GraphQL on PHP: Building Modern APIs

Modern web development requires flexible and performant APIs. GraphQL is a query language that allows clients to receive only the necessary data, eliminating the overfetching and underfetching problems characteristic of REST. The book "GraphQL on PHP" is a practical guide that will take you from the basics to building a full-fledged GraphQL server in PHP.

Who is this book for?

• PHP developers familiar with the basics of the language who want to master a modern approach to building APIs.
• Backend engineers who want to improve the performance and flexibility of their applications.
• Those who already use REST and are looking for an alternative for complex projects with many data relationships.
• Students and aspiring developers seeking to understand how modern APIs work.

What will you learn from the book?

• The basic principles of GraphQL: types, schemas, queries, and mutations.
• Setting up the environment and installing necessary libraries (e.g., webonyx/graphql-php).
• Creating data types, defining schemas, and writing resolvers for data retrieval.
• Handling arguments, variables, and directives for flexible queries.
• Implementing mutations to modify data on the server.
• Working with subscriptions to receive real-time updates via WebSocket.
• Integrating GraphQL with popular PHP frameworks: Laravel, Symfony, Slim.
• Performance optimization: batching, caching, and solving the N+1 problem.
• Security: authentication, authorization, validation, and protection against injections.
• Testing GraphQL servers using PHPUnit and tools like GraphiQL.

Why should you read this book?

The author, an experienced PHP developer with many years of experience, shares not only theory but also real-world cases from commercial development. Each chapter contains practical examples ready for use in projects. You will learn to design schemas that are easy to extend and write code that performs well even under high load.

The book "GraphQL on PHP" will be your reliable guide on the path to creating modern, scalable, and client-friendly APIs. Whether you are building a mobile application, an SPA on React/Vue, or a microservice architecture, the knowledge gained from this book will help you implement your ideas efficiently and professionally.