@graphile-contrib/pg-many-to-many

This Graphile Engine plugin adds connection fields for many-to-many relations.

Requires postgraphile@^4.5.0 or graphile-build-pg@^4.5.0

Example:

1{
2  allPeople {
3    nodes {
4      personName
5      # 👇 many-to-many relation
6      teamsByTeamMemberPersonIdAndTeamId {
7        nodes {
8          teamName
9        }
10      }
11    }
12  }
13}

Usage

Append this plugin and the additional fields will be added to your schema.

CLI

1yarn add postgraphile
2yarn add @graphile-contrib/pg-many-to-many
3npx postgraphile --append-plugins @graphile-contrib/pg-many-to-many

Library

1const express = require("express");
2const { postgraphile } = require("postgraphile");
3const PgManyToManyPlugin = require("@graphile-contrib/pg-many-to-many");
4
5const app = express();
6
7app.use(
8  postgraphile(process.env.DATABASE_URL, "app_public", {
9    appendPlugins: [PgManyToManyPlugin],
10    graphiql: true,
11  })
12);
13
14app.listen(5000);

Excluding Fields

To exclude certain many-to-many fields from appearing in your GraphQL schema, you can use @omit manyToMany smart comments on constraints and tables.

Here is an example of using a smart comment on a constraint:

create table p.foo (
  id serial primary key,
  name text not null
);

create table p.bar (
  id serial primary key,
  name text not null
);

create table p.qux (
  foo_id int constraint qux_foo_id_fkey references p.foo (id),
  bar_id int constraint qux_bar_id_fkey references p.bar (id),
  primary key (foo_id, bar_id)
);

-- `Foo` and `Bar` would normally have `barsBy...` and `foosBy...` fields,
-- but this smart comment causes the constraint between `qux` and `bar`
-- to be ignored, preventing the fields from being generated.
comment on constraint qux_bar_id_fkey on p.qux is E'@omit manyToMany';

Here is an example of using a smart comment on a table:

create table p.foo (
  id serial primary key,
  name text not null
);

create table p.bar (
  id serial primary key,
  name text not null
);

create table p.corge (
  foo_id int constraint corge_foo_id_fkey references p.foo (id),
  bar_id int constraint corge_bar_id_fkey references p.bar (id),
  primary key (foo_id, bar_id)
);

-- `Foo` and `Bar` would normally have `barsBy...` and `foosBy...` fields,
-- but this smart comment causes `corge` to be excluded from consideration
-- as a junction table, preventing the fields from being generated.
comment on table p.corge is E'@omit manyToMany';

Inflection

To avoid naming conflicts, this plugin uses a verbose naming convention (e.g. teamsByTeamMemberTeamId), similar to how related fields are named by default in PostGraphile v4. You can override this by writing a custom inflector plugin or by using smart comments in your SQL schema.

Inflector Plugin

Writing a custom inflector plugin gives you full control over the GraphQL field names. Here is an example plugin that shortens the field names to just the table name (producing e.g. teams):

:warning: Warning: Simplifying the field names as shown below will lead to field name conflicts if your junction table has multiple foreign keys referencing the same table. You will need to customize the inflector function to resolve the conflicts.

1const { makeAddInflectorsPlugin } = require("graphile-utils");
2
3module.exports = makeAddInflectorsPlugin(
4  {
5    manyToManyRelationByKeys(
6      _leftKeyAttributes,
7      _junctionLeftKeyAttributes,
8      _junctionRightKeyAttributes,
9      _rightKeyAttributes,
10      _junctionTable,
11      rightTable,
12      _junctionLeftConstraint,
13      junctionRightConstraint
14    ) {
15      if (junctionRightConstraint.tags.manyToManyFieldName) {
16        return junctionRightConstraint.tags.manyToManyFieldName;
17      }
18      return this.camelCase(
19        `${this.pluralize(this._singularizedTableName(rightTable))}`
20      );
21    },
22    manyToManyRelationByKeysSimple(
23      _leftKeyAttributes,
24      _junctionLeftKeyAttributes,
25      _junctionRightKeyAttributes,
26      _rightKeyAttributes,
27      _junctionTable,
28      rightTable,
29      _junctionLeftConstraint,
30      junctionRightConstraint
31    ) {
32      if (junctionRightConstraint.tags.manyToManySimpleFieldName) {
33        return junctionRightConstraint.tags.manyToManySimpleFieldName;
34      }
35      return this.camelCase(
36        `${this.pluralize(this._singularizedTableName(rightTable))}-list`
37      );
38    },
39  },
40  true // Passing true here allows the plugin to overwrite existing inflectors.
41);

For more information on custom inflector plugins, see the makeAddInflectorsPlugin documentation.

Smart Comments

The @manyToManyFieldName and @manyToManySimpleFieldName smart comments allow you to override the field names generated by this plugin.

For example, to rename the Connection field from teamsByTeamMemberTeamId to teams:

1comment on constraint membership_team_id_fkey on p.membership is E'@manyToManyFieldName teams';

To rename both the Connection and simple collection fields (assuming simple collections are enabled):

1comment on constraint membership_team_id_fkey on p.membership is E'@manyToManyFieldName teams\n@manyToManySimpleFieldName teamsList';