graphql-ws Protocol Support

[casey-chow]

Feature request

Enable support for the graphql-ws protocol so servers can leverage the security and maintenance improvements.

Motivation

subscriptions-transport-ws has fallen into disrepair in recent years, and its successor, graphql-ws, introduces a completely new protocol which would need to be implemented for compatibility. I've been seeing a lot of issues with the server library and would like not to fork subscriptions-transport-ws 😅

[designatednerd]

Can you help me understand what changes to our existing websocket library would be necessary for this? I know we're working on trying to figure some things out with WebSockets, but I think if there's a way to make this doable without having to build a completely parallel architecture we should at least consider it.

If it does require a completely parallel architecture that's a bit of a different question, though.

[casey-chow]

Here's a quick'n'dirty mapping of the two protocols based on their protocol documents:

Direction	subscriptions-transport-ws	graphql-ws
client -> server	GQL_CONNECTION_INIT	connection_init
server -> client	GQL_CONNECTION_ACK	connection_ack
server -> client	GQL_CONNECTION_ERROR	Closes the socket.
client -> server	GQL_START	subscribe
server -> client	GQL_DATA	next
server -> client	GQL_ERROR	error
bidirectional	GQL_COMPLETE (server -> client) GQL_STOP (client -> server)	complete
server -> client	GQL_CONNECTION_KEEP_ALIVE	Native websocket ping/pong.

I think a lot of the differences are in the nuances--graphql-ws tries to be more robust in its protocol design so there are definitely details not included here, but for the most part the protocols are fairly similar.

[designatednerd]

OK. The next step would probably be finding a GraphQL-ws server we can write tests against, since our sample server is using Apollo Server and therefore subscriptions-transport-ws. Do you have any thoughts on how that would work to set up?

[casey-chow]

If you point me towards the existing server I'd be more than happy to put together the graphql-ws version in a fork!

[designatednerd]

Here ya go: https://github.com/apollographql/starwars-server

[danabrooks]

Has there been any progress on this? I am very interested in graphql-ws support for Apollo on iOS.

[designatednerd]

I'm dealing with other stuff at the moment - @casey-chow Were you ever able to get a look at this?

[dchappelle]

I am very interested in graphql-ws support for Apollo for Android.

[designatednerd]

Hi @dchappelle, I'd recommend checking out the Android repo's issues and opening an issue if you can't find one - this is the iOS repo 😇.

[VladMelnik]

Has there been any progress on graphql-ws support for Apollo on iOS?

[phanikavi]

Any updates on this feature?

It works for me with these basic changes. graphql-ws-patch.txt

Apollo Android seems to have already implemented it in v3.0.0-alpha01 release.

[calvincestari]

Hi 👋🏻

• graphql-ws support is not something we're directly working on for the 1.0 release
• we are always happy to review community contributions though so if you've got a working solution please consider submitting a PR and the team will review it

[phanikavi]

Hi @calvincestari, We have been using the changes in the patch that I mentioned earlier to support graphql-ws and it is working fine. I see that this feature is now scheduled for 0.51.0 milestone. Please let me know if you need any help in verifying your changes.

[calvincestari]

I see that this feature is now scheduled for 0.51.0 milestone. Please let me know if you need any help in verifying your changes.

That's correct @phanikavi. We're storming towards an imminent 1.0 alpha release so the graphql-ws work is slightly delayed. I think the patch will be a great starting point though. We'll get to it next week, thanks for the offer to verify changes.

[calvincestari]

@phanikavi I've just created PR #2168 if you're still interested in verifying the changes with your environment.

[phanikavi]

awesome, @calvincestari these changes work fine in our environment.

[CureleaAndrei]

I think that the GQL_STOP is not mapped to complete

CONTEXT:
I've been implementing in our app the new graphql_transport_ws but encountered the following error when terminating a subscription:
"websocket is disconnected: WSError(type: Apollo.WebSocket.WSError.ErrorType.protocolError, message: \"Invalid message received\", code: 4400)"

After digging in I saw that the server get's a message of type: stop but in the graphql_ws protocol it should be complete. I think that the issue lies inside WebSocketTransport unsubscribe method which always sends an OperationMessage of type stop. Shouldn't it check the protocol and send it with type stop or complete depending on the protocol used ?

[calvincestari]

I'll dig into this this week @CureleaAndrei.

[CureleaAndrei]

Thanks!

[calvincestari]

@CureleaAndrei, sorry this took a bit longer than I had planned. PR #2320 is up which should fix the behaviour. Please give it a test if you've got the time - thanks.