Not everyone fully understands yet what GraphQL is all about, or why it is seen by many as the successor of REST. The goal of this workshop is to explain why this bold statement has been made on a hands-on demo. While showing GraphQL features we’ll demonstrate how they can be perfectly implemented on top of an existing PostgreSQL/PostGIS spatial database using PostGraphile. We’ll discuss pros and cons of this technology over REST, highlighting a few important points in which they differ.

During the workshop we will:

• Learn how to use, create and manage a fully spatial GraphQL API using PostGraphile and a common, existing PostgreSQL/PostGIS spatial database;

• Publish spatial and non-spatial data;

• Create processing/analysis endpoints that rely on PostgreSQL/PostGIS functions;

• Secure the data with Row-Level Security (RLS) set at the database level and transpose those credentials to the API in a straightforward way. Users can then make use of JWT tokens to authenticate.

• Extend the GraphQL API using plugins that can be used to create complex endpoints that need to be created at the server level with NodeJs and Javascript or Typescript.