Settings View Source Importing Fields

Sometimes an object type becomes too large and needs to be broken into pieces. This is especially true of the root query, mutation, and subscription types that are defined in the schema module itself.

Absinthe provides a mechanism, Absinthe.Schema.Notation.import_fields/1, to support objects being able to import fields from other object types.

an-example

An Example

Let's say you're building a content management system. Your root query type has become unwieldy over time, and your schema looks something like this:

defmodule MyAppWeb.Schema do
  use Absinthe.Schema

  query do

    @desc "Get all the users, optionally filtering"
    field :users, list_of(:user) do
      # ...
    end

    @desc "Get a user using criteria"
    field :user, :user do
      # ...
    end

    # More account-related fields..

    @desc "Get all the articles, optionally filtering"
    field :articles, list_of(:article) do
      # ...
    end

    @desc "Get an article using criteria"
    field :article, :article do
      # ...
    end

    # More content-related fields...

  end

  # Other types...

end

This could be cleaned up to look something like this:

defmodule MyAppWeb.Schema do
  use Absinthe.Schema

  import_types MyAppWeb.Schema.AccountTypes
  import_types MyAppWeb.Schema.ContentTypes

  query do

    # Using :account_queries from MyAppWeb.Schema.AccountTypes
    import_fields :account_queries

    # Using :content_queries from MyAppWeb.Schema.ContentTypes
    import_fields :content_queries

  end

  # Other types...

end

import_fields here is pulling fields in from separate object types.

Before you can import fields from another object type, make sure that the type in question is available to your schema. See the guide on importing types for information on how that's done.

Here's how those object types are defined.

First, AccountTypes:

defmodule MyAppWeb.Schema.AccountTypes do
  use Absinthe.Schema.Notation

  object :account_queries do

    @desc "Get all the users, optionally filtering"
    field :users, list_of(:user) do
      # ...
    end

    @desc "Get a user using criteria"
    field :user, :user do
      # ...
    end

    # More account-related fields...

  end

  # More account-related types...

end

And ContentTypes:

defmodule MyAppWeb.Schema.ContentTypes do
  use Absinthe.Schema.Notation

  object :content_queries do

    @desc "Get all the articles, optionally filtering"
    field :articles, list_of(:article) do
      # ...
    end

    @desc "Get an article using criteria"
    field :article, :article do
      # ...
    end

    # More content-related fields

  end

  # More content-related types...

end

For more information on import_types, see the guide.