Development

So, you want to hack on GraphQL Ruby! Here are some tips for getting started.

• Setup your development environment
• Run the tests to verify your setup
• Debug with pry
• Run the benchmarks to test performance in your environment
• Coding guidelines for working on your contribution
• Special tools for building the lexer and parser
• Building and publishing the GraphQL Ruby website
• Versioning describes how changes are managed and released
• Releasing Gem versions

Setup

Get your own copy of graphql-ruby by forking rmosolgo/graphql-ruby on GitHub and cloning your fork.

Then, install the dependencies:

• Install SQLite3 and MongoDB (eg, brew install sqlite && brew tap mongodb/brew && brew install mongodb-community)
• bundle install
• rake compile # If you get warnings at this step, you can ignore them.
• Optional: Ragel is required to build the lexer

Running the Tests

Unit tests

You can run the tests with

bundle exec rake        # tests & Rubocop
bundle exec rake test   # tests only

You can run a specific file with TEST=:

bundle exec rake test TEST=spec/graphql/query_spec.rb
# run tests in `query_spec.rb` only

You can focus on a specific example with focus:

focus
it "does something cool" do
  # ...
end

Then, only focused tests will run:

bundle exec rake test
# only the focused test will be run

(This is provided by minitest-focus.)

Integration tests

You need to pick a specific gemfile from gemfiles/ to run integration tests. For example:

BUNDLE_GEMFILE=gemfiles/rails_6.1.gemfile bundle install
BUNDLE_GEMFILE=gemfiles/rails_6.1.gemfile bundle exec rake test TEST=spec/integration/rails/graphql/relay/array_connection_spec.rb

GraphQL-CParser tests

To test the graphql_cparser gem, you have to build the binary first:

bundle exec rake build_ext

Then, run the test suite with GRAPHQL_CPARSER=1:

GRAPHQL_CPARSER=1 bundle exec rake test

(Add TEST= to pick a certain file.)

Other tests

There are system tests for checking ActionCable behavior, use:

bundle exec rake test:system

And JavaScript tests:

bundle exec rake test:js

Gemfiles, Gemfiles, Gemfiles

graphql-ruby has several gemfiles to ensure support for various Rails versions. You can specify a gemfile with BUNDLE_GEMFILE, eg:

BUNDLE_GEMFILE=gemfiles/rails_5.gemfile bundle exec rake test

Debugging with Pry

pry is included with GraphQL-Ruby’s development setup to help with debugging.

To pause execution in Ruby code, add:

binding.pry

Then, the program will pause and your terminal will become a Ruby REPL. Feel free to use pry in your development process!

Running the Benchmarks

This project includes some Rake tasks to record benchmarks:

$ bundle exec rake -T | grep bench:
rake bench:profile         # Generate a profile of the introspection query
rake bench:query           # Benchmark the introspection query
rake bench:validate        # Benchmark validation of several queries

You can save results by sending the output into a file:

$ bundle exec rake bench:validate > before.txt
$ cat before.txt
# ...
# --> benchmark output here

If you want to check performance, create a baseline by running these tasks before your changes. Then, make your changes and run the tasks again and compare your results.

Keep these points in mind when using benchmarks:

• The results are hardware-specific: computers with different hardware will have different results. So don’t compare your results to results from other computers.
• The results are environment-specific: CPU and memory availability are affected by other processes on your computer. So try to create similar environments for your before-and-after testing.

Coding Guidelines

GraphQL-Ruby uses a thorough test suite to make sure things work reliably day-after-day. Please include tests that describe your changes, for example:

• If you contribute a bug fix, include a test for the code that was broken (and is now fixed)
• If you contribute a feature, include tests for all intended uses of that feature
• If you modify existing behavior, update the tests to cover all intended behaviors for that code

Don’t fret about coding style or organization. There’s a minimal Rubocop config in .rubocop.yml which runs during CI. You can run it manually with bundle exec rake rubocop.

Website

To update the website, update the .md files in guides/.

To preview your changes, you can serve the website locally:

bundle exec rake site:serve

Then visit http://localhost:4000.

To publish the website with GitHub pages, run the Rake task:

bundle exec rake site:publish

Search Index

GraphQL-Ruby’s search index is powered by Algolia. To update the index, you need the API key in an environment variable:

$ export ALGOLIA_API_KEY=...

Without this key, the search index will fall out-of-sync with the website. Contact @rmosolgo to gain access to this key.

API Docs

The GraphQL-Ruby website has its own rendered version of the gem’s API docs. They’re pushed to GitHub pages with a special process.

First, generate local copies of the docs you want to publish:

$ bundle exec rake apidocs:gen_version[1.8.0] # for example, generate docs that you want to publish

Then, check them out locally:

$ bundle exec rake site:serve
# then visit http://localhost:4000/api-doc/1.8.0/

Then, publish them as part of the whole site:

$ bundle exec rake site:publish

Finally, check your work by visiting the docs on the website.

Versioning

GraphQL-Ruby does not attempt to deliver “semantic versioning” for the reasons described in jashkenas’ s post, “Why Semantic Versioning Isn’t”. Instead, the following scheme is used as a guideline:

• Version numbers consist of three parts, MAJOR.MINOR.PATCH
• PATCH version indicates bug fixes or small features for specific use cases. Ideally, you can upgrade patch versions with only a quick skim of the changelog.
• MINOR version indicates significant additions, internal refactors, or small breaking changes. When upgrading a minor version, check the changelog for any new features or breaking changes which apply to your system. The changelog will always include an upgrade path for any breaking changes. Minor versions may also include deprecation warnings to warn about upcoming breaking changes.
• MAJOR version indicates significant breaking changes. Do not expect code to run without some modification, especially if the code yielded deprecation warnings.

This policy is inspired by the Ruby 2.1.0+ version policy.

Pull requests and issues may be tagged with a GitHub milestone to denote when they’ll be released.

The changelog should always contain accurate and thorough information so that users can upgrade. If you have trouble upgrading based on the changelog, please open an issue on GitHub.

Releasing

GraphQL-Ruby doesn’t have a strict release schedule. If you think it should, consider opening an issue to share your thoughts.

To cut a release:

• Update CHANGELOG.md for the new version:
  • Add a new heading for the new version, and paste the four categories of changes into the new section
  • Open the GitHub milestone corresponding to the new version
  • Check each pull request and put it in the category (or categories) that it belongs in
    • If a change affects the default behavior of GraphQL-Ruby in a disruptive way, add it to ## Breaking Changes and include migration notes if possible
    • Include the PR number beside the change description for future reference
• Update lib/graphql/version.rb with the new version number
• Commit changes to master
• Push changes to GitHub: git push origin master. GitHub Actions will update the website.
• Release to RubyGems: bundle exec rake release. This will also push the tag to GitHub which will kick off a GitHub Actions job to update the API docs.
• Celebrate 🎊 !