Introduction

GraphQL is a query language for APIs that consists of a schema definition language and a query language, which allows API consumers to fetch only the data they need to support flexible querying. GraphQL enables developers to evolve the API while meeting the different needs of multiple clients, for example iOS, Android, and web variants of an app. Moreover, the GraphQL schema adds a degree of type safety to the API while also serving as a form of documentation for your API.

Prisma is an open-source database toolkit. It consists of three main tools:

• Prisma Client: Auto-generated and type-safe query builder for Node.js & TypeScript.
• Prisma Migrate: Declarative data modeling & migration system.
• Prisma Studio: GUI to view and edit data in your database.

Prisma facilitates working with databases for application developers who want to focus on implementing value-adding features instead of spending time on complex database workflows (such as schema migrations or writing complicated SQL queries).

In this tutorial, you will use GraphQL and Prisma in combination as their responsibilities complement each other. GraphQL provides a flexible interface to your data for use in clients, such as frontends and mobile apps—GraphQL isn’t tied to any specific database. This is where Prisma comes in to handle the interaction with the database where your data will be stored.

DigitalOcean’s App Platform provides a seamless way to deploy applications and provision databases in the cloud without worrying about infrastructure. This reduces the operational overhead of running an application in the cloud; especially with the ability to create a managed PostgreSQL database with daily backups and automated failover. App Platform has native Node.js support streamlining deployment.

You’ll build a GraphQL API for a blogging application in JavaScript using Node.js. You will first use Apollo Server to build the GraphQL API backed by in-memory data structures. You will then deploy the API to the DigitalOcean App Platform. Finally you will use Prisma to replace the in-memory storage and persist the data in a PostgreSQL database and deploy the application again.

At the end of the tutorial, you will have a Node.js GraphQL API deployed to DigitalOcean, which handles GraphQL requests sent over HTTP and performs CRUD operations against the PostgreSQL database.

You can find the code for this project in the  DigitalOcean Community respository.

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