In my last post I took a closer look at how the Apollo iOS GraphQL client executes queries and what the resulting JSON looks like. In this post I’m going to focus on how the JSON is parsed and converted to the native Swift types generated by the apollo-codegen tool and also look at how the Apollo iOS client caches results. (more…)
In my last post I took a look at using the Apollo iOS GraphQL client framework to access a GraphQL backend running on the Graphcool GraphQL mBaaS. Shortly afterwards Brandur Leach, an API engineer at Stripe posted “Is GraphQL the Next Frontier for Web APIs?“. In his post Brandur gives a good overview of the current API development space, compares GraphQL to other technologies, and ultimately puts his support behind GraphQL. The follow-on discussion on Hacker News is a bit mixed, with some comments in support of GraphQL along with a few dismissing it. Some advocate support for both REST-like and GraphQL APIs, given that with a sensibly designed backend, support for both is possible with too much additional work. Stripe has a popular REST API that is used by a lot of developers, given Brandur’s opinions, it will be interesting to see if they take this hybrid approach and start offering a GraphQL interface as well.
Regardless of whether GraphQL will gain more traction compared to other approaches or not, I wanted to dive a bit deeper into the client side of things and get a better understanding of how the Apollo iOS framework and apollo-codegen tool work. (more…)
Don’t ask me why you find yourself working in ASP.NET. I know there are more effective ways to build a site.
Don’t ask me why you’re maintaining an app written in the style of 2005. I know, but it happens occasionally frequently.
Don’t ask me why your ASP.NET app is using the MembershipProvider system. I know it’s a poor match for the needs of almost all apps and encourages security holes by design.
Don’t ask me what reason could possibly explain needing to change some passwords. Why isn’t this functionality built in to the app? I know, I know…
But you’re there. Your app is using the MembershipProvider system, which saves the passwords in the database in some kind of encrypted form. And now you have to change some passwords quickly, probably for multiple embarrassing reasons, yet the app doesn’t offer you the functionality to do so, and you don’t have the time to add that functionality and re-build and re-deploy the app.
If only it were possible to go into SSMS and change the passwords using only T-SQL.
Now you can.
While researching mobile backend as a service (mBaaS) offerings for a client project, I came across Graphcool which provides a GraphQL backend for mobile or web apps. I hadn’t worked with GraphQL before, but it looked interesting and wanted to see if we could put it to use in the mobile or web apps we build. To get a better feel for the tech and tools involved, I decided to update the ALAirports sample project that I’ve used in a few blog posts to use Graphcool as a backend for the airport data. (more…)
Python is a powerful programming language with extensive library support. But what does one do when needing to integrate with a platform-specific C or C++ component that has no native Python support? There are two options: completely rewrite the functionality in Python, or create a Python extension. Either option can be painful and prone to errors. Enter Cython. It’s like the peanut butter and the jelly to the extension sandwich. (more…)
I am privileged to say that over the last four years, I mentored a group of high school students wanting to experience STEM in a hands on way. The mission: create a robot in six weeks. The challenge: complete on time, under budget, and with a team who may not know one another. Sound familiar? (more…)
