Dynamically set GraphQL queries for React components with Apollo Client

Question

I'm building a React front end which allows users to select an "active" query from a list of static queries and flattens to the result to be displayed in a table. What is the best way to pass the GraphQL query from a higher-order component into a nested child component?

Most of the documentation/solutions that I've seen focus on binding a static query with dynamical conditions from component states to a component, which would not work for my purpose as the different static queries have varying fields and query different node types.

What is the best-practice/recommended approach here? I feel like this is not a very unique use case, but I can't seem to find any examples that would do something similar.

I'm using Apollo-Client/Redux as my client-side store.

Below is the rough outline of the component:

class GridViewPage extends React.Component{
  constructor(props, context) {
    super(props, context);
    this.state = {
      activeQuery = ... Stores the selected query ...
    };
  }

  render() {
    return (
      <div className="gridContainer">
        ...Component here allows users to select a query from the active list and saves it/it's ID/Index to the state...

        <Panel collapsible>
        ...Some toolbar components...
        </Panel>
        ...Component here displays the result of the query (Ideally by receiving the query or the result of as a prop?)...
      </div>
    );
  }
}

GridViewPage.propTypes = {
  grids: PropTypes.array.isRequired,
  actions: PropTypes.object.isRequired
};

function mapStateToProps(state, ownProps) {
  return {
      // Receives list of available queries as a prop
      grids: state.grids
  };
}

Answer 1

Let's take, for example, the following component:

ProfileWithData.js

import React, { Component, PropTypes } from 'react';
import { graphql } from 'react-apollo';
import gql from 'graphql-tag';

class Profile extends Component { ... }
Profile.propTypes = {
  data: PropTypes.shape({
    loading: PropTypes.bool.isRequired,
    currentUser: PropTypes.object,
  }).isRequired,
};

// We use the gql tag to parse our query string into a query document
const CurrentUserForLayout = gql`
  query CurrentUserForLayout {
    currentUser {
      login
      avatar_url
    }
  }
`;

const ProfileWithData = graphql(CurrentUserForLayout)(Profile);

It would be quite easily wrapping it with a higher order component:

Profile.js

import React, { Component, PropTypes } from 'react';

export class Profile extends Component { ... }
Profile.propTypes = {
  data: PropTypes.shape({
    loading: PropTypes.bool.isRequired,
    currentUser: PropTypes.object,
  }).isRequired,
};

createProfileWithData.js

import React, { Component, PropTypes } from 'react';
import { graphql } from 'react-apollo';
import { Profile } from './Profile'

export default function createProfileWithData(query) => {
  return graphql(query)(Profile);
}

You would then use it like this:

Page.js

import React, { Component, PropTypes } from 'react';
import gql from 'graphql-tag';
import createProfileWithData from './createProfileWithData';

class Page extends Component {  

  renderProfileWithData() {

      const { textQuery } = this.props;
      // Simplest way, though you can call gql as a function too
      const graphQLQuery = gql`${textQuery}`;

      const profileWithDataType = createProfileWithData(graphQLQuery);

      return (
        <profileWithDataType />
      );
  }

  render() {

    return (<div>
                ..
                {this.renderProfileWithData()}
                ..
           </div>)
  }

}

Profile.propTypes = {
  textQuery: PropTypes.string.isRequired,
};

I think you get the point.

Of course, your Profile would not received props.data.currentUser, rather it would be props.data.* depending on the root queries, and you would handle it appropriately depending on the contents.

Note: this was written directly in Stack Overflow, so if you encounter any problems - lmk and I'll fix it.