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      How To Install Ruby on Rails with rbenv on Ubuntu 20.04


      Introduction

      Ruby on Rails is one of the most popular application stacks for developers looking to create sites and web apps. The Ruby programming language, combined with the Rails development framework, allows you to build and deploy scalable apps quickly.

      You can install Ruby and Rails with the command line tool rbenv. Using rbenv provides you with a solid environment for developing your Ruby on Rails applications and allows you to switch between Ruby versions, keeping your entire team on the same version. rbenv also provides support for specifying application-specific versions of Ruby, allows you to change the global Ruby for each user, and the option to use an environment variable to override the Ruby version.

      In this tutorial, we will guide you through the Ruby and Rails installation processes with rbenv and gem. First, you’ll install the appropriate packages to install rbenv and then Ruby. After, you’ll install the ruby-build plugin so that you can install available versions of Ruby. Last, you’ll use gem to install Rails and can then use Ruby on Rails to begin your web development. We will also provide steps on how to check if your rbenv version is up-to-date, and how to uninstall Ruby versions and rbenv.

      Prerequisites

      To follow this tutorial, you need:

      Step 1 – Install rbenv and Dependencies

      Ruby relies on several packages that you can install through your package manager. Once those are installed, you can install rbenv and use it to install Ruby.

      First, update your package list:

      Next, install the dependencies required to install Ruby:

      • sudo apt install git curl libssl-dev libreadline-dev zlib1g-dev autoconf bison build-essential libyaml-dev libreadline-dev libncurses5-dev libffi-dev libgdbm-dev

      After installing the dependencies, you can install rbenv itself. Use curl to transfer information from the rbenv repository on GitHub into the directory ~/.rbenv:

      • curl -fsSL https://github.com/rbenv/rbenv-installer/raw/HEAD/bin/rbenv-installer | bash

      Next, add ~/.rbenv/bin to your $PATH so that you can use the rbenv command line utility. Do this by altering your ~/.bashrc file so that it affects future login sessions:

      • echo 'export PATH="$HOME/.rbenv/bin:$PATH"' >> ~/.bashrc

      Then, add the command eval "$(rbenv init -)" to your ~/.bashrc file so rbenv loads automatically:

      • echo 'eval "$(rbenv init -)"' >> ~/.bashrc

      Next, apply the changes you made to your ~/.bashrc file to your current shell session:

      Verify that rbenv is set up properly by running the type command, which will display more information about the rbenv command:

      Your terminal window will display the following:

      Output

      rbenv is a function rbenv () { local command; command="${1:-}"; if [ "$#" -gt 0 ]; then shift; fi; case "$command" in rehash | shell) eval "$(rbenv "sh-$command" "$@")" ;; *) command rbenv "$command" "$@" ;; esac }

      Next, install the ruby-build plugin. This plugin adds the rbenv install command, which makes the installation process of new versions of Ruby less complex. To install ruby-build, first clone the ruby-build GitHub repository:

      • git clone https://github.com/rbenv/ruby-build.git

      After running this command, you’ll have a directory named ruby-build in your working directory. Within the ruby-build directory is a script named install.sh which you’ll use to actually install ruby-build.

      Before running this script, take a moment to review its contents. Rather than opening the file with a text editor, you can print its contents to your terminal’s output with the following command:

      • cat ruby-build/install.sh

      Output

      #!/bin/sh # Usage: PREFIX=/usr/local ./install.sh # # Installs ruby-build under $PREFIX. set -e cd "$(dirname "$0")" if [ -z "${PREFIX}" ]; then PREFIX="/usr/local" fi BIN_PATH="${PREFIX}/bin" SHARE_PATH="${PREFIX}/share/ruby-build" mkdir -p "$BIN_PATH" "$SHARE_PATH" install -p bin/* "$BIN_PATH" install -p -m 0644 share/ruby-build/* "$SHARE_PATH"

      Notice the second line of this file that reads # Usage: PREFIX=/usr/local ./install.sh. This commented-out line explains that in order to execute this script and install ruby-build, you must precede the script with PREFIX=/usr/local. This will create a temporary environment variable that will affect how the script is run. Essentially, this will cause the string $PREFIX to be replaced with /usr/local any time it appears in the script and will ultimately cause all the necessary ruby-build files to be installed within the /usr/local directory. This environment variable is only temporary and will cease to exist once the script terminates.

