[ulkesh]

We decided against it. We’re in a java backend and GraphQL in Java with ORM is considerably problematic when trying to create efficient resolvers. We simply ran into one hurdle after another and we were finding ourselves in diminishing returns.

The concept is great, and if you write custom SQL queries for each resolver (if necessary), properly caching things that can be cached, and use the first class citizen programming language (JavaScript), then it seems GraphQL works wonderfully.

Trying to fit it into an existing ORM paradigm with respect to complex sub-collections, lazy loading, and efficient database querying, it just didn’t work out for us.

[jpgvm]

It's not impossible in Java but it does require a strong grasp of graphql-java's execution model and the DataFetchingEnvironment and associated classes. We accomplish something similar to what you desire when querying our time series database via GraphQL.

The big difference between Java and Javascript when it comes to GraphQL is the amount of noise, tutorials and examples on the Javascript side far outweigh other options right now.

Javascript may be the "happy" path for now but I do hope that we see continued investment in Java/Scala/Ruby/Python/.NET etc as those implementations have the opportunity to be better architected and more performant that the reference JS implementation. The reference implementation uses a very simplistic execution model which for now has been copied almost verbatim into other languages but there is great potential for a proper query planner and optimisation layer at the GraphQL layer.

Disclaimer: I work at MDG on Apollo Engine (the backend of which is Kotlin utilising graphql-java).

[soulnothing]

Do you have a kotlin graphql library you'd recommend. I just started working on Kotlin with GraphQLJava. I saw graphql-kotlin, but that appears to have been updated like a year ago. I've been using graphql-spqr. Mixing kotlin and java in my projects, to get around the annotation bug.

I do agree on the noise and lack of tutorials. I'm getting ready to present on a GraphQL option. We don't want to use javascript. The tutorials for java are a bit cumbersome.

Btw I'm really liking apollo.

[syrusakbary]

Agreed, there is a ton of potential for query planning an optimization.

These last months, I've been working non-stop in a blazing-fast GraphQL engine that beats the rest by an order of magnitude - https://graphql-quiver.com/

[zwkrt]

I think we will in time find someone cracking the code and creating a "requests" type library for graphql interaction. Either that or some graphql++ language will make things better. Maybe automatic/declarative DB integration? The concept of graphql is light years ahead of REST, but right now it basically requires server maintainers to implement half-baked query processors and solve problems that have been soloved since the 70s.

[prabhatM]

Did you try clients like Relay and Apollo?