Server-Driven UI Schema Design

Use enums, contracts, and interfaces to implement SDUI

tip
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These patterns provide examples of server-driven UI (SDUI) and how to structure your graph's schema to encode and represent UI elements. Clients can then use platform-specific rendering engines to interpret the schema and generate UI components.

tip
For more information on SDUI in general, see Server-driven UI basics.

Device-based SDUI with enums

Different devices (for example, mobile, web, Roku, Apple TV) may require different UI layouts or components. You can use enums for device type lists to declare which UI type to retrieve.

GraphQL
1enum UIDeviceType {
2  MOBILE
3  WEB
4  ROKU
5  APPLETV
6}
7
8interface UIApp {}
9
10type WebApp implements UIApp {}
11type IOSApp implements UIApp {}
12type AndroidApp implements UIApp {}
13type AppleTVApp implements UIApp {}
14type RokuApp implements UIApp {}
15
16type Query {
17  app(type: UIDeviceType! = WEB): UIApp!
18}

In this example, the UIDeviceType enum lets you specify the type of device you want to retrieve the UIApp for.

Device-based SDUI with contracts

You can use a similar device-based SDUI with contracts to remove UI components that are unrelated to the target platform from your schema.

GraphQL
1type UIApp {
2  spotlight: UISpotlightComponent @tag(name: "DESKTOP")
3  dashboard: UIDashboardComponent
4  mobileMenu: UIMenuComponent @tag(name: "MOBILE")
5  menu: UIMenuComponent @tag(name: "WEB")
6}
7
8type Query {
9  app: UIApp!
10}
tip

SDUI web dashboard

The following example shows a schema with a static structure that clients can use to create a web dashboard UI.

GraphQL
1type AppLogo {
2  url: String
3  alt: String
4}
5
6type AppLink {
7  icon: String
8  label: String
9  path: String
10}
11
12type AppUserMenu {
13  user: User
14}
15
16type AppNavbar {
17  logo: AppLogo
18  items: [AppLink]
19  user: AppUserMenu
20}
21
22type AppMobileMenu {
23  items: [AppLink]
24  user: AppUserMenu
25}
26
27type AppHomePage {
28  recommended: [AppLink]
29}
30
31type WebApp {
32  navbar: AppNavbar
33  menu: AppMobileMenu
34  home: AppHomePage
35  settings: AppSettingsPage
36  profile: AppProfilePage
37}
38
39type Query {
40  app: WebApp!
41}

SDUI web dashboard using interfaces

The example schema below is also for a web dashboard UI, but it uses interfaces to construct dynamic responses for the UI. By using interfaces, an "experience" subgraph can dynamically return different UI components.

GraphQL
1interface UIComponent {
2  id: ID
3}
4
5type UILogo implements UIComponent {
6  id: ID
7  url: String
8  alt: String
9}
10
11interface UINavbarItem implements UIComponent {
12  id: ID
13  label: String
14  path: String
15  icon: String
16}
17
18interface UINavbar implements UIComponent {
19  id: ID
20  logo: UILogo
21  items: [UINavbarItem]
22}
23
24interface UIMenuItem implements UIComponent {
25  id: ID
26  label: String
27  path: String
28  icon: String
29}
30
31interface UIMenu implements UIComponent {
32  id: ID
33  logo: UILogo
34  items: [UIMenuItem]
35}
36
37interface UISidebar implements UIComponent {
38  id: ID
39  title: String
40  content: [UIComponent]
41}
42
43interface UILayout implements UIComponent {
44  id: ID
45  content: [UIComponent]
46}
47
48interface UIScreen implements UIComponent {
49  id: ID
50  current: UIPage
51  navbar: UINavbar
52  menu: UIMenu
53  main: UILayout
54  sidebar: UISidebar
55}
56
57enum UIPage {
58  HOME
59  DASHBOARD
60  SETTINGS
61}
62
63type Query {
64  app(page: UIPage!): UIScreen!
65}
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