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Introduction to GraphQL

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Anatomy of a Mutation

1:38 with Isaac Lee Morris

In this video, we will go over the different parts that make up a GraphQL mutation, before diving into each one in more detail in the videos that follow.

New Terms:

  • Mutation - A special kind of GraphQL query that causes changes to the data available on the backend

You might be wondering why we need a different declaration keyword for mutations; this basically allows us to optionally optimize our backend, since we know that unlike mutations, queries only retrieve information, and won’t cause any side effects.

Further Reading:

Tutorial: Getting started with GraphQL queries and mutations, by Tim Lucas

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    [MUSIC] 0:00
    You've learned how to get data you want from a GraphQL backend, but 0:04
    what about when you want to make changes? 0:08
    That's where mutations come in. 0:11
    In this stage, you'll be learning how to write mutations that will modify our data. 0:14
    We'll start by going over the components that make up a mutation. 0:19
    Just like a query, mutations are composed of three parts, the declaration, 0:23
    the endpoint and the response fields. 0:28
    The only component that really differs here is the declaration. 0:31
    With a mutation, we use the mutation keyword instead of query. 0:34
    This tells graph QL that we're gonna be changing something instead of just 0:39
    retrieving something. 0:43
    The format will use for calling the endpoint and 0:45
    specifying the response fields remains the same. 0:48
    Just like in a query, we specify which endpoint we'd like to call 0:51
    in the curly braces following the mutation declaration. 0:56
    In this case, we're calling the createMovie endpoint, 1:00
    which will create a new movie with the fields we enter. 1:04
    Even though we're sending data, 1:07
    we're still interested in shaping our response to the format that we need. 1:09
    With a query, we specify the fields we want returned 1:14
    in the curly braces following the endpoint name. 1:17
    So that's the basic anatomy of a mutation. 1:21
    As you can see, mutations bear a lot in common with queries, the only significant 1:24
    difference being that mutations always change some piece of data. 1:29
    In the next video, you'll get to write your first mutation using scalar types. 1:33

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