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  • Updated On 4.0.0

Working with GraphQL

CrafterCMS provides built-in support for GraphQL to query content in any project without writing additional code. A GraphQL schema is generated independently for each project based on the content-type configuration that has been created using Crafter Studio, and the schema is automatically updated after any change is detected.

To implement a project that uses GraphQL you would follow a workflow like this:

  1. Create a new project (if needed, for existing projects skip to step number 3)

  2. Define the content model for your project

  3. Obtain the GraphQL schema for your project, you can use the provided GraphiQL client or any third party client

  4. Develop GraphQL queries to use in your project or external app

All content changes made by authors in Crafter Studio will be immediately available in GraphQL queries.

When a change is made in the content model, for example adding a new field or creating a new content-type, the GraphQL schema will be rebuilt to reflect the same changes. So for a CrafterCMS project that uses GraphQL queries the development process would look like this:

  1. Developers define the base content model

  2. Developers define the project base GraphQL queries to use the latest schema

  3. Content authors create content based on the model

  4. Publishers review & approve the author’s work

  5. Publishers publish to live both the content model configuration & the content updates

  6. Crafter Deployer will handle the GraphQL schema rebuild in delivery

You can also use the CrafterCMS GraphQL API from an external project or application, however in this case you will need to handle the schema reload using third party tools.

Using GraphQL in Crafter Studio

GraphiQL is a simple GraphQL client that you can use in Crafter Studio to run GraphQL queries and explore the schema documentation for a project without the need of any other tool. To access GraphiQL follow these steps:

  1. Login to Crafter Studio

  2. Click on the CrafterCMS logo to toggle the sidebar open

  3. Click Project Tools in the left sidebar

  4. Click GraphQL in the left sidebar

To explore the GraphQL schema you can click the Docs icon on the right side:

GraphQL

GraphiQL provides a convenient search navigation to quickly find a specific type or field:

GraphiQL Schema Documentation Explorer

To test GraphQL queries type them in the left text editor, GraphiQL will provide suggestions and validate the query against the schema in real time.

GraphiQL Query Editor

Note

If the GraphQL server host name used is not localhost, the <graphql-server-url /> in your proxy configuration file needs to be set to the appropriate url. For more information on the proxy configuration file, see: Proxy Configuration

GraphQL Examples

Here you can find some examples on how to query content using GraphQL. The following examples use the built-in Website Editorial blueprint but the same concepts apply to any CrafterCMS project.

For each content-type in the project you will find a field in the root Query, the name of the field is based on the name of the content-type so for /page/article the field will be page_article. These fields contain two sub-fields, one is the total number of items found by the query and the other is a list of items.

Note

Because GraphQL only supports the underscore _ character besides alphanumeric for names, if your content-type or field name contains the dash - character it will be replaced with a double underscore __. To avoid unnecessary long names it is suggested to use only _ or camelCase notation if possible.

One of simplest GraphQL queries you can run in CrafterCMS projects is to find all items of a given content-type.

Query for all /page/article items
 1# root query
 2{
 3  # query for content-type '/page/article'
 4  page_article {
 5    total # total number of items found
 6    items { # list of items found
 7      # content-type fields that will be returned
 8      # (names are based on the content-type configuration)
 9      title_t
10      author_s
11      date_dt
12    }
13  }
14}

You can also run queries to find all pages, components or content items (both pages and components).

Query for all pages
 1# root query
 2{
 3  # query for all pages
 4  pages {
 5    total # total number of items found
 6    items { # list of items found
 7      # the page fields that will be returned
 8      content__type
 9      localId
10      createdDate_dt
11      lastModifiedDate_dt
12      placeInNav
13      orderDefault_f
14      navLabel
15    }
16  }
17}
Query for all components
 1# root query
 2{
 3  # query for all pages
 4  components {
 5    total # total number of items found
 6    items { # list of items found
 7      # the component fields that will be returned
 8      content__type
 9      localId
10      createdDate_dt
11      lastModifiedDate_dt
12    }
13  }
14}
Query for all content items
 1# root query
 2{
 3  # query for all pages
 4  contentItems {
 5    total # total number of items found
 6    items { # list of items found
 7      # the content item fields that will be returned
 8      content__type
 9      localId
10      createdDate_dt
11      lastModifiedDate_dt
12    }
13  }
14}

As you can expect if there are too many items for a given query the result will be too large, so you can also implement pagination using the offset and limit parameters. For example the following query will return only the first five items found.

