3. Strawberry
5m

Overview

We've got a better understanding of how works; now it's time to implement it!

Strawberry

by itself is a specification, a language for APIs. To implement GraphQL in a server, we typically use a GraphQL framework.

For example, if you're a JavaScript/TypeScript developer, you might use Apollo Server.

In the Python ecosystem, we can use Strawberry, a library developed and maintained by the Strawberry team. Here's how they introduce themselves:

Strawberry is a developer friendly library for Python, designed for modern development.

Setting up Strawberry with FastAPI

From your project directory, open up a new terminal. Let's install Strawberry using pip.

pip install strawberry-graphql

Note: Make sure that you've activated the .venv virtual environment we created in the first lesson.

Next, open up main.py in the root of the repo. Currently, it's set up to return a simple "Hello, world!" message from the root of where the server is running (which by default is http://localhost:8000).

main.py
from fastapi import FastAPI


app = FastAPI()


@app.get("/")
async def hello_world():
    return {"message": "Hello World"}

Let's replace this with a endpoint, using Strawberry's GraphQLRouter with FastAPI.

First, we'll import the package at the top of main.py.

main.py
from strawberry.fastapi import GraphQLRouter

The GraphQLRouter is a FastAPI router that serves as a endpoint. It takes in a schema, a path, and optionally a GraphQL IDE.

Let's create an instance of GraphQLRouter below our initialization of app.

main.py
graphql_router = GraphQLRouter(..., path="/", graphql_ide="apollo-sandbox")

We'll use ... as a placeholder for the schema we'll define in the next lesson.

We're also setting the path to the root / and the IDE to apollo-sandbox. We'll play with Sandbox later in the course.

Finally, we'll include graphql_router in our FastAPI app using app.include_router.

main.py
app.include_router(graphql_router)

Let's also remove the hello_world route; we don't need it anymore.

main.py
- @app.get("/")
- async def hello_world():
-     return {"message": "Hello World"}

Key takeaways

  • Strawberry is a Python library for building APIs using type annotations.
  • Strawberry provides an integration with FastAPI that serves as a endpoint.

Up next

Our is on standby, awaiting a schema. We'll give it what it wants in the next lesson!

Previous

Share your questions and comments about this lesson

This course is currently in

beta
. Your feedback helps us improve! If you're stuck or confused, let us know and we'll help you out. All comments are public and must follow the Apollo Code of Conduct. Note that comments that have been resolved or addressed may be removed.

You'll need a GitHub account to post below. Don't have one? Post in our Odyssey forum instead.