In a recent Claris Beyond Meetup, Jacob Carr with Portage Bay Solutions reviewed GraphQL, a query language for APIs and a runtime for fulfilling those queries with your existing data.
What is GraphQL?
GraphQL is a modern query language and runtime for APIs that lets you request exactly the data you need—and nothing more.
Instead of having multiple endpoints, GraphQL uses a single endpoint where you send structured queries that describe the data you want. The server responds with only the fields you asked for.
How does it help?
GraphQL provides a complete and understandable description of the data in your API, gives clients the power to ask for exactly what they need and nothing more, makes it easier to evolve APIs over time, and enables powerful developer tools.
In this session, Jacob explores how GraphQL differs from REST, how it avoids over-fetching and under-fetching, and what it looks like to implement GraphQL requests directly in FileMaker using Insert from URL.
He demonstrates how to use GraphQL’s schema-driven approach to build smarter, self-documenting queries and even walked through a live demo connecting FileMaker to a public API.
You’ll hear about:
- How GraphQL compares to REST and why major APIs are adopting it
- Building and testing queries in GraphiQL and Postman
- Running GraphQL requests from FileMaker using JSON
- Handling variables, aliases, and fragments for flexible query results
- How Shopify, GitHub, and other modern APIs leverage GraphQL
Learn about integrations monthly through the Claris Beyond Meetup
Stay tuned for upcoming meetups as we continue exploring modern tools that connect FileMaker to the broader web ecosystem. Next up – Square Terminal API: Taking Payments in FileMaker.