SQL is a better API language than GraphQL. Convince me otherwise!
To counter some obvious arguments...
You don't have to expose your entire schema, instead expose carefully designed SQL views (so you can refactor your tables without breaking your API)
Read-only, obviously!
Use time limits to cut off expensive queries (GraphQL needs this too)
You don't have to expose your entire schema, instead expose carefully designed SQL views (so you can refactor your tables without breaking your API)
Read-only, obviously!
Use time limits to cut off expensive queries (GraphQL needs this too)
(I haven't quite convinced myself yet that SQL is a great language for update APIs, but I'm working on it)
This thread partly inspired by comparing my SQL-based Covid-19 data API with some GraphQL equivalents covid-19.datasettes.com/covid.json?sql…
Fun story: I wrote a documentation search engine for work that constructed SQL statements /in client-side JavaScript/ and sent them to Datasette.
I genuinely did this as a joke, to wind up other developers with network tools traces.
But it worked great! Fast, maintainable, fun.
I genuinely did this as a joke, to wind up other developers with network tools traces.
But it worked great! Fast, maintainable, fun.
And it had "facet by emoji" which worked by constructing SQL statements in JavaScript with emoji characters in them and the sending them over HTTP. Those network panel requests were particularly delightful.
Facet by emoji!
In further emoji-in-your-SQL news, I use the 🐺 emoji every time I checkin with @Cleopaws on Swarm, so now I can plot her favourite places on a map with a SQL query! (using github.com/dogsheep/swarm…) 
Some good discussion on the benefits of GraphQL compared to SQL in this conversation two years ago:
I think this mini-thread is the best response so far
Oh crikey this ended up on Hacker News news.ycombinator.com/item?id=228929…
Here's a tutorial I wrote about using SQL in client-side JavaScript for @24ways in December 2018 24ways.org/2018/fast-auto…
And if SQL-in-your-JavaScript isn't enough for you, how about some jq-in-your-SQL-in-your-JavaScript: github.com/simonw/dataset…
