May 01, 2017

GraphQL SDL — Schema Definition Language

GraphQL has its own language to write GraphQL Schemas: The GraphQL Schema Definition Language (SDL). SDL is simple and intuitive to use while being extremely powerful and expressive.

GraphQL SDL 

What is a GraphQL Schema Definition?

A GraphQL Schema Definition is the most concise way to specify a GraphQL schema. The syntax is well-defined and are part of the official GraphQL specification. Schema Definitions are sometimes referred to as IDL (Interface Definition Language) or SDL (Schema Definition Language).

The GraphQL schema for a blogging app could be specified like this:

The main components of a schema definition are the types and their fields. Additional information can be provided as custom directives like the @default value specified for the likes field.

Type

A type has a name and can implement one or more interfaces:

Field

A field has a name and a type:

The GraphQL spec defines some built-in scalar values but more can be defined by a concrete implementation. The built in scalar types are:

  • Int
  • Float
  • String
  • Boolean
  • ID

In addition to scalar types, a field can use any other type defined in the schema definition.

Non-nullable fields are denoted by an exclamation mark:

Lists are denoted by square brackets:

Enum

An enum is a scalar value that has a specified set of possible values:

Interface

In GraphQL an interface is a list of fields. A GraphQL type must have the same fields as all the interfaces it implements and all interface fields must be of the same type.

Schema directive

A directive allows you to attach arbitrary information to any other schema definition element. Directives are always placed behind the element they describe:

Directives don’t have intrinsic meaning. Each GraphQL implementation can define their own custom directives that add new functionality.

GraphQL specifies built-in skip and include directives that can be used to include or exclude specific fields in queries, but these aren't used in the schema language.

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