      Create this temporary environment variable and run the script with the following command. Note that this command includes sudo before calling the script. This is necessary since you must have advanced privileges to install files to the /usr/local directory:

      • PREFIX=/usr/local sudo ./ruby-build/install.sh

      At this point, you have both rbenv and ruby-build installed. Let’s install Ruby next.

      Step 2 – Installing Ruby with ruby-build

      With the ruby-build plugin now installed, you can install whatever versions of Ruby that you may need with a single command. First, list all the available versions of Ruby:

      The output of that command will be a list of versions that you can choose to install:

      Output

      2.6.8 2.7.4 3.0.2 jruby-9.2.19.0 mruby-3.0.0 rbx-5.0 truffleruby-21.2.0.1 truffleruby+graalvm-21.2.0 Only latest stable releases for each Ruby implementation are shown. Use 'rbenv install --list-all / -L' to show all local versions.

      Now let’s install Ruby 3.0.2:

      Installing Ruby can be a lengthy process, so be prepared for the installation to take some time to complete.

      Once it’s done installing, set it as your default version of Ruby with the global sub-command:

      Verify that Ruby was properly installed by checking its version number:

      If you installed version 3.0.2 of Ruby, this command will return output like this:

      Output

      ruby 3.0.2p107 (2021-07-07 revision 0db68f0233) [x86_64-linux]

      To install and use a different version of Ruby, run the rbenv commands with a different version number, as in rbenv install 2.3.0 followed by rbenv global 2.3.0.

      You now have at least one version of Ruby installed and have set your default Ruby version. Next, you will set up gems and Rails.

      Step 3 – Working with Gems

      Gems are the way Ruby libraries are distributed. You use the gem command to manage these gems, and use this command to install Rails.

      When you install a gem, the installation process generates local documentation. This can add a significant amount of time to each gem’s installation process, so turn off local documentation generation by creating a file called ~/.gemrc which contains a configuration setting to turn off this feature:

      • echo "gem: --no-document" > ~/.gemrc

      Bundler is a tool that manages gem dependencies for projects. Install the Bundler gem next, as Rails depends on it:

      You’ll receive the following output:

      Output

      Fetching bundler-2.2.27.gem Successfully installed bundler-2.2.27 1 gem installed

      You can use the gem env command (the subcommand env is short for environment) to learn more about the environment and configuration of gems. You can confirm where gems are being installed by using the home argument, like this:

      You’ll receive an output similar to this:

      Output

      /home/sammy/.rbenv/versions/3.0.2/lib/ruby/gems/3.0.0

      Once you have gems set up, you can install Rails.

      Step 4 – Installing Rails

      To install Rails, use the gem install command along with the -v flag to specify the version. For this tutorial, you’ll use version 6.1.4.1:

      • gem install rails -v 6.1.4.1

      The gem command installs the gem you specify, as well as any of its dependencies. Rails is a complex web development framework and has many dependencies, so the process will take some time to complete. Eventually, you’ll receive a message stating that Rails is installed, along with its dependencies:

      Output

      ... Successfully installed rails-6.1.4.1 37 gems installed

      Note: If you would like to install a different version of Rails, you can list the valid versions of Rails by doing a search, which will output a list of possible versions. You can then install a specific version, such as 4.2.7:

      • gem search '^rails$' --all
      • gem install rails -v 4.2.7

      If you would like to install the latest version of Rails, run the command without a version specified:

      rbenv works by creating a directory of shims, which point to the files used by the Ruby version that’s currently enabled. Through the rehash sub-command, rbenv maintains shims in that directory to match every Ruby command across every installed version of Ruby on your server. Whenever you install a new version of Ruby or a gem that provides commands as Rails does, you should run the following:

      Verify that Rails has been installed properly by printing its version, with the following command:

      If it’s installed properly, this command will return the version of Rails that was installed:

      Output

      Rails 6.1.4.1

      At this point, you can begin testing your Ruby on Rails installation and start to develop web applications. Now let’s review how to keep the rbenv up-to-date.

      Step 5 – Updating rbenv

      Since you installed rbenv manually using Git, you can upgrade your installation to the most recent version at any time by using the git pull command in the ~/.rbenv directory:

      This will ensure that you are using the most up-to-date version of rbenv available.

      Step 6 – Uninstalling Ruby versions

      As you download additional versions of Ruby, you may accumulate more versions than you would like in your ~/.rbenv/versions directory. Use the ruby-build plugin’s uninstall subcommand to remove these previous versions.

      The following command will uninstall Ruby version 3.0.2:

      With the rbenv uninstall command you can clean up old versions of Ruby so that you do not have more installed than you are currently using.