Paginated query for content-type /page/article
 1# root query
 2{
 3  # query for content-type '/page/article'
 4  page_article(offset: 0, limit: 5) {
 5    total # total number of items found
 6    items { # list of items found
 7      # content-type fields that will be returned
 8      # (names are based on the content-type configuration)
 9      title_t
10      author_s
11      date_dt
12    }
13  }
14}

By default all items will be sorted using the lastModifiedDate_dt in descending order, you can change it by using the sortBy and sortOrder parameters. For example you can use the date_dt field that is specific for the /page/article content-type to sort.

Paginated and sorted query for content-type /page/article
 1# root query
 2{
 3  # query for content-type '/page/article'
 4  page_article (offset: 0, limit: 5, sortBy: "date_dt", sortOrder: ASC) {
 5    total # total number of items found
 6    items { # list of items found
 7      # content-type fields that will be returned
 8      # (names are based on the content-type configuration)
 9      title_t
10      author_s
11      date_dt
12    }
13  }
14}

Besides finding all items for a specific content-type, it is also possible to filter the results using one or more fields in the query. Fields will have different filters depending on their type, for example you can find items for a specific author.

Paginated, sorted and filtered query for content-type /page/article
 1# root query
 2{
 3  # query for content-type '/page/article'
 4  page_article (offset: 0, limit: 5, sortBy: "date_dt", sortOrder: ASC) {
 5    total # total number of items found
 6    items { # list of items found
 7      # content-type fields that will be returned
 8      # (names are based on the content-type configuration)
 9      title_t
10      # only return articles from this author
11      author_s (filter: { equals: "Jane Doe" })
12      date_dt
13    }
14  }
15}

Additionally you can create complex filters using expressions like and, or and not for any field:

Filtered query with complex conditions
 1# Root query
 2{
 3  page_article {
 4    total
 5    items {
 6      title_t
 7      author_s
 8      date_dt
 9      # Filter articles that are not featured
10      featured_b (
11        filter: {
12          not: [
13            {
14              equals: true
15            }
16          ]
17        }
18      )
19      # Filter articles from category style or health
20      categories_o {
21        item {
22          key (
23            filter: {
24              or: [
25                {
26                  matches: "style"
27                },
28                {
29                  matches: "health"
30                }
31              ]
32            }
33          )
34          value_smv
35        }
36      }
37    }
38  }
39}

You can also include fields from child components in your model, this applies to fields like node-selector, checkbox-group and repeat groups. Filters can also be added to fields from child components.

Paginated, sorted and filtered query for content-type /page/article using child components
 1# root query
 2{
 3  # query for content-type '/page/article'
 4  page_article (offset: 0, limit: 5, sortBy: "date_dt", sortOrder: ASC) {
 5    total # total number of items found
 6    items { # list of items found
 7      # content-type fields that will be returned
 8      # (names are based on the content-type configuration)
 9      title_t
10      # only return articles from this author
11      author_s (filter: { equals: "Jane Doe" })
12      date_dt
13      categories_o {
14        item {
15          # only return articles from this category
16          key (filter: { matches: "health" })
17          value_smv
18        }
19      }
20    }
21  }
22}

GraphQL aliases are supported on root level query fields (contentItems, pages, components and content type fields).

Query for 2020 and 2021 articles using aliases
 1# root query
 2{
 3  # query for 2020 articles
 4  articlesOf2020: page_article {
 5    items {
 6      localId(filter: {regex: ".*2020.*"})
 7    }
 8  },
 9  # query for 2021 articles
10  articlesOf2021: page_article {
11    items {
12      localId(filter: {regex: ".*2021.*"})
13    }
14  }
15}

GraphQL fragments are fully supported and can be used inline or as spreads. Using fragments you can simplify queries by extracting repeated fields or request specific fields for different content-types in as single query:

Using fragment spreads to simplify a query
 1# Fragment definition
 2fragment CommonFields on ContentItem {
 3  localId
 4  createdDate_dt
 5}
 6
 7# Root query
 8query {
 9  page_article {
10    total
11    items {
12      # Fragment spread
13      ... CommonFields
14      title_t
15      author_s
16    }
17  }
18
19  component_feature {
20    total
21    items {
22      # Fragment spread
23      ... CommonFields
24      title_t
25      icon_s
26    }
27  }
28}
Using inline fragments to request specific fields in a single query
 1# Root query
 2{
 3  contentItems {
 4    total
 5    items {
 6      # Query for fields from the interface
 7      localId
 8      createdDate_dt
 9
10      # Query for fields from specific types
11      ... on page_article {
12        title_t
13        author_s
14      }
15
16      ... on component_feature {
17        title_t
18        icon_s
19      }
20    }
21  }
22}

For more detailed information about GraphQL you can read the official documentation.