Objects¶

A schema object defines a single type of data that may be queried. This is often a mapping from data obtained from a database or other external store and exposed by GraphQL.

GraphQL supports objects, interfaces, unions, and enums.

A simple object defines a set of fields, each with a specific type. Object definitions are under the :objects key of the schema.

{:objects
 {:Product
  {:fields {:id {:type ID}
            :name {:type String}
            :sku {:type String}
            :keywords {:type (list String)}}}}}

This defines a schema containing only a single schema object [1], Product, with four fields:

id - an identifier
name - a string
sku - a string
keyword - a list of strings

Field Definitions¶

An object definition contains a :fields key, whose value is a map from field name to field definition. Field names are keywords.

Interface Implementations¶

An object may implement zero or more interfaces. This is described using the :implements key, whose value is a list of keywords identifying interfaces.

Objects can only implement interfaces: there’s no concept of inheritance from other objects.

An object definition must include all the fields from all implemented interfaces; failure to do so will cause an exception to be thrown when the schema is compiled.

In some cases, a field defined in an object may be more specific than a field from an inherited interface; for example, the field type in the interface may itself be an interface; the field type in the object must be that exact interface or an object that implements that interface.

In our Star Wars themed example schema, we see that the :Character interface defines the :friends field as type (list :Character). So, in the generic case, the friends of a character can be either Humans or Droids.

Perhaps in a darker version of the Star Wars universe, Humans can not be friends with Droids. In that case, the :friends field of the :Human object would be type (list :Human) rather than the more egalitarian (list :Character). This appears to be a type conflict, as the type of the :friends field differs between :Human and :Character

In fact, this does not violate type constraints, because a Human is always a Character.

Object Description¶

An object definition may include a :description key; the value is a string exposed through Introspection.

When an object implement an interface, it may omit the :description of inherited fields, and on arguments of inherited fields to inherit the description from the interface.

[1]	A schema that fails to define either queries or mutations is useful only as an example.