For Spring Boot based backends DGS provides a nice framework featuring:
- an annotation-based programming model for Spring
- a test framework for writing query tests as unit tests
- a Gradle code generation plugin to create types from a GraphQL schema in Java or Kotlin
GraphQL is a query language for your API, and a server-side runtime for executing queries by using a type system you define for your data. It isn't tied to any specific database or storage engine and is instead backed by your existing code and data.
GraphQL was developed by Facebook around 2010 and released 2015. The main challenge it solves is to improve communication between browser and server on high dynamic web apps.
Key advantages are:
- schema and schema validation together with a useful type system
- the client (browser) controls what data should be sent (data reduction)
- with one request you can fetch "all" required data
Client side integration can be achieved using the Apollo Client Framework which easily integrates into React.js based frontends.
The Flamingo framework offers support for GraphQL while Flamingo Commerce provides a full-featured GraphQL API for e-commerce: Example GraphQL Console for Commerce.