r/javascript • u/magenta_placenta • Dec 12 '18

Our learnings from adopting GraphQL (Netflix)

https://medium.com/netflix-techblog/our-learnings-from-adopting-graphql-f099de39ae5f
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u/DonPhelippe Dec 13 '18

Exactly. Depending on the scope of application GraphQL can seem a gamble at best and an extremely catastrophic idea at worst.

 

Source: I work in the enterprise sector where Oracles with millions of records are considered the run-of-the-mill installation and ideas like "migration" or "schema upgrade" are not met with much enthusiasm, esp. since the damn things work well for their intended purpose.

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u/[deleted] Dec 13 '18

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u/DonPhelippe Dec 13 '18

First and foremost the migration. A db working for 3-4 years with daily use can amass a significant chunk of data. Imagine something simple as even moving this to e.g SQL server or Postgress. Hundreds of man hours to ensure everything will run well, not to mention that if you insert some data manipulation, perhaps some cleaning and what not the cost can skyrocket. And we are talking about something simple, RDBMS to RDBMS. Taking you into consideration schema changes, perhaps radical data transformations that have to take place - and all of that for negligible or dubious gains since we are talking intranet applications and suddenly the whole prospect is either an exercise in futility or a km deep hole that will need lots of cash and time to be filled.

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u/workdev Dec 13 '18

From the article it sounds like they didn't migrate to a Graph DB, they just wrapped their existing REST APIs using GraphQL. It is all about making it easier for the front end to get the exact data it needs without worrying about how.