What is a Mutation in GraphQL and how to use it

 · 12 mins read

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This Blog post is a continuation to my previous blog post on GraphQL Basics. Click Here to checkout the GraphQL Basics post.

It is necessary to read the GraphQL Basics post to make the best use of this article.

What is a Mutation in GraphQL?

Whenever you want to write data back into the server, mutations are used.

How is Mutation and Query Different?

Query is used when you want to read some data from the server while mutation is used when you want to write data back to the server.

But wait. Can’t I go to the resolver in the query and do a write operation?

Though it is possible to do a write operation in a query, it shouldn’t be done. It is necessary to separate the read the write operations and hence mutations are needed.

Code

Click Here to get the code from my previous blog post. We will be adding the mutation logic to this code in this article.

Add Movie Mutation

Let us create a mutation which can be used to add a new movie.

create a new file called as mutation.js. Copy the following code into mutation.js

const { GraphQLObjectType
} = require('graphql');
const _ = require('lodash');

const {movieType} = require('./types.js');
const {inputMovieType} = require('./inputtypes.js');
let {movies} = require('./data.js');

const mutationType = new GraphQLObjectType({
    name: 'Mutation',
    fields: {
        addMovie: {
            type: movieType,
            args: {
                input: { type: inputMovieType }
            },
            resolve: function (source, args) {

                let movie = {
                    id: args.input.id, 
                    name: args.input.name, 
                    year: args.input.year, 
                    directorId: args.input.directorId};

                movies.push(movie);

                return _.find(movies, { id: args.input.id });
            }
        }
    }
});

exports.mutationType = mutationType;

You will notice that a mutation looks very similar to a query. The main difference is that the name of the GraphQLObjectType is Mutation.

Here we have added a mutation called as addMovie which has a return type of movieType ( movieType was covered in the previous blog )

In args we are mentioning that we need a parameter called input which is of type inputMovieType

So what is inputMovieType here?

Input Types

It is possible that multiple mutations need the same input arguments. So it is a good practise to create Input Types and reuse the Input Types for all these mutations.

Here we are creating a input type for the movie called as inputMovieType.

It is seen that inputMovieType in turn comes from inputtypes.js file. Let us create this now.

Create a new file called as inputtypes.js

Copy the following code into inputtypes.js

const {
    GraphQLInputObjectType,
    GraphQLID,
    GraphQLString,
    GraphQLInt
} = require('graphql');

inputMovieType = new GraphQLInputObjectType({
    name: 'MovieInput',
    fields: {
        id: { type: GraphQLID },
        name: { type: GraphQLString },
        year: { type: GraphQLInt },
        directorId: { type: GraphQLID }

    }
});

exports.inputMovieType = inputMovieType;

It is seen that an Input Type looks exactly like any other Type in GraphQL. GraphQLInputObjectType is used to create an Input Type, while GraphQLObjectType is used to create normal Types.

Resolve function of a mutation

The resolve function of a mutation is where the actual write operation happens.

In a real application this can be a Database write operation.

For this example, we are just adding the data to movies array and then returning the added movie back.

 resolve: function (source, args) {

                let movie = {
                    id: args.input.id, 
                    name: args.input.name, 
                    year: args.input.year, 
                    directorId: args.input.directorId};

                movies.push(movie);

                return _.find(movies, { id: args.input.id });
            }

The above code in resolve does the following actions

  • Gets the input movie parameters from input arg.
  • Adds the new movie to the movies array
  • Returns the new movie which was added, by fetching it from the movies array

Add Director Mutation

Let us create a mutation which can be used to add a new director

This would be exactly same as adding the movie Mutation.

inputtypes.js with director Mutation added

const {
    GraphQLInputObjectType,
    GraphQLID,
    GraphQLString,
    GraphQLInt
} = require('graphql');

inputMovieType = new GraphQLInputObjectType({
    name: 'MovieInput',
    fields: {
        id: { type: GraphQLID },
        name: { type: GraphQLString },
        year: { type: GraphQLInt },
        directorId: { type: GraphQLID }

