Null and omitted attributes in InputObjects about graphql-js

[will-weiss]

Perhaps you could accomplish this using

UpdateToDoMutation = new GraphQLObjectType
  type: ToDo
  args:
    id:    type: new GraphQLNonNull GraphQLID
    set: type: ToDoInput
    unset: type: new GraphQLList(GraphQLString)
  resolve: (root, args)->   # ...

then you could write:

mutation M {
  updateToDo(id: 3, set: {whatToDo: 'whatever'}, unset: ['assignee'] { ... }
}

achieving the desired goal within the bounds of the language specification.

[leebyron]

The primary issue here is that most environments do not distinguish between null and undefined in the way JavaScript does. Since GraphQL is designed to be a thin layer atop many different environments, we can't always support the distinction.

I think @will-weiss's suggestion is closer to what you want. To explicitly declare the things you are removing in a mutation.

[leebyron]

One change that I can make that should make working with APIs that treat null specially is to also omit the not set object properties on the internal value.

[guigrpa]

Yes, the workaround is really nice. I got it going without problems, thanks a lot for the idea. Regarding the reason behind the spec, I understand better now - but it's a pity I can't use a cleaner API considering that I have JS on both client and server.

On Tue, Aug 11, 2015 at 10:23 PM, Lee Byron [email protected]
wrote:

One change that I can make that should make working with APIs that treat null specially is to also omit the not set object properties on the internal value.

Reply to this email directly or view it on GitHub:
#112 (comment)

[leebyron]

2734d01 and 44c9daf implement the change that omits properties from arguments and input objects that were not provided, rather than their previous behavior of being set to null.

Hopefully this change will help when being paired with APIs which treat null differently from undefined.

[leebyron]

These changes will go out in the next version release.