Mutations

In GraphQL, in order to modify the server-side data, we use mutations (read more here). The official Apollo documentation shares an upvotePost() mutation example. This mutation allows to increase a post votes property value. In order to create an equivalent mutation in Nest, we'll make use of the @Mutation() decorator.

Schema first#

Let's extend our AuthorResolver used in the previous section (see resolvers).

@Resolver('Author')
export class AuthorResolver {
  constructor(
    private readonly authorsService: AuthorsService,
    private readonly postsService: PostsService,
  ) {}

  @Query('author')
  async getAuthor(@Args('id') id: number) {
    return this.authorsService.findOneById(id);
  }

  @Mutation()
  async upvotePost(@Args('postId') postId: number) {
    return this.postsService.upvoteById({ id: postId });
  }

  @ResolveProperty('posts')
  async getPosts(@Parent() { id }) {
    return this.postsService.findAll({ authorId: id });
  }
}

Notice that we assumed that the business logic has been moved to the PostsService (respectively querying post and incrementing votes property).

Type definitions#

The last step is to add our mutation to the existing types definition.

type Author {
  id: Int!
  firstName: String
  lastName: String
  posts: [Post]
}

type Post {
  id: Int!
  title: String
  votes: Int
}

type Query {
  author(id: Int!): Author
}

type Mutation {
  upvotePost(postId: Int!): Post
}

The upvotePost(postId: Int!): Post mutation should be available now.

Code first#

Let's add another method to the AuthorResolver used in the previous section (see resolvers).

@Resolver(of => Author)
export class AuthorResolver {
  constructor(
    private readonly authorsService: AuthorsService,
    private readonly postsService: PostsService,
  ) {}

  @Query(returns => Author, { name: 'author' })
  async getAuthor(@Args({ name: 'id', type: () => Int }) id: number) {
    return this.authorsService.findOneById(id);
  }

  @Mutation(returns => Post)
  async upvotePost(@Args({ name: 'postId', type: () => Int }) postId: number) {
    return this.postsService.upvoteById({ id: postId });
  }

  @ResolveProperty('posts')
  async getPosts(@Parent() author) {
    const { id } = author;
    return this.postsService.findAll({ authorId: id });
  }
}

The upvotePost() takes the postId (Int) as an input parameter and returns an updated Post entity. For the same reasons as in the resolvers section, we have to explicitly set the expected type.

If the mutation has to take an object as a parameter, we can create an input type.

@InputType()
export class UpvotePostInput {
  @Field() postId: number;
}

Hint Both @InputType() and @Field() are imported from the type-graphql package.

And then use it in the resolver class:

@Mutation(returns => Post)
async upvotePost(
  @Args('upvotePostData') upvotePostData: UpvotePostInput,
) {}