Re: Interesting blog post: GraphQL and REST

On 28 June 2015 at 22:54, Markus Lanthaler <markus.lanthaler@gmx.net> wrote:

> On Sunday, June 28, 2015 9:44 PM, Martijn Faassen wrote:
> > On Sunday, June 28, 2015 9:11 PM, Melvin Carvalho wrote:
> >> On 28 June 2015 at 18:50, Markus Lanthaler wrote:
> >>> I just stumbled across an interesting blog post about GraphQL and REST
> by
> >>> Martijn. Some of you might be interested in reading it as well:
> >>>
> >>>   http://blog.startifact.com/posts/graphql-and-rest.html
> >>>
> >>> With JSON-LD, Hydra and Linked Data Fragments it should be possible to
> come
> >>> up with something quite similar without having to expose an overly
> >>> expressive query execution service on the server side.
> >>>
> >>> The key point here IMO is, however, that more and more people start to
> >>> explore graphs without giving up a tree-structured data serialization
> >>> client-side. This matches very well what we have been doing with
> JSON-LD and
> >>> Hydra.
> >>
> >> This seems to be a slightly negative piece towards facebook.
> >
> > I did not intend to be negative towards Facebook in general. I just
> > give some mild criticism to their recent practice (and not only their
> > practice, see Netflix and Falcor) to announce open source software
> > ahead of time.
>
> That's how I read it... and the interesting part isn't the first three
> paragraphs anyway :-)
>
>
> > Discussing something properly without having access to
> > the details is awkward, and I gave expression to that. It was not my
> > main point though. Glad to hear Facebook is good at sharing linked
> > data!
>
> >> To their credit, Facebook are pretty much the only system that give
> >> back 5 star linked data, via the open graph.
>
> Yep, no one critized that. I'm actually surprised that they didn't turn
> off that feature yet that was written by an intern (AFAIK) a couple of
> years ago and that is probably used very very few people.
>

Dont knock interns!  I use this feature, at least.Bradfitz at your company
google promised to have machine readable profiles in FOAF available.  That
still hasnt happened.  So a mere intern has created 1.4 billion linked data
profiles, where other companies have been left behind.  If you think
turning off a billion LD profiles is a good idea, id suggest you've not
really considered all the possibilities of unexpected reuse.


>
>
> >> In general, the JSON LD, Hydra etc. stuff doesnt do that, and that's
> >> not looking like changing anytime soon.
>
> What is JSON-LD and Hydra not doing?
>

Producing 5 star linked data for profiles, in the extended JSON LD / Hydra
eco systems.  If im wrong, can you point me to some, or even one?


>
>
> >> Should the query language be RESTful?  Probably yes, tho isnt this
> >> similar to using SPARQL over GET?
>
> A query language can't be "RESTful" but that's beside the point. The
> interface might, depending on how you look at it, look similar to SPARQL
> over GET.
>

OK, makes sense.  I probably didnt phrase that very well.  I was thinking
about quersies that go sparql?query=... with GET potentially being useful
(if long) URIs.


>
>
> >> IMHO, it's not of great utility, to design a RESTful query language
> >> using LD, Hydra and LDF, when then underlying profiles, are not 5 star
> >> LD.
>
> Sorry, I don't follow.
>
>
> > PS Markus, glad you found it of interest!
>
> I found it a very interesting read and analysis and am, just as you
> probably are, very curious how Facebook actually implemented Relay/GraphQL.
>
>
>
> --
> Markus Lanthaler
> @markuslanthaler
>
>
>
>
>