      Step 7 – Uninstalling rbenv

      If you’ve decided you no longer want to use rbenv, you can remove it from your system.

      To do this, first open your ~/.bashrc file in your editor. In this example, we will use nano:

      Find and remove the following two lines from the file:

      ~/.bashrc

      ...
      export PATH="$HOME/.rbenv/bin:$PATH"
      eval "$(rbenv init -)"
      

      After removing these lines, save the file and exit the editor. If you used nano, you can exit by pressing CTRL + X then Y and ENTER.

      Then remove rbenv and all installed Ruby versions with the following command:

      Log out and back in to apply the changes to your shell.

      Conclusion

      In this tutorial, you installed rbenv and gem to install the entire Ruby on Rails framework. From here, you can begin creating your web development application projects. If you want to learn more about making those environments more robust you can check out our series on How To Code In Ruby.



      Source link

      How To Set Up a Ruby on Rails GraphQL API


      The author selected Free Press to receive a donation as part of the Write for DOnations program.

      Introduction

      GraphQL is a strongly typed query language for APIs and a server-side runtime for executing those queries with your existing data. GraphQL allows clients to fetch multiple resources from the server in a single request by giving clients the ability to specify the exact data needed in the query. This removes the need for multiple API calls. GraphQL is language and database independent, and thus can be implemented in almost every programming language alongside any database of choice.

      In this tutorial, you will build a GraphQL-powered Ruby on Rails API for taking notes. When you are finished, you will be able to create and view notes from the API using GraphQL.

      GraphiQL IDE

      If you would like to take a look at the code for this tutorial, check out the companion repository for this tutorial on the DigitalOcean Community GitHub.

      Prerequisites

      To follow this tutorial, you’ll need:

      • The Ruby programming language and the Ruby on Rails framework installed on your development machine. This tutorial was tested on version 2.6.3 of Ruby and version 6.0.2.1 of Rails, so make sure to specify these versions during the installation process. Follow one of these tutorials to install Ruby and Rails:
      • PostgreSQL installed. To follow this tutorial, use PostgreSQL version 11.2. Install PostgreSQL by following Steps 1 and 2 of one of the following tutorials:

      Step 1 — Setting Up a New Rails API Application

      In this step, you will set up a new Rails API application and connect it to a PostgreSQL database. This will serve as the foundation for the note-taking API.

      Rails provides commands that make building modern web applications faster for developers. These commands can perform actions that range from creating a new Rails application to generating files required for app development. For a full list of these commands and what they do, run the following command in your terminal window:

      This command yields an extensive list of options you can use to set the parameters of your application. One of the commands listed is the new command, which accepts an APP_PATH and creates a new Rails application at the specified path.

      Create a new Rails application using the new generator. Run the following command in your terminal window:

      • rails new rails_graphql -d=postgresql -T --api

      This creates a new Rails application in a directory named rails_graphql and installs the required dependencies. Let’s go over the flags associated with the new command:

      • The -d flag pre-configures the application with the specified database.
      • The -T flag instructs Rails to not generate test files since you won’t be writing tests in this tutorial. You can also use this flag if you plan to use a different testing framework other than the one provided by Rails.
      • The --api flag configures a Rails application with only the files required for building an API with Rails. It skips configuring settings needed for browser applications.

      Once the command is done running, switch to the newly created rails_graphql directory, which is the application’s root directory:

      Now that you have successfully set up a new Rails API application, you have to connect it to a database before you can run the app. Rails provides a database.yml file found in config/database.yml, which contains configurations for connecting your app to a different database for different development environments. Rails specifies a database name for different development environments by appending an underscore (_) followed by the environment name to your app’s name. You can always change any environment database name to whatever you choose.

      Note: You can alter config/database.yml to choose the PostgreSQL role you would like Rails to use to create your database. If you created a role that is secured by a password, follow the instructions in Step 4 of How To Use PostgreSQL with Your Ruby on Rails Application on Ubuntu 18.04 or How To Use PostgreSQL with Your Ruby on Rails Application on macOS to configure your role.

      Rails includes commands for creating and working with databases. With your database credentials in place, run the following command in your terminal window to create your databases:

      The db:create command creates a development and test database based on the information provided in the config/database.yml file. Running the command yields the following output:

      Output

      Created database 'rails_graphql_development' Created database 'rails_graphql_test'

      With your application now successfully connected to a database, you can test the application to ensure it works. Start your server with the following command if you are working locally:

      If you are working on a development server, you can start your application by specifying the IP address the server should bind to:

      • bundle exec rails server --binding=your_server_ip

      Note: The server listens on port 3000. If you’re working on a development server, ensure that you have opened port 3000 in your firewall to allow connections.

