Support for query batching

[cameronk]

Some GraphQL servers, such as Graphcool, allow the client to batch multiple queries/mutations into one HTTP request by sending an array of GraphQL request objects ({ query, variables }) in the request body.

Given the current implementation I can see two ways of doing this:

1. Modify GraphQLClient.request to accept both standard arguments (query, variables) and an array of request objects
2. Create a new method (something like GraphQLClient.batchRequest) that only accepts an array of request objects

I'd be interested to see how error handling would work for batch requests - would an error be thrown for the whole batch request if any one of its child queries/mutations returned an error?

[schickling]

I remember @RomanGotsiy to bring up a similar idea. Let's discuss this here to see whether it should be part of graphql-request.

[lewisblackwood]

I'd be really interested to find out what's recommended here.

My current scenario is hitting a third party API in a Lambda, retrieving multiple resources, and then wanting to use a batched mutation to create several records in graphcool with graphql-request.

Right now, I'm using string interpolation with template literals to build my request.

I see that the Apollo team don't recommend that.

Is there a better way to do this, passing an array of request objects to graphql-request?

[schickling]

Yes, this sounds like a very common scenario. I'm getting more and more convinced that query batching should be part of graphql-request. It most likely will require a new API design, so I'll line it up for the 2.0 release.

[peterpme]

I needed to extend graphql-request myself and ported it into its own library: https://github.com/Preposterous/graphql-batching-helpers

It gets the job done but could definitely be more feature-rich

[flybayer]

I'd also love to have batching support!

[darren128]

@schickling Is this going to be a part of 2.0? I can help with the feature if needed, this would be a huge win.

[darren128]

@schickling I'd still be willing to submit a PR for this feature if someone is willing to review it.

[pyramation]

@darren128 I'll help review, I'm not an official contributor, but the feature would be great and I'm sure we'd all appreciate a PR for this :)

[darren128]

@pyramation Sounds good, I'll put something together then.

[kuksik]

this feature will be very useful

[jasonkuhrt]

The GraphQL spec already allows in theory sending whole graphql documents with multiple operations therein.

It should be relatively simple to make the client able to incrementally define a document to send.

PRs welcome.