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.NET (dotnet)

GraphQL server with .NET (dotnet)

.NET is an open-source and cross-platform framework supported by Microsoft. Learn more about .NET here.

New to GraphQL? Check out the Introduction to GraphQL tutorial to learn the core concepts quickly.

  • You will learn how to create a GraphQL server with .NET and Hot Chocolate.
  • If you have an existing GraphQL API with .NET, you can integrate it with Hasura as a Remote Schema to get a unified GraphQL API.
  • If you have an existing REST API with .NET, you can transform that declaratively to GraphQL without writing any code using Hasura REST Connectors.
  • You can also re-use or custom-write REST endpoints with .NET and map the endpoint to a GraphQL schema in Hasura.

New to Hasura? The Hasura GraphQL Engine makes your data instantly accessible over a real-time GraphQL API so that you can build and ship modern, performant apps and APIs 10x faster. Hasura connects to your databases, REST and GraphQL endpoints, and third-party APIs to provide a unified, connected, real-time, secured GraphQL API for all your data. Check out the documentation.

Create a .NET GraphQL Server with Hot Chocolate

We will use Hot Chocolate to create a GraphQL server.

  1. Add the Hot Chocolate NuGet package to your project.
dotnet add package HotChocolate.AspNetCore
  1. Define the Todo Type in Todo.cs
namespace HasuraDOTNetSample.Models;
public class Todo {
public string Id { get; set; }
public string Text { get; set; }
public bool Done { get; set; }
public User User { get; set; }
}
  1. Add a Query type to Query.cs
namespace HasuraDOTNetSample.Models;
public class Query
{
public Todo[] GetTodos() => new Todo[]
{
new Todo { Id = "1", Text = "Todo 1", Done = false, User = new User { Id = "1", Name = "User 1" } },
new Todo { Id = "2", Text = "Todo 2", Done = true, User = new User { Id = "2", Name = "User 2" } },
new Todo { Id = "3", Text = "Todo 3", Done = false, User = new User { Id = "3", Name = "User 3" } },
};
}
  1. Add GraphQL Services to Program.cs
builder.Services
.AddGraphQLServer()
.AddQueryType<Query>();

This will add a GraphQL endpoint to your application. You can test it by going to /graphql in your browser. For more information on Hot Chocolate check out the Get Started.

.NET GraphQL API Federation using Hasura Remote Schema

We can connect our custom GraphQL server to Hasura using remote schemas.

  1. In the Hasura Console Remote Schemas tab, add your .NET GraphQL server <.NET server URL>/graphql

  2. In the API Explorer tab, try querying the sample todos.

    query {
    todos {
    id
    text
    done
    }
    }

Convert a .NET REST API endpoint to GraphQL

We will begin by creating a new .NET project. We will use the dotnet command line tool to create a new project. We will also be using .NET's minimal API template to create a new project.

dotnet new web -o dotnet-graphql
cd dotnet-graphql

This will create a simple Program.cs file with a basic Hello World program.

using dotnet.action;
var builder = WebApplication.CreateBuilder(args);
var app = builder.Build();
app.MapPost("/action", (ActionPayload<LoginArgs> action) =>
{
return new LoginResponse() { AccessToken = "<sample value>"};
});
app.Run();

In action/action.cs, we will create the following models.

namespace dotnet.action;
public class LoginResponse
{
public string AccessToken { get; set; }
}
public class Mutation
{
public LoginResponse Login { get; set; }
}
public class LoginArgs
{
public string Username { get; set; }
public string Password { get; set; }
}
public class ActionPayload<T>
{
public Dictionary<string, string> SessionVariables { get; set; }
public T Input { get; set; }
}

Run the application using:

dotnet run

Add .NET REST Endpoint to GraphQL schema using Hasura Actions

We can integrate this endpoint into Hasura and generate the code using Hasura Actions. In the Actions tab on the Hasura Console, we will set up a custom login function

type Mutation {
login(username: String!, password: String!): LoginResponse
}

New types definition:

type LoginResponse {
AccessToken: String!
}

In the Hasura API explorer tab, you should now be able to test it

mutation {
login(password: "password", username: "username") {
AccessToken
}
}

Result:

{
"data": {
"login": {
"AccessToken": "<sample value>"
}
}
}

Run async scheduled events using a Python REST API and Hasura GraphQL

With Hasura event triggers we can get notified whenever an event happens in our database.

