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The Daily Insight

What is GraphQL playground

Author

Emily Dawson

Published Mar 19, 2026

GraphQL Playground is a graphical, interactive, in-browser GraphQL IDE, created by Prisma and based on GraphiQL. In development, Apollo Server enables GraphQL Playground on the same URL as the GraphQL server itself (e.g. ) and automatically serves the GUI to web browsers.

What happened to GraphQL playground?

Note: The GraphQL Playground project has been retired. Apollo Server provides an integration with GraphQL Playground to help developers migrate from Apollo Server 2 with as few changes as possible, but we do not recommend long-term use of this unmaintained project.

How do you access the playground in GraphQL?

The GraphQL Playground is an interactive UI where you can build and test queries you want to send to the catalogue API. You can access the GraphQL Playground by opening the API URL in your web browser.

How do I create a playground in GraphQL?

To embed the tool on Express, we need to install the graphql-playground-middleware-express package and use it as middleware for the API. First, init a new Node project. Next, run the following command on the terminal to install the package. Once the library is installed, create an entry file for your server.

What exactly is GraphQL?

GraphQL is a query language and server-side runtime for application programming interfaces (APIs) that prioritizes giving clients exactly the data they request and no more. GraphQL is designed to make APIs fast, flexible, and developer-friendly.

What is GraphQL schema?

A GraphQL schema is a description of the data clients can request from a GraphQL API. It also defines the queries and mutation functions that the client can use to read and write data from the GraphQL server. In other words, you specify your client or application UI data requirements in your GraphQL schema.

How do I open UI in GraphQL?

  1. fetch(‘/graphql’, {
  2. method: ‘POST’,
  3. headers: {
  4. ‘Content-Type’: ‘application/json’,
  5. ‘Accept’: ‘application/json’,
  6. },
  7. body: JSON. stringify({query: “{ hello }”})
  8. })

What is GraphQL introspection?

GraphQL introspection enables you to query a GraphQL server for information about the underlying schema. This includes data like types, fields, queries, mutations, and even the field-level descriptions.

How do I add a schema to my postman in GraphQL?

  1. Go to the APIs tab in Postman.
  2. Click + New API.
  3. Name your API.
  4. Make sure you’re in the Define tab.
  5. Select GraphQL as your spec from the dropdown menu.
  6. Add your schema and save.
  7. Head back over to the Collections tab.
  8. Attach your schema by selecting it from the drop-down menu.
How do I disable playground in GraphQL?

GraphQL Playground You can disable it if you want in the configuration: # api/config/packages/api_platform. yaml api_platform: graphql: graphql_playground: enabled: false # …

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How do you write a query in a playground?

Prototype your query in GraphQL Playground Click on the launches query at the top for details about it. In the right panel, you see both the query itself and information about what the query returns. You can use this information to write a query you will eventually add to your app.

How do I open GraphiQL?

How to use GraphiQL. When the development server is running for one of your Gatsby sites, open GraphiQL at and play with your data! Press Ctrl + Space (or use Shift + Space as an alternate keyboard shortcut) to bring up the autocomplete window and Ctrl + Enter to run the GraphQL query.

What is mutation in GraphQL?

Mutation queries modify data in the data store and returns a value. … It can be used to insert, update, or delete data. Mutations are defined as a part of the schema.

What is GraphQL useful for?

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.

What are the 2 most common actions in GraphQL?

  • Query action: An action of type query extends the query root of the Hasura schema. This means that you can execute this action through a GraphQL query. …
  • Mutation action: An action of type mutation extends the mutation root of the Hasura schema.

Is GraphQL free?

Another GraphQL backend as a service, which also has a free plan. It offers a lot of the same features as Graphcool.

What is AppSync AWS?

AWS AppSync is a new service in Public Preview that enables you to manage and update mobile app data in real-time between devices and the cloud, and allows apps to interact with the data on the mobile device when it is offline.

What is PostGraphile?

PostGraphile automatically detects tables, columns, indexes, relationships, views, types, functions, comments, and more — providing a GraphQL server that is highly intelligent about your data, and that automatically updates itself without restarting when you modify your database.

What is executable schema?

makeExecutableSchema combines schema and resolvers to make executable schema. It’s part of a graphql-tools package that makes it easier to use the schema language while also writing resolvers. So you define types and resolvers and pass them to makeExecutableSchema .

How do you define resolvers in GraphQL?

A resolver is a function that resolves a value for a type or field in a schema. Resolvers can return objects or scalars like Strings, Numbers, Booleans, etc. If an Object is returned, execution continues to the next child field. If a scalar is returned (typically at a leaf node), execution completes.

What are GraphQL types?

  • Int : A signed 32‐bit integer.
  • Float : A signed double-precision floating-point value.
  • String : A UTF‐8 character sequence.
  • Boolean : true or false .

Can I test GraphQL with Postman?

We can easily test GraphQL using Postman, which also allows us to import the schema and generate queries for it. A collection of requests can be found over on GitHub.

Which is better insomnia or Postman?

Insomnia provides access to raw HTTP traffic log through UI. With Postman, it’s much trickier, you need to have Postman DevTools Console opened when making request. … But Postman is more powerful here. You can run all requests in a collection as a whole.

How do I add a schema to my Postman?

  1. Select APIs in the left sidebar, then select + to create a new API.
  2. Enter a name and version for your API.
  3. Choose GraphQL from the Schema type dropdown list.
  4. Choose either JSON or GraphQL SDL from the Schema Format dropdown list. …
  5. Select Create API.

What is GraphQL schema JSON?

Apollo iOS requires a GraphQL schema file as input to the code generation process. A schema file is a JSON file that contains the results of an introspection query. Conventionally this file is called schema. json , and you store it next to the . graphql files in your target.

What is schema introspection?

Introspection is the ability to query which resources are available in the current API schema. Given the API, via introspection, we can see the queries, types, fields, and directives it supports.

How do I find my schema in GraphQL?

The easiest way to get a GraphQL schema is using the CLI tool get-graphql-schema. There are two ways to get your schema. 1) GraphQL IDL format or 2) JSON introspection query format.

How is GraphQL different from rest?

GraphQL architecture is client-driven and Rest is server-driven. GraphQL organized in terms of schema and type system and Rest is endpoints. … GraphQL data fetching specific data with a single API call and Rest fixed data with multiple API calls. GraphQL community is growing and Rest are Large.

What does set cookie do?

The Set-Cookie HTTP response header is used to send a cookie from the server to the user agent, so that the user agent can send it back to the server later. To send multiple cookies, multiple Set-Cookie headers should be sent in the same response.

What is Gatsby used for?

Gatsby is an open-source static website generator (SSG) that is based on the frontend development framework React and makes use of Webpack and GraphQL technology. It can be used to build static sites that are progressive web apps, follow the latest web standards, and optimized for speed and security.

What is difference between GraphQL and GraphiQL?

Developers describe GraphiQL as “An in-browser IDE for exploring GraphQL”. An in-browser IDE for exploring GraphQL. On the other hand, GraphQL is detailed as “A data query language and runtime”.