to continue with polymer for now. But In my opinion react is the better FE framework.

Polymer was good experiment, but I agree. As of now react is much better for building something we can put into production. I was noticing a decent sized list of problems in browsers that weren't chrome...

[aruntk]

@JakeHartnell In my opinion polymer is good enough (even better in some respects) for small apps/prototypes. My biggest issue with polymer is it's limited programming model. ie helper elements, bounded properties and helper functions cant match the flexibility offered by react. I hate the way they designed observers(for example compared to $watch in vuejs) and behaviors( it is getting deprecated in 2.0, thankfully), the use of link imports (which is way inferior to es6 imports). One issue I had in the past with the state management and data flow can now be solved using polymer-redux or google/uniflow-polymer. I'm trying to solve the lack of build tools myself. I think these issues will get solved as the popularity increases.

Biggest plus with polymer is it's simplicity(there is nothing much to understand anybody can create a functioning front end). Learning curve is almost nonexistent. You'll get things done much faster in the initial phase.

[JakeHartnell]

@aruntk It would be cool if we used https://github.com/CommonGarden/graphql-api in this main Grow-IoT repo.

[aruntk]

https://github.com/CommonGarden/Grow-IoT/tree/graphql

[JakeHartnell]

https://github.com/matteodem/graphqlizer

[JakeHartnell]

This is cool: https://github.com/APIs-guru/graphql-voyager

[JakeHartnell]

So, we're going to try an experiment and test out our new Open Collective: https://opencollective.com/grow-iot

If we can get Grow-IoT using GraphQL then we'll be a step closer to moving away from Meteor and MongoDB, freeing people up to connect different GraphQL endpoints (and databases such as Postgres, Dynamodb, timescaledb, etc).