Introducing the Graphcool Framework | Hacker News Reader

Introducing the Graphcool Framework

blog.graph.cool

123 pointsjoeyespo16 comments

Open sourcing your cloud GraphQL database... bold move! After seeing your Graphcool admin console I'm sold, and this means I can run it locally now.

Also on Product Hunt today: https://www.producthunt.com/posts/graphcool-framework

Question: How do we sync schema changes between dev environment and production? As of right now, this just means we can see the well-designed Graphcool backend and don't have to worry about getting locked into a cloud offering, but it needs schema migrations to use in dev environments.

Hi everyone, co-founder of Graphcool here!

We couldn't be more excited to take this big step forward by open-sourcing the Graphcool Framework. This means you can now:

* Run Graphcool locally (also works offline)

* Deploy a Graphcool cluster to your own servers/cloud

* Get involved in the development of the framework on GitHub

We can't wait to see what you will be building and look forward to your feedback! (Here is a 5 min demo video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xmri5pNR9-Y)

Hey, had a brief look, excited to give it a go.

I'm not particularly experienced with Docker, however from what I've read online the consensus seems to be avoid containerizing your database [0]. Was this considered when making the decision to include the DB within your container?

[0] https://myopsblog.wordpress.com/2017/02/06/why-databases-is-...

I don't have the experience to dispute this, but the top comment on Hacker News a while back suggests the article is mostly fear/uncertainty/doubt. The author doesn't seem back up any of their claims with enough technical detail.

Go ahead and read and decide for yourself though: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13582757

I’m so excited to see a new open source graphql solution. (This is GraphuckingAwesome!)

Out of curiosity, why did you decide to build your own graph database, rather than use Postgres or some other mature solution?

Edit: Oops, I didn't realize it uses MySQL under the hood. This section of the readme made me think you had a custom db implementation: https://github.com/graphcool/framework#graphql-database

What is Graph Database?

It's a database that uses graph structures for data access as opposed to, say, a more relational model as RDBMSs do.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Graph_database

It uses mysql under the hood it looks like. I'm not sure it's a graph database? I don't see a reference to it being a graphdb, anyway.

Postgres is a relational database not a graph database.[1] Neo4j and OrientDB are true graph databases. You can build a graph DB on top of a RDMS but it is not inherent in the system.

With that said, GraphQL is a misnomer anyway. It's not really about graphs. It allows you to have a query syntax that lets you easily query related and nested objects but it doesn't have the concepts of directed edges and nodes like you have in a graph unless you explicitly code it.

[1] unless they added a feature that I was not aware of and couldn't find in the 30 seconds I spent googling

sooo its a custom ORM for MySQL? awesome

I never had a good time setting up databases, mapping them to the GraphQL resolvers then implementing auth login, file handling, PubSubs, and soo on! And it'd lack a lot in terms of security, performance and etc. Here it is! I loved the Graphcool cloud from the beginning, now everything is open sourced and ready to be used even offline or on your own servers. It's a huge change in how our future backends would look like, just how React, GraphQL, micro services and docker changed how we develope. Surprisingly it has/involves all of the above under the hood!

With this route, we just have to wait for the framework to be developed and evolved by the awesome community (which supported the initial graph.cool before)

If I control both the client and server, I love GraphQL.

If I only control the server, and my customers control the client, I hate GraphQL. It's too powerful.

So, this is like gitlab vs github with GraphQL, with Graphcool vs Scaphold?

I wonder how the migration between both of these services would be

After watching the video, I noticed there was authentification and Js in the backend. Does this mean I could build an app using only a PWA + Graphcool securely?

I like prototyping apps with Vue and Firebase, but considering anyone with the firebase key could mess with the database, it doesn't work for real apps.

Yes, that's right. This is why I'm prototyping with Graphcool + React now instead of Flask... for most CRUD apps it's serverless from my perspective.

Software seems to actually be progressing at such a slow pace, I don't think more frameworks to do the same old things are helping.

It seems to be harder to retrofit a new format onto an existing framework, than to write a new framework altogether. Once the new framework is out, it will be replaced by another shiny framework that offers a brand new feature that is actually a rehash of something old.

I'm optimistic that there will be something next that will replace framework churn, but what?

Reply on news.ycombinator.com