setting_up.md

Setting up

Prerequisites

First, you’ll need to have Ruby installed on your system. If that’s not the case, make sure to install it now. This workshop requires version 2.5.0 or higher.

Then, check you also installed Bundler and Rails. You'll need version 6.0.2.2 of Rails.

Create Rails application

To create the Rails app we're going to use the Rails generator with some specific configurations:

rails new graphql-workshop --api -T -d postgresql

We'll be using PostgreSQL for the database and RSpec for the testing suite.

Finally, after running:

cd graphql-workshop
bundle exec rails db:create
bundle exec rails server

When you visit http://localhost:3000 in a browser, you should see the Rails welcome page.

Setup GraphQL

Now, let's add GraphQL to our server.

We're going to add new gems to the app so first, stop the server.

Add the following dependency in your Gemfile:

gem 'graphql', '1.9.17'

Then run:

bundle install
bundle exec rails generate graphql:install

This will setup GraphQL in our API.

Finally, let's add another dependency which we'll use later as a playground for our project. Add the following to the Gemfile:

gem 'graphiql-rails', '1.7.0', group: :development

And then run:

bundle install

Since this is an API, we have to make some changes to make it work.

First, your config/application.rb might look like:

...
require 'sprockets/railtie'
...

module MyApi
  class Application < Rails::Application
    ...
    config.middleware.use ActionDispatch::Cookies
    config.middleware.use ActionDispatch::Session::CookieStore
    config.middleware.use Rack::MethodOverride
    config.middleware.use ActionDispatch::Flash
  end
end

And your app/controllers/application_controller.rb must inherit from ActionController::Base:

class ApplicationController < ActionController::Base
  ...
end

We also have to add a new file app/assets/config/manifest.js with the following:

//= link graphiql/rails/application.css
//= link graphiql/rails/application.js

Finally, define a new route in config/routes.rb:

...
if Rails.env.development?
  mount GraphiQL::Rails::Engine, at: '/graphiql', graphql_path: '/graphql'
end
...

GraphiQL setup is ready. Restart your sever and visit http://localhost:3000/graphiql in a browser, you should see GraphiQL up and running.

We'are now ready to start building our API using GraphQL.

Necessary gems

Users will have an encrypted password which requires bcrypt gem.

Add the following line to your Gemfile:

gem 'bcrypt', '~> 3.1.13'

Then run:

bundle install

Setup models

First, we will need to create the necessary models for this blogging application and their tables in the database:

bundle exec rails generate model User first_name:string last_name:string email:string auth_token:token password_digest
bundle exec rails generate model Blog title:string body:text user:references
bundle exec rails db:migrate

Be sure your models look like this:

class User < ApplicationRecord
  has_secure_password
  has_secure_token :auth_token

  validates :first_name, :last_name, presence: true
  validates :email, presence: true, uniqueness: true

  has_many :blogs, dependent: :destroy
end

class Blog < ApplicationRecord
  validates :title, :body, presence: true

  belongs_to :user
end

Before moving on, let's create some dummy records:

bundle exec rails console
user = User.create email: '[email protected]', first_name: 'Matias', last_name: 'Irland', password: 'changeme'
Blog.create title: 'Android sucks', body: 'After some years being part of the Android team, I want to learn Ruby.', user: user
Blog.create title: 'Ruby is the best', body: "I've just finished a Ruby training course and I can tell you it is awesome.", user: user