      The rails server command launches Puma, a web server for Ruby distributed with Rails. The --binding=your_server_ip command binds the server to any IP you provide.

      Once you run this command, your command prompt will be replaced with the following output:

      Output

      => Booting Puma => Rails 6.0.2.1 application starting in development => Run `rails server --help` for more startup options Puma starting in single mode... * Version 4.3.1 (ruby 2.6.3-p62), codename: Mysterious Traveller * Min threads: 5, max threads: 5 * Environment: development * Listening on tcp://127.0.0.1:3000 * Listening on tcp://[::1]:3000 Use Ctrl-C to stop

      To run your application, navigate to localhost:3000 or http://your_server_ip:3000 in your browser. You’ll see the Rails default welcome page:

      Rails welcome page

      The welcome page means you have properly set up your Rails application.

      To stop the server, press CTRL+C in the terminal window where the server is running.

      You have successfully set up a Rails API application for a note-taking API. In the next step, you will set up your Rails API application to receive and execute GraphQL queries.

      Step 2 — Setting Up GraphQL for Rails

      In this step, you will configure your Rails API application to work with GraphQL. You will install and set up the necessary gems required for GraphQL development in Rails.

      As previously mentioned, GraphQL is language agnostic and is implemented in many programming languages. The graphql-ruby gem is the Ruby implementation for GraphQL. GraphQL also provides an interactive in-browser IDE known as GraphiQL for running GraphQL queries. The graphiql-rails gem helps you add GraphiQL to your development environment.

      To install these dependencies, open the project’s Gemfile for editing, using nano or your favorite text editor:

      Add the graphql and graphiql-rails gems to your Gemfile. You can add the graphiql gem anywhere, but the graphiql-rails gem should be added under the development dependencies:

      ~/rails_graphql/Gemfile

      ...
      group :development do
        gem 'listen', '>= 3.0.5', '< 3.2'
        # Spring speeds up development by keeping your application running in the background. Read more: https://github.com/rails/spring
        gem 'spring'
        gem 'spring-watcher-listen', '~> 2.0.0'
        gem 'graphiql-rails'
      end
      
      gem 'graphql', '1.9.18'
      ...
      

      Save and close the file when you are done adding the gems.

      In your terminal window, use the following command to install the gems:

      The output shows that the gems are installed.

      The graphql gem provides generators to create various files. To view the available generators, run the following command in your terminal window:

      The generators prefixed with graphql: are the ones associated with the graphql gem.

      You will use the graphql:install command to add graphql-ruby boilerplate code to the application and mount GraphiQL in your development environment. The boilerplate code will include all the files and directory needed for the graphql-ruby gem to work with Rails.

      In your terminal window, run the following commands:

      This command generates several files, including a graphql_controller.rb file located at app/controllers/graphql_controller.rb and a graphql directory at app/graphql which contains files required to get started with GraphQL in Rails. It also adds a /graphql HTTP POST route in the routes file located at config/routes.rb. This route is mapped to the app/controllers/graphql_controller.rb#execute method which handles all queries to the GraphQL server.

      Before you can test the GraphQL endpoint, you need to mount the GraphiQL engine to the routes file so you can access the GraphiQL in-browser IDE. To do this open the routes file located at config/routes.rb:

      • nano ~/rails_graphql/config/routes.rb

      Add the following code to the file to mount the GraphiQL engine in the development environment:

      ~/rails_graphql/config/routes.rb

      Rails.application.routes.draw do
        if Rails.env.development?
          mount GraphiQL::Rails::Engine, at: "/graphiql", graphql_path: "graphql#execute"
        end
        post "/graphql", to: "graphql#execute"
        # For details on the DSL available within this file, see https://guides.rubyonrails.org/routing.html
      end
      

      This mounts the GraphiQL engine to the /graphiql path and directs all queries to the graphql#execute method.

      Since this is an API application created with the --api flag, it does not expect to render any page in the browser. To make the GraphiQL editor show up in the browser, you need to make a couple of small changes to your application’s configuration.

