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Quicker, easier GraphQL queries with Open Liberty 20.0.0.9
With Open Liberty 20.0.0.9 you can now experiment with the type-safe SmallRye GraphQL Client API, and more easily write and run GraphQL queries and mutations using a built-in GraphiQL user interface. Plus there has been a number of significant bug fixes.
In Open Liberty 20.0.0.9:
Run your apps using 20.0.0.9
If you’re using Maven, here are the coordinates:
<dependency>
<groupId>io.openliberty</groupId>
<artifactId>openliberty-runtime</artifactId>
<version>20.0.0.9</version>
<type>zip</type>
</dependency>Or for Gradle:
dependencies {
libertyRuntime group: 'io.openliberty', name: 'openliberty-runtime', version: '[20.0.0.9,)'
}Or if you’re using Docker:
FROM open-libertyOr take a look at our Downloads page.
Experiment with a third-party GraphQL client API
MicroProfile GraphQL has only been available in Open Liberty for a few months now, and it is already a hit! That said, there are lots of things we’d like to do to improve it - and make it more complete. One of those things is a Client API. While the official Client API is not expected until the next release of MicroProfile GraphQL, you can now experiment with the type-safe SmallRye GraphQL Client API. SmallRye is the underlying implementation of MicroProfile GraphQL, and you can access some of its above-and-beyond-the-spec features by adding the "third-party" API type visibility to your application, like so:
<application name="MyGraphQLApp" location="MyGraphQLApp.war">
<classloader apiTypeVisibility="+third-party"/>
</application>Now you can access SmallRye GraphQL APIs like the type-safe client! Note that these APIs may change in future releases as SmallRye is constantly evolving. For more information please visit SmallRye GraphQL project - in Open Liberty 20.0.0.9, we are using SmallRye GraphQL 1.0.7. The SmallRye GraphQL Client APIs are very similar to MicroProfile Rest Client in that it uses an interface to invoke remote methods in a type-safe manner. For example, suppose we want a client that can invoke a query of all super heroes in a given location. We would create a query interface like this:
@GraphQlClientApi
interface SuperHeroesApi {
List<SuperHero> allHeroesIn(String location);
}Where SuperHero on the client side looks like this:
class SuperHero {
private String name;
private List<String> superPowers;
}The SuperHero entity might contain dozens more fields on the server side, but if we’re only interested in the hero’s name and super powers, then we only need those two fields in our client-side class. Now we can invoke the query with some code like this:
SuperHeroesApi api = GraphQlClientBuilder.newBuilder().build(SuperHeroesApi.class);
List<SuperHero> heroesOfNewYork = api.allHeroesIn("NYC");Remember that this client API is not official, but the official API (in MicroProfile GraphQL 1.1) will be based on this - think of this as a sneak peak!
Develop MicroProfile GraphQL queries and mutations faster with the built-in GraphiQL user interface
Open Liberty now sports a built-in GraphiQL user interface. This web-based UI allows you to write and execute GraphQL queries and mutations in real time with advanced editing features like command completion, query history, schema introspection, etc.
To enable the UI, you must first write and deploy a MicroProfile GraphQL application. Then add this line to your server.xml:
<variable name="io.openliberty.enableGraphQLUI" value="true" />
You can access the UI using a web browser by accessing your GraphQL app’s context root and adding /graphql-ui. For example, suppose we use the default port (9080) and our app is named myGraphQLApp, we would access the UI at: http://localhost:9080/myGraphQLApp/graphql-ui. Resolved in issue #13201
Significant bugs fixed in this release
We’ve spent some time fixing bugs. The following sections describe just some of the issues we resolved in this release. If you’re interested, here’s the full list of fixed bugs in 20.0.0.9.
Change your SSL config without restarting your server
If you use the JAX-RS Client in your application to access SSL-secured RESTful services, then you will likely have a key store and/or trust store configured. These SSL settings enable you to ensure you are communicating with the endpoint you expect - and that nobody else is listening in! These settings also enable SSL-based client authentication. Whatever you use these SSL settings for, if you need to change them, then that meant that you would need to restart your server so that the clients could pick up the new settings. Well, that is a thing of the past! Starting in 20.0.0.9, JAX-RS clients can now dynamically adjust to changes in the SSL configuration. This should rapidly improve app development and deployment! Resolved in issue #13027.
Occasional error during Arquillian testing
During Arquillian testing there was a bug that would throw an occasional ArrayIndexOutOfBoundsException in JaspiServiceImpl.getDescription. This problem was caused by registering the internal AuthConfigProvider for JSR 375. There are two threads registering two instances of the provider. Additional synchronization has been added so that a single internal provider is registered. Resolved in issue #11504.
Include element not being parsed with featureUtility
This bug was caused where the include tag in server.xml was being ignored by featureUtility. The include element can be used in a server.xml file to consolidate configuration from additional separate server.xml files. The bug was fixed by handling the parsing with a more appropriate XML method. Resolved in issue #13138.
MicroProfile GraphQL Exception allowlist now up and running
As an open source product, we love hearing feedback from Open Liberty users. We especially love comments like this: "Hello, I am using microprofile-graphql on openliberty and everything goes well…" and even the rest of that sentence (taken from Open Liberty #13036): "except for the exception whitelisting mechanism via microprofile config described here."
Our MicroProfile GraphQL feature has only been generally available for a few months, so it’s great to see that users are using it - and it’s exciting to see that they are already exploring the "dark corners" (exception handling, etc.). While we hate to find out that we let a bug slip through the cracks, we’re always eager to fix them when they do. If you find an issue or would like to suggest an enhancement that would make your experience with Open Liberty better, please let us know! You can always reach us by opening an issue on GitHub or on Twitter at @OpenLibertyIO. We’re also available for chatting online using Gitter at: https://gitter.im/OpenLiberty/help and https://gitter.im/OpenLiberty/developer-experience. We can’t wait to hear from you!
Get Open Liberty 20.0.0.9 now
Available through Maven, Gradle, Docker, and as a downloadable archive.
