apollo-server

Apollo Server 5.x Guide

Apollo Server is an open-source GraphQL server that works with any GraphQL schema. Apollo Server 5 is framework-agnostic and runs standalone or integrates with Express, Fastify, and serverless environments.

Quick Start

Step 1: Install

npm install @apollo/server graphql

For Express integration:

npm install @apollo/server @as-integrations/express5 express graphql cors

Step 2: Define Schema

const typeDefs = `#graphql
  type Book {
    title: String
    author: String
  }

  type Query {
    books: [Book]
  }
`;

Step 3: Write Resolvers

const resolvers = {
  Query: {
    books: () => [
      { title: "The Great Gatsby", author: "F. Scott Fitzgerald" },
      { title: "1984", author: "George Orwell" },
    ],
  },
};

Step 4: Start Server

Standalone (Recommended for prototyping):

The standalone server is great for prototyping, but for production services, we recommend integrating Apollo Server with a more fully-featured web framework such as Express, Koa, or Fastify. Swapping from the standalone server to a web framework later is straightforward.

import { ApolloServer } from "@apollo/server";
import { startStandaloneServer } from "@apollo/server/standalone";

const server = new ApolloServer({ typeDefs, resolvers });

const { url } = await startStandaloneServer(server, {
  listen: { port: 4000 },
});

console.log(`Server ready at ${url}`);

Express:

import { ApolloServer } from "@apollo/server";
import { expressMiddleware } from "@as-integrations/express5";
import { ApolloServerPluginDrainHttpServer } from "@apollo/server/plugin/drainHttpServer";
import express from "express";
import http from "http";
import cors from "cors";

const app = express();
const httpServer = http.createServer(app);

const server = new ApolloServer({
  typeDefs,
  resolvers,
  plugins: [ApolloServerPluginDrainHttpServer({ httpServer })],
});

await server.start();

app.use(
  "/graphql",
  cors(),
  express.json(),
  expressMiddleware(server, {
    context: async ({ req }) => ({ token: req.headers.authorization }),
  }),
);

await new Promise<void>((resolve) => httpServer.listen({ port: 4000 }, resolve));
console.log("Server ready at http://localhost:4000/graphql");