Presentation: Building A GraphQL API Backed By A Graph Database

Despite what the name may imply, GraphQL is not a query language for graph databases. Instead it is a query language for your API. By making the observation that your application data is a graph, GraphQL allows you to translate/map your application data from whatever the underlying model is to a graph. GraphQL then allows you to extract data from your graph by describing your data, asking for only exactly what you want, and get predictable results in a well defined structure. GraphQL can be used with any database, however when used with a graph database like Neo4j the impedance mismatch of translating from relational (or document, etc) to graph is removed, increasing developer productivity and performance. This talk will start with a brief overview of GraphQL and graph databases then dive into why they are awesome when used together! We'll talk about how we can use GraphQL with Neo4j and walk through some code examples.