GitLab GraphQL
Introduction
GitLab’s GraphQL API provides a powerful and flexible way to interact with GitLab’s data. It offers several advantages over traditional REST APIs, including:
- Precise data selection: Query for only the data you need, reducing network overhead.
- Type safety: GraphQL’s type system ensures you’re working with the correct data types.
- Introspection: Discover the available API endpoints and their structure through introspection.
- Versioned API: GitLab’s GraphQL API adheres to versioning to ensure backwards compatibility.
Understanding the Basics
GitLab’s GraphQL API is structured around a schema that defines the available types, fields, and mutations.
- Types: Represent data entities like users, projects, issues, and more.
- Fields: Attributes associated with each type, like a user’s name or a project’s description.
- Mutations: Actions that modify data, such as creating a new issue or updating a project.
Querying Data
To retrieve data from the GitLab GraphQL API, you construct queries using a specific syntax.
Example:
query {
user(username: "username") {
name
email
}
}
This query retrieves the name and email fields for the user with the username “username”.
Documentation:
Mutating Data
To modify data within GitLab, you use mutations.
Example:
mutation {
createIssue(input: {
title: "New Issue Title"
projectId: 1234
description: "Issue Description"
}) {
id
title
}
}
This mutation creates a new issue with the provided title, description, and project ID.
Documentation:
Accessing the API
You can interact with the GitLab GraphQL API using various tools and libraries.
- curl: For basic interaction with the API using command-line tools.
- GraphQL clients: Dedicated libraries for interacting with GraphQL APIs in different programming languages.
Documentation:
