How does the use of GraphQL Federation enhances RESTful APIs?

When building a robust, high-performing core banking system, implementing GraphQL Federation can significantly augment RESTful APIs. Let’s delve into how GraphQL Federation adds value to your RESTful APIs, and why it’s a crucial part of a modern core banking system.

A Single Unified Endpoint: Streamlining Access #

GraphQL Federation creates a unified API endpoint, effectively acting as a gateway to multiple underlying RESTful APIs. Instead of executing multiple API requests to different endpoints, a single GraphQL query will garner all the required data. This significant reduction in network round trips enhances system efficiency.

One of the significant advantages of GraphQL Federation lies in its support for flexible data fetching. In contrast to traditional RESTful APIs, where the server defines what data gets returned for each endpoint, GraphQL Federation enables the client to specify the exact data they need. This aspect greatly streamlines the data retrieval process, eliminating unnecessary data transmission and making API interactions more efficient.

With GraphQL Federation, clients have the power to formulate their data requirements precisely. They can include related data from multiple services in a single GraphQL query. For instance, in the context of a core banking software, a single query could fetch a customer’s account details, recent transactions, and linked products, even if these data points are managed by separate microservices.

Clients utilizing RESTful APIs often struggle with overfetching or underfetching data. This inefficiency means they either receive more data than required or make multiple requests for additional data. GraphQL Federation eliminates these problems by allowing precise data retrieval within a single query, thereby reducing network traffic and boosting performance.

GraphQL Federation offers tools and mechanisms for schema stitching and composition. This capability allows developers to amalgamate multiple underlying RESTful APIs into a single federated GraphQL schema. As a result, it simplifies the process of aggregating data from various services, offering a unified and comprehensive API surface to clients.

Clients can express their data requirements declaratively using the query language of GraphQL in a GraphQL Federation model. They can stipulate the fields and relationships they need, and the GraphQL server fulfills the data accordingly. This declarative approach boosts developer productivity, eliminating the need to manually construct and parse complex URLs for RESTful API requests.

Another noteworthy aspect of GraphQL Federation is its ability to support efficient batched requests. This feature is particularly beneficial for complex systems like core banking software, which often need to interact with multiple services to fulfill a single request. In conventional RESTful API usage, this would typically involve several network round trips, each adding to the total latency of the request.

GraphQL Federation revolutionizes this process by enabling clients to batch multiple data requests into a single GraphQL query. This capability applies even if the required data resides across different underlying RESTful APIs. The result is a significant reduction in the number of network round trips, thereby lowering latency and improving overall API performance.

GraphQL Federation encourages gradual and iterative API development. Developers can introduce new fields, types, and relationships to the federated schema without impacting existing clients. As clients can selectively adopt new features as needed, it offers flexibility and prevents versioning issues often encountered in RESTful API development.

Leveraging GraphQL Federation in conjunction with RESTful APIs allows core banking software developers to create a more efficient, flexible, and high-performing data-fetching experience. By optimizing these processes, the end-user benefits from a streamlined, robust core banking software experience.

Innovation and strategic utilization of technology are at the heart of Baseella’s operations. As part of our commitment to optimize the performance of our core banking system, Baseella integrates the efficiency of RESTful APIs with the robust capabilities of GraphQL Federation. Reach out to us to discuss more how actually we are leveraging the most robust technology.