Implementing a GraphQL API with Django can be done using Graphene, a Python library built specifically for building GraphQL APIs in Python easily. You can install it in your Django project by running the command `pip install graphene-django`.
To set up Graphene-Django in your Django project, you must install it, adding `graphene-django` to your `INSTALLED_APPS` in your `settings.py`.
```
INSTALLED_APPS = (
# …
‘graphene_django’,
)
```
The next step involves setting up the URL for your GraphQL endpoint. In your project’s URL configuration (`urls.py`), you should add a new URL that points to the `GraphQLView`.
```
from django.urls import path
from graphene_django.views import GraphQLView
urlpatterns = [
# …
path(‘graphql’, GraphQLView.as_view(graphiql=True)),
]
```
In your Django project, to start implementing your GraphQL schema, you should create a `schema.py` file. Let’s consider this sample model:
```
class UserModel(models.Model):
name = models.CharField(max_length=100)
last_name = models.CharField(max_length=100)
email = models.EmailField(max_length=100)
```
In your `schema.py`, we define a special ObjectType (UserType) for our model (UserModel):
```
import graphene
from graphene_django import DjangoObjectType
from .models import UserModel
class UserType(DjangoObjectType): class Meta: model = UserModel fields = (“id”, “name”, “last_name”, “email”)
class Query(graphene.ObjectType): all_users = graphene.List(UserType)
def resolve_all_users(root, info): return UserModel.objects.all() ```The GraphQL schema for your API is now set up. You can perform a GraphQL query to get all users:
```
{
allUsers {
id
name,
lastName,
email
}
}
```
This is a basic example. You can add more complexity to your API by adding different types, mutations for creating, updating, and deleting objects, and more.
Django provides a dedicated tutorial for integrating their toolkit with Graphene to implement a GraphQL API, and it’s an excellent resource for understanding each step of the process in detail. The tutorial starts with setting up Graphene in Django, and then goes through building a basic schema, defining data models, explaining how queries and mutations work, and other topics that will help your understanding of this topic (Sources: Django Documentation, Graphene Documentation).
Sources:
- Graphene Documentation: https://docs.graphene-python.org/en/latest/
- Django Documentation: https://docs.djangoproject.com/en/4.0/
