What is the difference between graphql-dotnet/graphql-dotnet/ and graphql-dotnet/server/

Question

Good morning.

I am a bit confused about these two repositories(graphql-dotnet/graphql-dotnet/ and graphql-dotnet/server/).

https://github.com/graphql-dotnet/graphql-dotnet/ and https://github.com/graphql-dotnet/server

They are both under the same organization and there is some overlap of contributors, but I'm a bit lost about deciding which one to use.

I would like to build a dotnet 5 application that hosts a graphql endpoint. In a nutshell that is my goal.

I noticed that the graphql-dotnet/server/repository has inbuilt some helpers such as.

 serviceCollection
                    .AddGraphQL((options, provider) =>
                    {
                        options.EnableMetrics = HostEnvironment.IsDevelopment();
                        var logger = provider.GetRequiredService<ILogger<Startup>>();
                        options.UnhandledExceptionDelegate = ctx => logger.LogError("{Error} occurred", ctx.OriginalException.Message);
                    })
                    .AddSystemTextJson()
                    .AddErrorInfoProvider(opt => opt.ExposeExceptionStackTrace = HostEnvironment.IsDevelopment())
                    .AddWebSockets() 
                    .AddDataLoader() 
                    .AddGraphTypes(typeof(ApplicationSchema))

Which allows my DI to be setup nice and easy. Its counterpart, the graphql-dotnet/graphql-dotnet/ does not.

So my question is "which one should I use exclusivly? Which one is recomended, by secondary goals are to add jwt authentication and finally federation support. But those two are far down the line.

One of my coworkers went ahead and used graphql-dotnet/graphql-dotnet/ and his server application has a lot more configuration than the documentation of graphql-dotnet/server/ so how do I know which one do I use?

Can any one recommend any documentation that highlights the difference between the two of them?

Answer 1

The main graphql-dotnet repo is the "core" library of GraphQL components. The server repo contains ASP.NET specific extensions. It uses the core library. If you use the server project, you are also using the core library.

GraphQL itself can be used with any protocol, it is not required to be used with HTTP or JSON. So the core library does not have any HTTP or ASP.NET dependencies.

If you are using ASP.NET, then the server project is the quickest way to get started. If you want to use Subscriptions, then the server project provides that functionality.

If you don't need subscriptions and if you want a bit more control over how the framework handles the HTTP request, then it would be easier to write your own controller or middleware.

Using JWT authentication is handled by ASP.NET and can be used in either scenario. Federation can also be used in either scenario.