Add an Interface to a GraphQL Schema

[00:00] Currently in our GraphQL schema, we have a video type. This video type has a field called ID. This field is of type GraphQL ID and it's interesting, because if we were to add another type to our GraphQL schema, such as an instructor type, we might also want that instructor type to have the same field.

[00:22] When we want to describe a set of possible fields that a type could have, we would use something called a GraphQL interface type. To create this interface, let's go and create a Node.js file inside of source/node.js.

[00:39] Next, we'll open that file and start importing a couple of things. First, we'll make sure to grab a GraphQL interface type since we are creating an interface.

[00:49] We'll also grab GraphQL a non-null and GraphQL ID to describe the ID field on this interface. Then, we'll just require all of these from the GraphQL package.

[01:02] Next up, we'll define our actual interface, which we're calling "Node Interface," and this is just a new GraphQL interface type. Inside of the constructor, we can give it a name, in this case Node.

[01:14] Then, we'll also describe all of the fields that are available on types that use this interface, in this case, we will define ID. The type of this ID will be a new GraphQL non-null GraphQL ID. The last thing that we're going to do is just export our interface using module to export, and then passing in Node interface.

[01:42] Now, we can switch back into our index.js file and import this Node interface at the bottom of our definitions here. We'll do, "Const nodeinterface=require," and then, we'll pass in /source/node.

[01:58] Now, we can go find our video type which is down here, and we can add in our interfaces at the bottom of the definition here. We'll say interfaces and pass in an array.

[02:09] We'll just add in that Node interface as the first part of that array of interfaces. The goal for this interface is to be able to use it anytime we have shared fields between types.

[02:23] Say, we were defining an instructor type which would be a new GraphQL object type. Then inside of here, we knew that the fields for this would also contain this ID field, as well.

[02:37] Since we're sharing these fields, we would also add the interfaces array once again and pass in the Node interface as the first element of that array.

[02:48] This is guaranteeing that these two types that share the same fields now have a common interface that they both implement. Let's get rid of this instructor type, since we are not actually using it and try and run our current server using Node index.js.

[03:06] What we get is actually an error, because our interface type Node doesn't actually provide a way for that interface to know what type it's working with when we're trying to resolve that field.

[03:19] Let's go and fix this error by switching back into our text editor of choice, and then going to source/node.js. Inside of here, we're going to add a method called Result type. This is going to be a function that takes in an object.

[03:34] What we're going to do is check to see if this object has a title, then we're going to return video type. We'll import that in a second, otherwise, we don't know what type it is, we'll just return null.

[03:48] To get this video type, we need to make sure that we're exporting it. Inside of index.js at the end of our video type definition, and it's going to do exports.videotype=videotype.

[04:00] Then, we'll switch back into Node.js and import at the top. Const videotype is going to be equal to require, and then, we'll just put in the path to the index.js file.

[04:19] Now that we've imported our video type and we've made sure to add a resolve type method, let's go and try to rerun our server to see if there's any more issues.

[04:28] We'll do Node index.js. We see that we have a new error here, but here, we're just saying that node.id is expecting the non-null GraphQL ID type, but what we're putting in the video type right now is just a GraphQL ID. This is just saying that our given type video is not actually following the interface that it is implementing.

[04:52] To fix this, let's hop back into our index.js file and instead of saying that the video type has a field that just has a type for GraphQL ID. We're going to say, "New GraphQL non-null," to make sure that it matches our interface. We'll pass in GraphQL ID.

[05:10] Now with this new type definition, let's go back to our server and try and run it. It looks like we're good to go.