Introduction

This is a sample that illustrates StepZen's GraphQL API and MySQL capabilities. It uses a countries API and a MySQL database deployed on Railway. This way, you can get information from both the countries API and your database in a single query, so that your frontend can eliminate unnecessary client logic. It's also super easy to get graphql and mysql schemas spun up using the StepZen CLI-- to learn how using this example, see our blog post.

Contribution

If you'd like to contribute, please view our guidelines and code of conduct first.

Here's our video walkthrough as well. In it, you'll learn the steps for making a PR and the overall goals for our repos. It's for Hacktoberfest, but the process applies to our repos year-round.

If you have any more questions about working with the sample, hit us up on Discord.

Getting Started

You'll need to create a StepZen account first. Once you've got that set up, git clone this repository onto your machine and open the working directory.

Use these instructions to deploy a database on Railway. Note that you will modify these instructions-- instead of runnning

CREATE TABLE test_table (Test text);
INSERT INTO test_table VALUES ('Hello'), ('Goodbye');
show tables;

You will run

mysql> CREATE TABLE countries (
    -> code varchar(255)
    -> name varchar(255)
    -> GDP int );
    
INSERT INTO countries (code, name, GDP)
VALUES (
	'AF', 
	'Afghanistan',
 	19
),
(
	'ZM', 
	'Zambia', 
 	23
),
(
	'NZ', 
	'New Zealand',
	207
	),
(
	'MZ', 
	'Mozambique', 
	15
),
(
	'CH', 
	'Switzerland', 
	703
);

Your configuration

Make a file in your working directory called config.yaml

configurationset:
  - configuration:
      name: mysql_config
      dsn: {{USERNAME HERE}}:{{PASSWORD HERE}}@tcp({{HOST_HERE}}:{{PORT_HERE}})/railway

You'll use your railway username (probably 'root') for USERNAME_HERE, your dsn password for PASSWORD_HERE, your railway hostname for HOST_HERE, and your port for PORT HERE.

Double-check that your config.yaml is in your gitignore file.

The StepZen CLI

Open your terminal and install the StepZen CLI.

After you've followed the prompts (you can accept the suggested endpoint name-- in my case it was api/happy-bunny) and installed the CLI, run stepzen start. A message similar to this will display:

Watching ~/gql-github for GraphQL changes
http://localhost:5000/api/happy-bunny
File changed: /Users/luciacerchie/gql-github/.git/config
Deploying to StepZen...... done
Successfully deployed api/happy-bunny at 9:00:07 AM

The StepZen Explorer

You'll see your StepZen Explorer pop up on your localhost:5000 address:

In the middle pane, copy and paste:

query MyQuery {
  getCountryByCodeMySQL(code: "CH") {
    GDP
    code
    name
    sz_Country {
      capital
      code
    }
  }
}

and you'll get the response:

{
  "data": {
    "getCountryByCodeMySQL": {
      "GDP": 703,
      "code": "CH",
      "name": "Switzerland",
      "sz_Country": {
        "capital": "Bern",
        "code": "CH"
      }
    }
  }
}

Learn More

You can learn more in the StepZen documentation.