Talk given to relate how an idea when lauching in an open source projet went badly and what I have learned from that

1. L'opensourcem'atuer*?
HTGrenoble Février 2019 - @sabativi

2. VictorSabatier
Freelance Web and mobile
developper.
Build stuff using Meteor,
GraphQL, React and React native.
Love learning and sharing
victor@reactivic.com
HTGrenoble Février 2019 - @sabativi

3. Disclaimer:Iloveopen
sourceYou should contribute, use and have fun with it.
HTGrenoble Février 2019 - @sabativi

4. A story of open sourcing a project that
went wrong.
HTGrenoble Février 2019 - @sabativi

5. Two technologies involved :
· React Native.
· GraphQL.
HTGrenoble Février 2019 - @sabativi

6. IloveGraphQL
· Promise is amazing.
· Tooling is amazing.
· Community is amazing
Iwanttouseiteverywhere
HTGrenoble Février 2019 - @sabativi

7. November2017:newproject
HTGrenoble Février 2019 - @sabativi

8. Customer : I want a mobile app and I have
already a REST API.
· Me : I want to use GraphQL, can you put an API
for me ? It will be easier and cheaper.
· Customer : Euh...
· Customer: Nop.
· Me : Ok no problem. I will use more standard
technologies.
HTGrenoble Février 2019 - @sabativi

9. But wait, what if we can specify in our
GraphQL queries to fetch data from
REST.
HTGrenoble Février 2019 - @sabativi

10. GraphQlquery
{
users {
id
name {
first
last
}
emails {
address
}
}
}
HTGrenoble Février 2019 - @sabativi

11. { {
users { users @restAPI(type: "User", endPoint: "/users") {
id id
name { name {
first ---> first
last last
} }
emails { emails {
address address
} }
} }
} }
HTGrenoble Février 2019 - @sabativi

12. POC
HTGrenoble Février 2019 - @sabativi

13. !
POC was working well, in both React and React
Native environments.
!
HTGrenoble Février 2019 - @sabativi

14. My real vision for this project was to enable
people to start using GraphQL on the client
without having to change anything on the
backend.
HTGrenoble Février 2019 - @sabativi

15. Advanced example
HTGrenoble Février 2019 - @sabativi

16. Celebration
HTGrenoble Février 2019 - @sabativi

17. · Hey, this is peggy from Apollo, we will love
make it available within our own github org.
· We started having a huge traction, starting to
have many contributors...
· Many new issues, PRs
HTGrenoble Février 2019 - @sabativi

18. HTGrenoble Février 2019 - @sabativi

19. Sowhatwentwrong?
HTGrenoble Février 2019 - @sabativi

20. RESTisnotastandard.
By accepting contributions, we have tried to fit every use cases of
a REST API into our lib.
HTGrenoble Février 2019 - @sabativi

21. It requires some computation power
to transform all possibles ways of
writing a REST APIs into something
standard for the graphQL client
cache.
HTGrenoble Février 2019 - @sabativi

22. WhyitisaproblemintheReact
Nativeenvironment?
On the web, it is working well.
HTGrenoble Février 2019 - @sabativi

23. Meetthebridge
HTGrenoble Février 2019 - @sabativi

24. Principle
HTGrenoble Février 2019 - @sabativi

25. Whathappens
· I make a query -> results arrived.
· It is transformed to fit into graphQL client cache
· JS thread ( can be ) blocked while doing so.
· No new UI rendering possible, UI is
unresponsive.
· CPU spike -> battery melt away.
HTGrenoble Février 2019 - @sabativi

26. Conclusion
· Open Source is not the problem
· I am
· I did not manage to keep the project as simple
as I first wanted.
· API was also a badly designed.
HTGrenoble Février 2019 - @sabativi

27. Thanks
HTGrenoble Février 2019 - @sabativi