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GraphQL file types in Apollo Kotlin


supports the following file types for definitions:

  • .json for introspection schemas
  • .graphqls for SDL schemas
  • .graphql for operations (queries, , and )

To learn more about schemas, see the blog post about support in .

Schemas

A schema describes a 's data types and the relationships between those types. supports JSON schemas obtained via introspection, along with conventional SDL schemas.

Introspection schemas (.json)

You can obtain a 's schema via a special introspection query (assuming the server enables ). Like any other response, the returned schema is provided as JSON similar to the following:

schema.json
{
"data": {
"__schema": {
"queryType": {
"name": "Query"
},
"mutationType": {
"name": "Mutation"
},
"types": [...]
}
}
}

Some JSON schemas omit the top-level data . supports this omission.

Tools like Apollo Sandbox introspect a automatically and enable you to download its schema in JSON (or ) format. can also download an introspected schema with the downloadApolloSchema Gradle task:

./gradlew :app:downloadApolloSchema \
--endpoint "https://example.com/graphql" \
--schema schema.json

JSON schemas are verbose and difficult to read or modify. For simplicity, you should consider JSON schemas read-only and convert them to SDL schemas if you need to make changes.

SDL schemas (.graphqls)

() is the canonical language for defining as defined in the GraphQL spec. It's much cleaner and more expressive than JSON for understanding a schema's structure. It also supports , unlike the JSON representation (see this issue):

schema.graphqls
type schema {
query: Query
mutation: Mutation
}
type Query {
field: String @deprecated
...
}

You can't use to download an schema directly from a endpoint. However, can convert an introspection schema to SDL automatically if you specify the .graphqls extension in the --schema option:

./gradlew :app:downloadApolloSchema \
--endpoint "https://example.com/graphql" \
--schema schema.graphqls

also supports the .sdl file extension for schemas, but very few other tools use .sdl. You should use .graphqls moving forward.

Operations (.graphql)

operations are executed against a to fetch or modify data.

In , files use the .graphql (without 's') extension. These files only contain executable definitions (queries, , , and/or ):

MyQuery.graphql
query MyQuery {
field1
field2
...
}

compiles these into type-safe models that you can use at runtime.

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