      First, open the application.rb file located at config/application.rb:

      • nano ~/rails_graphql/config/application.rb

      Next, uncomment the require "sprockets/railtie" line:

      ~/rails_graphql/config/application.rb

      require_relative 'boot'
      
      require "rails"
      # Pick the frameworks you want:
      require "active_model/railtie"
      require "active_job/railtie"
      require "active_record/railtie"
      require "active_storage/engine"
      require "action_controller/railtie"
      require "action_mailer/railtie"
      require "action_mailbox/engine"
      require "action_text/engine"
      require "action_view/railtie"
      require "action_cable/engine"
      require "sprockets/railtie"
      # require "rails/test_unit/railtie"
      
      ...
      

      Save and close the file after uncommenting the line.

      Now create a config directory at app/assets:

      • mkdir -p app/assets/config

      Next, create a manifest.js file in the newly created config directory. The manifest.js file specifies additional assets to be compiled and made available to the browser:

      • nano app/assets/config/manifest.js

      Add the following code to the file which tells Rails to precompile the graphiql/rails/application.css and graphiql/rails/application.js files so Rails can serve them to your browser:

      ~/rails_graphql/app/assets/config/manifest.js

      //= link graphiql/rails/application.css
      //= link graphiql/rails/application.js
      

      Save and close the file.

      With that done, you can test your GraphQL endpoint. Restart your development server, and in your browser, navigate to localhost:3000/graphiql or http://your_server_ip:3000/graphiql. The GraphiQL query editor displays in your browser:

      GraphiQL IDE

      The left side of the GraphiQL IDE accepts GraphQL queries and the right side displays results of the run query. The GraphiQL query editor also has a syntax highlighter and a typeahead hinter powered by your GraphQL Schema. Together, these help you make a valid query.

      To try a Hello World example, clear out the default text in the editor’s left pane and type in the following query:

      query {
          testField
      }
      

      Click the Play icon button in the header and you’ll recieve a successful response on the screen, as shown in the following figure:

      GraphiQL IDE Response successful response

      You have successfully set up your Rails API application to work with GraphQL and tested your GraphQL endpoint to confirm it works. In the next step, you will create GraphQL types for your application.

      Step 3 — Creating Types for the Application

      GraphQL depends on its Types and Schema to validate and respond to queries. In this step, you will create a Note model and the GraphQL types required in your note-taking API.

      A GraphQL type consists of fields and arguments which, in turn, define the fields and arguments that can appear in any GraphQL query that operates on that type. These types make up a GraphQL Schema. GraphQL defines the following types:

      • The Query and Mutation types: These are special types that define the entry point of every GraphQL query. Every GraphQL service has a query type and may or may not have a mutation type.
      • Object types: These are the basic components of a GraphQL schema. These represent the objects you can fetch from a GraphQL service and the fields each object holds.
      • Scalar types: These are default types that come with GraphQL out of the box. They include Int, Float, String, Boolean, and ID.
      • Enumeration types: These are types that define a particular set of allowed values.
      • Input types: These are similar to object types, with the only difference being that they define objects that you can pass to queries as arguments.

      There are other types, including Union, List, Non-Null, and Interface. You can find a list of available GraphQL types in the official GraphQL documentation.

      For this application, you will create a Note model and a Note object and input type. The Note model will represent the database table that will store your notes while the Note object and input type will define the fields and arguments that exists on a Note object.

      First, create a Note model using the generate model subcommand provided by Rails and specify the name of the model along with its columns and data types. Run the following command in your terminal window:

      • rails generate model note title:string:index body:text

      This command creates a Note model with two fields: title, with the type string, and body, with the type text. The command also adds a database index on the title column. It generates these two files:

      • A note.rb file located at app/models/note.rb. This file will hold all model-related logic.
      • A 20200617173228_create_notes.rb file (the number at the beginning of the file will differ, depending on the date you run the command) located at db/migrate/20200617173228_create_notes.rb. This is a migration file that holds the instruction for creating a corresponding notes table in the database.

      To execute the instructions in the migration file, you’ll use the db:migrate subcommand which executes the instruction in your migration files. Run the following command in your terminal window:

      Once the command runs successfully, you will see output similar to the following:

      Output

      == 20200617173228 CreateNotes: migrating ====================================== -- create_table(:notes) -> 0.0134s -- add_index(:notes, :title) -> 0.0073s == 20200617173228 CreateNotes: migrated (0.0208s) =============================

      With the note model in place, next you’ll create a NoteType. A valid note object is expected to have an id, a title, and text. Run the following command in your terminal window to create a NoteType:

      • rails generate graphql:object Note id:ID! title:String! body:String!