Let's send a webhook when a new user is created and print out their name.

  1. In the Hasura Console add a user table with a Text column name and the frequently used UUID column id.

  2. In the event trigger tab, on the user table, check the insert and via console trigger operations.

  3. The event trigger payload schema can be found in the docs. We will make a class to represent the payload.

public class EventTriggerPayload<T>
{
public Event<T> Event { get; set; }
public string Created_At { get; set; }
public string Id { get; set; }
public Trigger Trigger { get; set; }
public Table Table { get; set; }
}
public class Table
{
public Table(string name = "", string schema = "dbo")
{
this.name = name;
this.schema = schema;
}
public string schema { get; set; }
public string name { get; set; }
}
public class Trigger
{
public string Name { get; set; }
}
public class Event<T>
{
public object Session_Variables { get; set; }
public string Op { get; set; }
public Data<T> Data { get; set; }
}
public class Data<T>
{
public T Old { get; set; }
public T New { get; set; }
}
  1. We will also create a model to represent our data.
public class User
{
public Guid Id { get; set; }
public string Name { get; set; }
}
  1. Now we will add an HTTP handler to our Program.cs file.
app.MapPost("/event", (EventTriggerPayload<User> payload) =>
{
Console.WriteLine($"New user created: {payload.Event.Data.New.Name}");
return new { };
});

When you add a user in Hasura your .NET server should receive the event.

Example: Querying GraphQL with .NET using Strawberry Shake

We can use Strawberry Shake to query our GraphQL server from .NET. This will generate a strongly typed client for us.

  1. Create a dotnet tool-manifest
dotnet new tool-manifest
  1. Install the Strawberry Shake Tools on your computer.
dotnet tool install StrawberryShake.Tools --local
  1. Install the required Dependencies.
dotnet add package StrawberryShake.Transport.Http
dotnet add package StrawberryShake.CodeGeneration.CSharp.Analyzers
  1. Add Dependency Injection and Http Extensions
dotnet add package Microsoft.Extensions.DependencyInjection
dotnet add package Microsoft.Extensions.Http
  1. Add GraphQL client to your project using CLI tools
dotnet graphql init <Hasura URL>/v1/graphql -n HasuraClient
  1. Let's add a GraphQL query to your project.
query GetUsers {
user {
id
name
}
}
  1. Compile your project
dotnet build

This will create a client in Generated folder called HasuraClient.StrawyberryShake.cs. This will contain a strongly typed client for your GraphQL server.

  1. Now let's enable your application to use the client we just created.
builder.Services
.AddHasuraClient()
.ConfigureHttpClient(client => client.BaseAddress = new Uri("<Hasura URL>/v1/graphql"));
IServiceProvider services = builder.Services.BuildServiceProvider();
var client = services.GetRequiredService<HasuraDOTNetSample.IHasuraClient>();
  1. Let's add a simple get end-point to your application to return data from the GraphQL server using the new client
app.MapGet("/getTodos", async (HasuraDOTNetSample.HasuraClient hasuraClient) =>
{
var result = await hasuraClient.GetUsers.ExecuteAsync();
return Results.Ok(result);
});

Summary

When developing backend applications, we may need to write custom business logic. When we use Hasura, it autogenerates most of our API but gives us escape hatches for this custom logic. We've gone over a few ways you can use the power of .NET.

See the server source code on Github.

If you use Hasura and are ready to go to production, check out Hasura Cloud for a fully managed Hasura deployment.

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