Graphiql: Variables Object wrapped in double quotes

Created on 9 May 2016 · 6Comments · Source: graphql/graphiql

According to the GraphQL spec, the variables key in the body should be sent as an Object.
GraphiQL client sends this as a string which can cause unexpected behaviour on other GraphQL servers which follow the spec.

operationName:"getFilms"
query:"query getFilms($first: Int){↵  allFilms(first: $first) {↵    edges {↵      node {↵        id↵        title↵      }↵    }↵  }↵}↵"
variables:"{"first": 2}"

Source

WilliamHolmes

👍2

Most helpful comment

The official graphql website states that the variables should be json object: http://graphql.org/learn/serving-over-http/#post-request

psurrey on 20 Oct 2016

👍2 🚀1

All 6 comments

:bump:

WilliamHolmes on 7 Jul 2016

Just curious, what's the alternative to strings when sending data over HTTP? How _should_ it be sent?

In Ruby, I parse the incoming value like this:

variables_string = params["variables"]
# => "{\"first\": 2}"
variables_hash = JSON.parse(variables_string)
# => { "first" => 2 }

Would that work in the above case?

rmosolgo on 7 Jul 2016

Hi @WilliamHolmes, I'm not sure if I understand your question - could I ask you for more information? I'm looking through the specification document and am not seeing anything that mentions in which type variables should be passed in as. What's the unexpected behavior you're having trouble with?

asiandrummer on 19 Jul 2016

Closing this aging issue.

For some context - there really many other ways to provide this information to a web service. Get & Post data typically expects a set of keyed strings.

Also, there is no spec for GraphQL servers, however best practices are encoded in the behavior of express-graphql.

Also note that GraphiQL is just a UI element and intentionally requires you to provide your own "fetcher" to handle the network. You absolutely don't have to copy the one from the example in this repo, you can format the request to your server however your server requires it.