API Overview

Use your app's GraphQL API to fetch, update, create and delete data in your Noloco app.

Introduction

Welcome to the Noloco API Documentation. This guide will provide you with all the essential information to seamlessly integrate and make the most of Noloco's dynamic GraphQL API. Each Noloco application comes equipped with a dedicated GraphQL API, offering CRUD access to the tables in your application. Here's a step-by-step breakdown of our API.

Authentication

To ensure the security and privacy of your data, our API mandates authentication for all requests.

How to Authenticate:

1. Bearer Authentication Token: The API uses Bearer auth tokens for authentication. Include this token in the authorization header of your request.

2. Obtaining Your API Key: Navigate to the API & Integrations settings in your Noloco app to retrieve your API key.

Sample header:

Authorization: Bearer YOUR_API_KEY

Remember, keep your API key confidential to ensure your app's data remains secure.

GraphQL Overview

Noloco's dynamic GraphQL API offers an efficient, powerful, and flexible approach to manage the data in your app. GraphQL allows you to request precisely what you need and nothing more, ensuring your applications are fast and stable.

Endpoint:

For each Noloco app, your GraphQL endpoint will be:

https://api.portals.noloco.io/data/<app_name>

Replace <app_name> with the name of your Noloco application.

What is GraphQL

GraphQL is a query language for APIs and a server-side runtime for executing those queries by using a type system that you define for your data. It was developed by Facebook in 2012 and released as an open-source project in 2015. Unlike traditional REST APIs, GraphQL gives clients the power to specify exactly what data they need, which can lead to more efficient and precise queries.

Key Features and Benefits of GraphQL:

1. Flexibility in Queries: Clients can retrieve all the information they need in a single request. This avoids over-fetching or under-fetching of data, making applications more efficient and reducing the load on the server.

2. Strongly Typed: Every GraphQL API is defined by its schema. This means the API's shape, the types of data it returns, and the operations it supports are all determined by the schema, which ensures data integrity and safety.

3. Self-Documenting: GraphQL APIs are self-descriptive. Tools like the GraphiQL Explorer can auto-generate comprehensive documentation, making the API more developer-friendly.

4. Community and Ecosystem: Being open-source and popular means a plethora of tools, libraries, and resources are available for GraphQL across different programming languages.

Learn More About GraphQL:

1. Official GraphQL Website: The best place to get started. It provides in-depth documentation, best practices, and community resources.

2. How to GraphQL: A free and open-source tutorial to learn all around GraphQL to go from zero to production.

3. Apollo GraphQL Blog: A rich source of articles, best practices, and discussions around GraphQL development.

By integrating GraphQL into Noloco, we ensure that you have the most flexible, efficient, and powerful tool to manage and retrieve your data as your needs evolve.

GraphiQL Explorer

Want to experiment with your queries or familiarize yourself with the capabilities of our GraphQL API? The GraphiQL Explorer is a playground for you.

Accessing GraphiQL Explorer:

1. Navigate to the API & Integrations settings in your Noloco app.

2. Look for the GraphiQL API Explorer option and open it.

The Explorer offers an intuitive interface, auto-complete features, and built-in documentation to help you frame your queries efficiently.

The explorer makes it easy to browse the different queries and mutations your app offers, and makes it easy to build and test the queries you need.

By opening the explorer from your app the API key will pre-populate so you can start making requests immediately.