      The command instructs Rails to create a GraphQL object type called Note with three fields: an id field with a type of ID, and the title and body fields, each with a String type. The exclamation point (!) appended to the field type indicates that the field should be non-nullable, meaning that the field should never return a null value. Non-nullable fields are important, as they serve as a form of validation that guarantees which fields must be present whenever GraphQL objects are queried.

      Running the preceding command creates a note_type.rb file located at app/graphql/types/note_type.rb containing a Types::NoteType class with three non-nullable fields.

      Lastly, you will create a NoteInput type to define the arguments required to create a note. Start by creating an input directory under app/graphql/types. The input directory will house input types:

      • mkdir ~/rails_graphql/app/graphql/types/input

      Note: It’s not a requirement to create input types in the input directory; it is merely a common convention. You can decide to keep all your types under the types directory and exclude nesting the class under an Input module whenever you’re accessing it.

      In the ~/rails_graphql/app/graphql/types/input directory, create a note_input_type.rb file:

      • nano ~/rails_graphql/app/graphql/types/input/note_input_type.rb

      Add the following code to the file to define the fields for the Input type:

      ~/rails_graphql/app/graphql/types/input/note_input_type.rb

      module Types
        module Input
          class NoteInputType < Types::BaseInputObject
            argument :title, String, required: true
            argument :body, String, required: true
          end
        end
      end
      

      In the note_input_type.rb file, you added a Types::Input::NoteInputType class that inherits from the Types::BaseInputObject class and accepts two required arguments; title and body, both of a string type.

      You’ve created a model and two GraphQL types for your note-taking app. In the next step, you will create queries to fetch existing notes.

      Step 4 — Creating Queries for the Application

      Your GraphQL-powered API is gradually coming together. In this step you’ll create two queries; one to fetch a single note by id and another to fetch all notes. The GraphQL query type handles the fetching of data and can be likened to a GET request in REST.

      First, you’ll create a query to fetch all notes. To start, create a queries directory to house all queries:

      • mkdir ~/rails_graphql/app/graphql/queries

      In the app/graphql/queries directory, create a base_query.rb file from which all other query classes will inherit:

      • nano ~/rails_graphql/app/graphql/queries/base_query.rb

      Add the following code to the base_query.rb file to create a BaseQuery class that other query classes will inherit from:

      ~/rails_graphql/app/graphql/queries/base_query.rb

      module Queries
        class BaseQuery < GraphQL::Schema::Resolver
        end
      end
      

      In the base_query.rb file, you added a Queries::BaseQuery class that inherits from the GraphQL::Schema::Resolver class. The GraphQL::Schema::Resolver class is a container that can hold logic belonging to a field. It can be attached to a field with the resolver: keyword.

      The Queries::BaseQuery class can also contain any code you intend to reuse across multiple query classes.

      Next, create a fetch_notes.rb file in the queries directory. This file will hold the logic for fetching all existing notes, and will be attached to a field in the query type file:

      • nano ~/rails_graphql/app/graphql/queries/fetch_notes.rb

      Add the following code to the file to define the return object type and resolve the requested notes:

      ~/rails_graphql/app/graphql/queries/fetch_notes.rb

      module Queries
        class FetchNotes < Queries::BaseQuery
      
          type [Types::NoteType], null: false
      
          def resolve
            Note.all.order(created_at: :desc)
          end
        end
      end
      

      In the fetch_notes.rb file, you created a Queries::FetchNotes class that inherits the Queries::BaseQuery previously created. The class has a return type declaration that declares that the data returned by this query should be an array of the already created NoteType.

      The Queries::FetchNotes also contains a resolve method that returns an array of all existing notes sorted by their created date in descending order.

      The FetchNotes query is ready to receive and return requests for notes, but GraphQL is still unaware of its existence, to fix that, open the GraphQL query type file located at app/graphql/types/query_type.rb:

      • nano ~/rails_graphql/app/graphql/types/query_type.rb

      The query_type.rb file is the entry point for all GraphQL query types. It holds the query fields, and their respective resolver methods. Replace the sample code in the file with the following:

      ~/rails_graphql/app/graphql/types/query_type.rb

      module Types
        class QueryType < Types::BaseObject
          # Add root-level fields here.
          # They will be entry points for queries on your schema.
      
          field :fetch_notes, resolver: Queries::FetchNotes
        end
      end
      

      In the query_type.rb file, you added a fetch_notes field and attached it to the Queries::FetchNotes class using a resolver:. This way whenever the fetch_notes query is called, it executes the logic in the resolve method of the Queries::FetchNotes class.

