Apollo Server setup in GraphQL - Mini Project: Build & Apply

Apollo Server Setup

📖 Scenario: You are building a simple GraphQL server to manage a small collection of books. This server will allow clients to query book information.

🎯 Goal: Create a basic Apollo Server setup with a simple schema and resolver to serve book data.

📋 What You'll Learn

Create a list of books with exact titles and authors

Define a GraphQL schema with a Book type and a Query type

Implement a resolver to return the list of books

Set up Apollo Server to use the schema and resolvers

💡 Why This Matters

🌍 Real World

GraphQL servers like Apollo Server are used to create flexible APIs that clients can query for exactly the data they need.

💼 Career

Understanding Apollo Server setup is essential for backend developers working with modern APIs and full-stack JavaScript applications.

1

Create the initial book data

Create a constant called books that is an array of objects with these exact entries: { title: "The Odyssey", author: "Homer" }, { title: "1984", author: "George Orwell" }, and { title: "To Kill a Mockingbird", author: "Harper Lee" }.

GraphQL

# Create the 'books' array with the specified book objects
# Your code here

Hint

Use const books = [ ... ] with objects inside the array.

2

Define the GraphQL schema

Create a constant called typeDefs using the gql template literal tag. Define a Book type with title and author fields of type String!. Define a Query type with a books field that returns a list of Book objects.

GraphQL

const books = [
  { title: "The Odyssey", author: "Homer" },
  { title: "1984", author: "George Orwell" },
  { title: "To Kill a Mockingbird", author: "Harper Lee" }
];

// Define the GraphQL schema using gql
// Your code here

Hint

Use const typeDefs = gql`...` with the schema definition inside backticks.

3

Create the resolver for books

Create a constant called resolvers that defines a Query object with a books function returning the books array.

GraphQL

const books = [
  { title: "The Odyssey", author: "Homer" },
  { title: "1984", author: "George Orwell" },
  { title: "To Kill a Mockingbird", author: "Harper Lee" }
];

const { gql } = require('apollo-server');

const typeDefs = gql`
  type Book {
    title: String!
    author: String!
  }

  type Query {
    books: [Book]
  }
`;

// Create the resolvers object
// Your code here

Hint

Define resolvers with a Query field that returns the books array.

4

Set up and start Apollo Server

Import ApolloServer from apollo-server. Create a new ApolloServer instance called server using the typeDefs and resolvers. Call server.listen() and handle the returned promise to log the server URL.

GraphQL

const books = [
  { title: "The Odyssey", author: "Homer" },
  { title: "1984", author: "George Orwell" },
  { title: "To Kill a Mockingbird", author: "Harper Lee" }
];

const { gql } = require('apollo-server');

const typeDefs = gql`
  type Book {
    title: String!
    author: String!
  }

  type Query {
    books: [Book]
  }
`;

const resolvers = {
  Query: {
    books: () => books
  }
};

// Import ApolloServer, create server, and start listening
// Your code here

Hint

Use new ApolloServer({ typeDefs, resolvers }) and server.listen() with a then callback.