    }
});

inputDirectorType = new GraphQLInputObjectType({
    name: 'DirectorInput',
    fields: {
        id: { type: GraphQLID },
        name: { type: GraphQLString },
        age: { type: GraphQLInt }

    }
});

exports.inputMovieType = inputMovieType;
exports.inputDirectorType = inputDirectorType;

mutation.js after adding addDirector mutation

const { GraphQLObjectType
} = require('graphql');
const _ = require('lodash');

const {movieType,directorType} = require('./types.js');
const {inputMovieType,inputDirectorType} = require('./inputtypes.js');
let {movies,directors} = require('./data.js');

const mutationType = new GraphQLObjectType({
    name: 'Mutation',
    fields: {
        addMovie: {
            type: movieType,
            args: {
                input: { type: inputMovieType }
            },
            resolve: function (source, args) {

                let movie = {
                    id: args.input.id, 
                    name: args.input.name, 
                    year: args.input.year, 
                    directorId: args.input.directorId};

                movies.push(movie);

                return _.find(movies, { id: args.input.id });
            }
        },
        addDirector: {
            type: directorType,
            args: {
                input: { type: inputDirectorType }
            },
            resolve: function (source, args) {
                let director = {
                    id: args.input.id, 
                    name: args.input.name, 
                    age: args.input.age};

                directors.push(director);

                return _.find(directors, { id: args.input.id });
            }
        }
    }
});

exports.mutationType = mutationType;

Enabling the mutations

Until now we have defined the mutation end points and their functionality. But we haven’t enabled the mutations yet.

To enable them, the mutations have to added to the schema.

The mutation is added using the following code in server.js

 // Define the Schema
const schema = new GraphQLSchema(
    { 
        query: queryType,
        mutation: mutationType 
    }
);

Complete Code in server.js after adding the mutation

//get all the libraries needed
const express = require('express');
const graphqlHTTP = require('express-graphql');
const {GraphQLSchema} = require('graphql');

const {queryType} = require('./query.js');
const {mutationType} = require('./mutation.js');

//setting up the port number and express app
const port = 5000;
const app = express();

 // Define the Schema
const schema = new GraphQLSchema(
    { 
        query: queryType,
        mutation: mutationType 
    }
);

//Setup the nodejs GraphQL server 
app.use('/graphql', graphqlHTTP({
    schema: schema,
    graphiql: true,
}));

app.listen(port);
console.log(`GraphQL Server Running at localhost:${port}`);

Code

The complete code for this article can be found in this git repo

Testing The mutation End Points

Run the application using the following command

node server.js

Open your web browser and go to the following url localhost:5000/graphql

Test addMovie Mutation Endpoint

Input

mutation {
	addMovie(input: {id: 4,name: "Movie 4", year: 2020,directorId:4}){
    id,
    name,
	year,
    directorId
  }
  
}

Output

{
  "data": {
    "addMovie": {
      "id": "4",
      "name": "Movie 4",
      "year": 2020,
      "directorId": "4"
    }
  }
}

Input

mutation {
	addMovie(input: {id: 5,name: "Movie 5", year: 2021,directorId:4}){
    id,
    name,
	year,
    directorId
  }
  
}

Output

{
  "data": {
    "addMovie": {
      "id": "5",
      "name": "Movie 5",
      "year": 2021,
      "directorId": "4"
    }
  }
}

Test addDirector Mutation Endpoint

Input

mutation {
	addDirector(input: {id: 4,name: "Director 4", age: 30}){
    id,
    name,
	age,
    movies{
      id,
      name,
      year
    }
  }
  
}

Output

{
  "data": {
    "addDirector": {
      "id": "4",
      "name": "Director 4",
      "age": 30,
      "movies": [
        {
          "id": "4",
          "name": "Movie 4",
          "year": 2020
        },
        {
          "id": "5",
          "name": "Movie 5",
          "year": 2021
        }
      ]
    }
  }
}

Congrats 😃

You now know about Mutations in GraphQL

You can checkout the documentation to know more about GraphQL

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You can also check out my Youtube Channel to get access to various tutorials created by me.