      In order to test your query, you need some data to fetch, but you currently don’t have any notes in your database. You can fix that by adding some seed data to your database. Open the seeds.rb file located at db/seeds.rb:

      • nano ~/rails_graphql/db/seeds.rb

      Add the following code to the file to create five notes:

      ~/rails_graphql/db/seeds.rb

      5.times do |i|
        Note.create(title: "Note #{i + 1}", body: 'Lorem ipsum saves lives')
      end
      

      Save and close the file after adding the code.

      Open your project’s root directory in another terminal window and run the following command to run the code in the seed.rb file:

      This creates 5 notes in the database.

      With data in your database, and your development server running, navigate to localhost:3000/graphiql or http://your_server_ip:3000/graphiql in your browser to open your GraphiQL IDE. In the left side of the editor, type in the following query:

      query {
        fetchNotes {
          id
          title
          body
        }
      }
      

      This GraphQL query declares a query operation, indicating you want to make a query request. In the query operation, you called a fetchNotes field that matches the fetch_notes query field declared in the API, and included the fields on a note that you want to be returned in your response.

      Click the Play icon button in the header. You’ll see a response similar to the following in the output pane:

      {
        "data": {
          "fetchNotes": [
            {
              "id": "5",
              "title": "Note 5",
              "body": "Lorem ipsum saves lives"
            },
            {
              "id": "4",
              "title": "Note 4",
              "body": "Lorem ipsum saves lives"
            },
            {
              "id": "3",
              "title": "Note 3",
              "body": "Lorem ipsum saves lives"
            },
            {
              "id": "2",
              "title": "Note 2",
              "body": "Lorem ipsum saves lives"
            },
            {
              "id": "1",
              "title": "Note 1",
              "body": "Lorem ipsum saves lives"
            }
          ]
        }
      }
      

      The response contains an array of 5 notes that match the fields declared in the query on the left. If you remove some fields in the query on the left side of the editor and re-run the query, you get a response with only the fields you requested. That’s the power of GraphQL.

      Next, you’ll create another query to fetch notes by id. This query will be similar to the fetch_notes query, only that it’ll accept an id argument. Go ahead and create a fetch_note.rb file in the queries directory:

      • nano ~/rails_graphql/app/graphql/queries/fetch_note.rb

      Add the following code to the file to find and return a note with the provided id:

      ~/rails_graphql/app/graphql/queries/fetch_note.rb

      module Queries
        class FetchNote < Queries::BaseQuery
          type Types::NoteType, null: false
          argument :id, ID, required: true
      
          def resolve(id:)
            Note.find(id)
          rescue ActiveRecord::RecordNotFound => _e
            GraphQL::ExecutionError.new('Note does not exist.')
          rescue ActiveRecord::RecordInvalid => e
            GraphQL::ExecutionError.new("Invalid attributes for #{e.record.class}:"
              " #{e.record.errors.full_messages.join(', ')}")
          end
        end
      end
      

      This defines a Queries::FetchNote class that inherits from the Queries::BaseQuery class. This class not only returns a single item that must be of a NoteType, it also accepts an id argument with an ID type. The resolve method receives the provided id argument, then finds and returns a note with the provided id. If no note exists or an error occurs, it is rescued and returned as a GraphQL::ExecutionError.

      Next, you will attach the Queries::FetchNote class to a query field in the query type file. Open the query_type.rb file in your editor:

      • nano ~/rails_graphql/app/graphql/types/query_type.rb

      Add the following code to the file which defines a resolver for fetch_notes:

      ~/rails_graphql/app/graphql/types/query_type.rb

      module Types
        class QueryType < Types::BaseObject
          # Add root-level fields here.
          # They will be entry points for queries on your schema.
      
          field :fetch_notes, resolver: Queries::FetchNotes
          field :fetch_note, resolver: Queries::FetchNote
        end
      end
      

      To test your new query, ensure your server is running and navigate to localhost:3000/graphiql or http://your_server_ip:3000/graphiql in your browser to open your GraphiQL IDE. In the left side of the editor, type in the following query:

      query {
        fetchNote(id: 1) {
          id
          title
          body
        }
      }
      

      This query operation requests a fetchNote field, which corresponds to the fetch_note query field, and is passed an id argument. It specifies that we want three fields to be returned in the response.

      Run the query by clicking the Play icon button in the header. You will get a response like the following in the output pane:

      {
        "data": {
          "fetchNote": {
            "id": "1",
            "title": "Note 1",
            "body": "Lorem ipsum saves lives"
          }
        }
      }
      

      The response contains a single note that matches the requested id with fields matching the ones in the request.

