README.md

react-graphql-example

Explore building re-usable components and composable front-ends in React

This demo repository shows a simple React app which hits the public GitHub GraphQL API using Relay

Setup

Make sure you have watchman in your $PATH: https://facebook.github.io/watchman/docs/install.html

Packages and scripts are managed using npm:

npm install
npm start
npm build

Architecture

For simplicity, we focus on re-using a <UserProfile /> component from two contexts:

• Render the logged in user's own profile
• Render the logged in user's list of followers

We solve this by structuring the <UserProfile /> component as a fragment using Relay's useFragment() hook. This has the effect of decoupling our fragment render logic from data fetch.

We are now able to write and run two queries and pass the results to the same component.

You'll notice that we have multiple levels of hierachy in our demo page example, going top to bottom:

• Application (src/app/index.js)
  • Render global components, e.g. header
  • Handle global events, e.g. login
  • Determine page to render
• Page itself (src/pages/*.page.js)
  • Maintain page state, react to user selection
  • Set up and run Relay queries
  • Set up and pass callbacks
  • Once Relay references are available, render container components
• Query container
  • ⚠️ No knowledge of query loading
  • Access data from Relay query reference
  • Map data to our fragment render logic
• Fragment container
  • ⚠️ No knowledge of queries
  • Access data from fragment
  • Return JSX to display
• Component (optional)
  • Return JSX from simple JS props