Bervianto Leo Pratama

Posted on Oct 17, 2021

Getting started with GraphQL in .NET 6 - Part 1

#graphql #dotnet #dotnet6 #tutorial

Hello, everyone! This is my first time to write series. I will write series about GraphQL example project in .NET 6. Please make sure you are already downloaded some tools. Here the lists,

.NET 6
Your favorite IDE/editor. In my case, I will use Visual Studio Code + C# Extension

In part 1, I will not use databases. I will use in-memory lists. If you have many questions about GraphQL, I suggest you to learn more about GraphQL here.

Project Preparation

Create New Project

dotnet new webapi -o GraphQLNetExample

Create a Solution

dotnet new sln

Link solution to the project

dotnet sln add GraphQLNetExample

Install Dependencies

Install GraphQL. Feel free to choose either use command line or just input these definitions to your .csproj file. This is my .csproj definition.

<Project Sdk="Microsoft.NET.Sdk.Web">

  <PropertyGroup>
    <TargetFramework>net6.0</TargetFramework>
    <Nullable>enable</Nullable>
    <ImplicitUsings>enable</ImplicitUsings>
  </PropertyGroup>

  <ItemGroup>
    <PackageReference Include="GraphQL" Version="4.6.1" />
    <PackageReference Include="GraphQL.MicrosoftDI" Version="4.6.1" />
    <PackageReference Include="GraphQL.Server.Authorization.AspNetCore" Version="5.0.2" />
    <PackageReference Include="GraphQL.Server.Transports.AspNetCore.SystemTextJson" Version="5.0.2" />
    <PackageReference Include="GraphQL.Server.Ui.Altair" Version="5.0.2" />
    <PackageReference Include="GraphQL.SystemTextJson" Version="4.6.1" />
    <PackageReference Include="Swashbuckle.AspNetCore" Version="6.1.5" />
  </ItemGroup>

</Project>

Note: If you copy-paste the definition, don't forget to download the dependencies, you can use dotnet restore GraphQLNetExample or dotnet restore.

Coding Time

Create folder/directory under GraphQLNetExample with name Notes
Create Note.cs in GraphQLNetExample/Notes. This class is the model definition.

namespace GraphQLNetExample.Notes;

public class Note
{
  public Guid Id { get; set; }
  public string Message { get; set; }
}

Create NoteType.cs in GraphQLNetExample/Notes. This class is the type definition for GraphQL.

using GraphQL.Types;

namespace GraphQLNetExample.Notes;

public class NoteType : ObjectGraphType<Note>
{
  public NoteType()
  {
    Name = "Note";
    Description = "Note Type";
    Field(d => d.Id, nullable: false).Description("Note Id");
    Field(d => d.Message, nullable: true).Description("Note Message");
  }
}

Create the query for GraphQL. I write the code at GraphQLNetExample/Notes/NotesQuery.cs. This class is for you define your query definition. You need to define the resolver, in this case we just use in-memory list.

using GraphQL.Types;

namespace GraphQLNetExample.Notes;

public class NotesQuery : ObjectGraphType
{
  public NotesQuery()
  {
    Field<ListGraphType<NoteType>>("notes", resolve: context => new List<Note> {
      new Note { Id = Guid.NewGuid(), Message = "Hello World!" },
      new Note { Id = Guid.NewGuid(), Message = "Hello World! How are you?" }
    });
  }
}

Create the schema for our Notes. I write the code at GraphQLNetExample/Notes/NotesSchema.cs. I use this class to register my query and define my schema.

using GraphQL.Types;

namespace GraphQLNetExample.Notes;

public class NotesSchema : Schema
{
  public NotesSchema(IServiceProvider serviceProvider) : base(serviceProvider)
  {
    Query = serviceProvider.GetRequiredService<NotesQuery>();
  }
}

Time to register our schema and setup the GraphQL. Please update your Program.cs. This is my Program.cs.

using GraphQL;
using GraphQL.MicrosoftDI;
using GraphQL.Server;
using GraphQL.SystemTextJson;
using GraphQL.Types;
using GraphQLNetExample.Notes;

var builder = WebApplication.CreateBuilder(args);

// Add services to the container.
// add notes schema
builder.Services.AddSingleton<ISchema, NotesSchema>(services => new NotesSchema(new SelfActivatingServiceProvider(services)));
// register graphQL
builder.Services.AddGraphQL(options =>
                {
                options.EnableMetrics = true;
                })
                .AddSystemTextJson();
// default setup
builder.Services.AddControllers();
builder.Services.AddSwaggerGen(c =>
{
    c.SwaggerDoc("v1", new() { Title = "GraphQLNetExample", Version = "v1" });
});

var app = builder.Build();

// Configure the HTTP request pipeline.
if (app.Environment.IsDevelopment())
{
    app.UseSwagger();
    app.UseSwaggerUI(c => c.SwaggerEndpoint("/swagger/v1/swagger.json", "GraphQLNetExample v1"));
    // add altair UI to development only
    app.UseGraphQLAltair();
}

app.UseHttpsRedirection();

app.UseAuthorization();

app.MapControllers();

// make sure all our schemas registered to route
app.UseGraphQL<ISchema>();

app.Run();

Test our code

Since I use Altair, so we can check our schemas at Altair. Please run your project first. dotnet run --project GraphQLNetExample

Please check your app URL. In my case, I use port 7298. So I can open my Altair use this link: https://localhost:7298/ui/altair. You can open the URL at browser and see the UI like this.

Test our query. Please write this query.

{
  notes {
    id,
    message
  }
}

The result will be like this, please expect Id will be different since we always generate that.

How about if you want message only? Yeah, that is handled by GraphQL. Change the query like this,

{
  notes {
    message
  }
}

Repository

bervProject / GraphQLNETExample

Part of post: https://dev.to/berviantoleo/getting-started-graphql-in-net-6-part-1-4ic2

GraphQL .NET Example

GraphQL example implementation in .NET 6.

Yey

Easy, right? In this part, you are already learned about GraphQL and how to write GraphQL query in .NET 6. If you have some questions, please comment here. I really appreciate with all your suggestions and opinions.

Thank you for following this article until the end of this part. I will continue the next part maybe next week or next month. I really appreciate if you have other queries about my article. The next part is continuing this article and we will learn more about mutation and connect the query & mutation to database. Stay tune.

Top comments (7)

czimerk • Jan 23 '22

Hi! Great article! Thank you. You can also setup the launchUrl to "ui/altair", under profiles/ section of the launchSettings.json to have the app start on the graphql page right away.