      In this step, you created GraphQL queries to fetch notes from your API. Next you’ll write mutations to create notes.

      Step 5 — Creating GraphQL Mutations to Modify Notes

      In addition to queries, GraphQL also defines a mutation type for operations that modify server-side data. Just as REST provides POST, PUT, PATCH, and DELETE requests for creating, updating and deleting resources, GraphQL’s mutation type defines a convention for operations that cause writes on the server-side. In this step, you’ll create a mutation for adding new notes.

      graphQL-ruby includes two classes for writing mutations. They are:

      • GraphQL::Schema::Mutation: This is the generic base class for writing mutations. If you don’t want an input argument required in your mutations, you should use this class.
      • GraphQL::Schema::RelayClassicMutation: This is a base class with some conventions; an argument called clientMutationId that is always inserted to the response, and mutations that accepts one argument called input. This class is used by default when you use the install generator to add boilerplate GraphQL files to your project.

      Create an add_note.rb file in the mutations directory located at app/graphql/mutations:

      • nano ~/rails_graphql/app/graphql/mutations/add_note.rb

      Add the following code to the file to define the mutation for adding new notes:

      ~/rails_graphql/app/graphql/mutations/add_note.rb

      module Mutations
        class AddNote < Mutations::BaseMutation
          argument :params, Types::Input::NoteInputType, required: true
      
          field :note, Types::NoteType, null: false
      
          def resolve(params:)
            note_params = Hash params
      
            begin
              note = Note.create!(note_params)
      
              { note: note }
            rescue ActiveRecord::RecordInvalid => e
              GraphQL::ExecutionError.new("Invalid attributes for #{e.record.class}:"
                " #{e.record.errors.full_messages.join(', ')}")
            end
          end
        end
      end
      

      This defines a Mutations::AddNote class that inherits from the Mutations::BaseMutation class, which is one of the classes created when you ran the install generator while installing the GraphQL-Ruby gem. The Mutations::AddNote class receives an argument with the name params and a type of NoteInputType, which you created in Step 3. It also returns a field called note that must be a non-null NoteType type.

      The resolve method of the class receives the params and converts it to a hash which it uses to create and return a new hash containing the new note. If there’s an error while creating the note, the error is rescued and returned as a GraphQL::ExecutionError.

      Note: The resolve method in a mutation must return a hash whose symbol matches the field names.

      Like with queries, the Mutations::AddNote mutation has to be attached to a mutation field using the mutation: keyword.

      Open the mutation type file located at app/graphql/types/mutation_type.rb in your editor:

      • nano ~/rails_graphql/app/graphql/types/mutation_type.rb

      Replace the code in the file with the following code, which adds a field for the add_note with its corresponding mutation class:

      ~/rails_graphql/app/graphql/types/mutation_type.rb

      module Types
        class MutationType < Types::BaseObject
          field :add_note, mutation: Mutations::AddNote
        end
      end
      

      In this code, you added an add_note field to the mutation type file and attached it to the Mutations::AddNote class using the mutation: keyword. When the add_note mutation is called, it runs the code in the resolve method of the Mutations::AddNote class.

      To test your new mutation, navigate to localhost:3000/graphiql or http://your_server_ip:3000/graphiql in your browser to open your GraphiQL IDE. In the left side of the editor, type in the following query:

      mutation {
        addNote(input: { params: { title: "GraphQL notes", body: "A long body of text about GraphQL"  }}) {
          note {
            id
            title
            body
          }
        }
      }
      

      This declares a mutation operation with an addNote field that accepts a single input argument, which in turn accepts a param object with keys that match the NoteInputType. The mutation operation also includes a note field that matches the note field returned by the Mutations::AddNote class.

      Run the mutation in GraphiQL and you’ll see the following results in the output pane:

      {
        "data": {
          "addNote": {
            "note": {
              "id": "6",
              "title": "GraphQL notes",
              "body": "A long body of text about GraphQL"
            }
          }
        }
      }
      

      The response returned is the newly created note with the fields requested in the mutation request.

      With your add_note mutation now working, your API can fetch and create notes using GraphQL queries and mutations.

      Conclusion

      In this tutorial, you created a note-taking API application with Ruby on Rails using PostgreSQL as your database and GraphQL as your API query language. You can learn more about GraphQL on its official website. The GraphQL-Ruby gem website also contains some guides to help you work with GraphQL in Rails.



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