Stepan Resl takes us through what’s available today:
It is an alternative to REST API and enables users to fetch data from multiple sources using a single query. Compared to REST API, GraphQL is much more flexible and allows users to retrieve only the data they need, reducing the amount of data transferred between the client and server. It also uses a single endpoint, reducing the number of requests made to the server. It is a platform and programming language-independent specification, meaning it can be used with any language and on any platform.
GraphQL is defined by an API schema written in the GraphQL schema definition language. Each schema specifies the types of data that users can request or modify, and the relationships between these types. The term “resolver” is often mentioned in relation to GraphQL. It refers to a function or functions responsible for fetching data for a specific field in the schema and provides instructions for converting the GraphQL operation into data.
As a quick reminder for the data-minded: GraphQL and graph databases are orthogonal to one another.