What noboody mentioned is that generic tools like AWS AppSync, PostGraphile, Hasura, etc. are actually anti-pattern for anything public facing, as they expose the data model and copy it as-is in GraphQL.
GraphQL server is a special case of the BFF pattern, and the whole purpose here is to decouple FE from the underlying data model on the BE, and let both to iterate faster without blocking each other.
Came across this blogpost that happens to describe where something like hasura sits and how it decouples product dev (app + bff) from data api (microservice + db) dev.
Think of Hasura as a GraphQL BFD (backend for data) instead of a GraphQL BFF.
> they expose the data model and copy it as-is in GraphQL.
> GraphQL server is a special case of the BFF pattern, and the whole purpose here is to decouple FE from the underlying data model on the BE, and let both to iterate faster without blocking each other.
> they expose the data model and copy it as-is in GraphQL.
This isn't inherently an anti-pattern.
> GraphQL server is a special case of the BFF pattern, and the whole purpose here is to decouple FE from the underlying data model on the BE, and let both to iterate faster without blocking each other.
A) Says who?
B) Why do we have to follow that specific dogma?
Who says that spaghetti code and Big Ball of Mud are anti-patterns? ;)
Why not to expose SQL interafce or DynamoDB API directly to the client? ;)
While tools like AWS AppSync, Hasura, & PostGraphile accelerate initial development, the bulk of SW Engineering costs are adding new features & providing ongoing support and maintenance.
I don't expose SQL to the client because my client apps don't have good SQL support, my database server doesn't scale connections well and it would take effort to properly lock down the SQL permissions.
That said, there are uses cases where this might be a good pattern - e.g. limited distribution internal tooling.
Direct access to SQL is a great example of something that is not an antipattern. It's just one approach of many, with strengths and weaknesses.
In my use-case adding new features and support is the majority of eng work. We find Hasura is valuable here in reducing the cost of doing so - especially compared to traditional REST implementations.
GraphQL server is a special case of the BFF pattern, and the whole purpose here is to decouple FE from the underlying data model on the BE, and let both to iterate faster without blocking each other.