GraphQL Subscriptions with React, Node, Apollo and Postgres

This guide will show you how to create a Pinterest-like example using React, Node, Apollo Client, Apollo Server and Postgres.

The app allows users to add pins, list pins and update that list when users create new content.

Real time updates are possible because the app communicates with a GraphQL Subscriptions server.

Don't worry if this stack sounds overwhelming. You will learn how to make this app step by step. Let's get started by creating a simple, client side, no server version of the app.

Contents

Bootstrap client

First of all we will bootstrap a react app using create-react-app .

mkdir pinapp cd pinapp yarn global add create-react-app create-react-app client cd client yarn start

Now that we have a react app running, it's time to add local state and UI components to App.js . First of all install some Pinterest-style UI components.

yarn add apollo-subscription-example-components

Now delete everything inside App.js . On the top of the file add the required imports, which are react and some components from apollo-subscription-example-components .

The first component that we will use is Container . It's a wrapper whose responsibility is setting up some routes and styles. We need to set it as one of the top level components of our app.

Our app displays a list of pins. We will store them in state.pins so that every time we add new pins, we re-render everything. We will pass that state to <PinListPage /> , who knows how to render pins.

Users can create new pins. To implement that bit of functionality, add <AddPinPage /> below <PinListPage /> . As its name says, <AddPinPage /> sets up a page which allows users to create new pins. It receives an addPin property. We will define a function that adds new pins to the state, and pass it in addPin .

At this point App.js should look like this:

import React, { Component } from 'react' import { Container, Nav, PinListPage, AddPinPage, } from 'apollo-subscription-example-components' class App extends Component { state = { pins : this .props.pins || [] } render() { return ( < Container > <PinListPage pins={this.state.pins} /> <AddPinPage addPin={pin => { this.setState(({ pins }) => ({ pins: pins.concat([pin]) })) }} /> <Nav /> </Container> ) } } export default App

To get a feel of the app, play around with it in this sandbox:

Take a look at the github repo at this point in time if you got stuck in anything.

The next step is creating a GraphQL server which will allow the app to create and list pins. It will also provide a way to listen for new pins, so that users can see when other people create new content.

## Bootstrap server

It's time to create the GraphQL server that will communicate with our web app. We will use Apollo Server to handle HTTP requests. We will also setup a Postgres database. Postgres will serve two purposes. The first one is storing data. The second one is as a PubSub service, sending messages to the server every time a user creates pins.

Using Postgres as a Subscriptions enabler makes for a simple, production ready setup. It's also perfect for MVPs because it fits perfectly in Heroku's free tier, which allows you to setup Node servers and Postgres databases for free. If you did not use Postgres for Subscriptions, you'd have to add additional services to your stack, like Redis or RabbitMQ, among others. Having extra services comes with added complexity, which you might not need for simpler projects (or even for complex ones).

Let's get our hands dirty. Bootstrap the files that our server needs with the following commands.

mkdir ../server cd server yarn init -y touch index.js

Create database

Now let's create a database inside Postgres. To do that we will add two dependencies to handle environment variables, dotenv and run.env .

dotenv allows us to define environment variables in a file called .env .

run.env allows us to load dotenv when we run postgres ' createdb command.

yarn add dotenv yarn add run.env --dev

Create a file called .env . Using the following contents will work with Postgres' default config, but feel free to change them with your desired values:

HOST=localhost PORT=3001 PGDATABASE="pinapp" PGHOST=localhost PGPORT=5432 DBUSER=postgres PGPASSWORD=

Finally run createdb to create a database inside Postgres.

npx run.env createdb pinapp

Now that we have a database created, it's time to create a table which will hold all pins.

## Create pins table

We will use a library called knex to interact with Postgres. It will allow us to setup migrations. It also provides a functional javascript API that abstracts SQL queries.

Run the following commands to generate a migration file:

yarn add pg knex npx knex init

Replace the contents of knexfile.js with the following code. It is almost the same code that knex init generated, but this one connects our environment variables to their corresponding connection fields.

module .exports = { development : { client : "postgresql" , connection : { host : process.env.PGHOST, database : process.env.PGDATABASE, user : process.env.DBUSER, password : process.env.PGPASSWORD }, pool : { min : 2 , max : 10 }, migrations : { tableName : "knex_migrations" } }, staging : { client : "postgresql" , connection : { host : process.env.PGHOST, database : process.env.PGDATABASE, user : process.env.DBUSER, password : process.env.PGPASSWORD }, pool : { min : 2 , max : 10 }, migrations : { tableName : "knex_migrations" } }, production : { client : "postgresql" , connection : { host : process.env.PGHOST, database : process.env.PGDATABASE, user : process.env.DBUSER, password : process.env.PGPASSWORD, ssl : true }, pool : { min : 2 , max : 10 }, migrations : { tableName : "knex_migrations" } } };

Generate a migration file.

npx run.env knex migrate:make create_pins_table

Add a couple of functions to migrations/create_pins_table.js . Up function will run when we migrate our database, and down will run when we rollback migrations.

This migration creates a table called pins . It adds a self-incrementing field called id , along with three string fields called title , link and image .

exports.up = knex => knex.schema.createTable( 'pins' , t => { t.increments( 'id' ).primary() t.string( 'title' ) t.string( 'link' ) t.string( 'image' ) }) exports.down = knex => knex.schema.dropTableIfExists( 'pins' )

Finally, run the migration to create the table.

npx run.env knex migrate:latest

Server side GraphQL queries

Now it's time to create the API using Apollo Server.

First of all install dependencies:

yarn add express body-parser apollo-server-express graphql-tools graphql

Now create index.js . Add the dependencies we just installed and also set PORT and HOST variables:

const express = require ( 'express' ) const bodyParser = require ( 'body-parser' ) const { graphqlExpress, graphiqlExpress } = require ( 'apollo-server-express' ) const { makeExecutableSchema } = require ( 'graphql-tools' ) const { execute, subscribe } = require ( 'graphql' ) const { createServer } = require ( 'http' ) const database = require ( './database' ) const PORT = process.env.PORT || 3000 const HOST = process.env.HOST || 'localhost'

Create database.js with the following code:

const knex = require ( "knex" )( require ( "./knexfile" )[process.env.NODE_ENV || "development" ] ); module .exports = knex;

Now we will define a Pin type using GraphQL's Schema Definition Language (SDL). This type will define the fields that make up a Pin , which are title , link , image and id . The first three types are String , and id is an Int . We set all of those types as required by adding a ! after them.

We will also define a pins query. It returns an object with a field called pins , which contains an array of elements of type Pin .

const typeDefs = ` type Pin { title: String!, link: String!, image: String!, id: Int! } type Query { pins: [Pin] } `

We defined a Query in the previous schema, now it's time to associate a function that our server will execute every time a client asks for pins .

const resolvers = { Query : { pins : async () => { const pins = await database( 'pins' ).select() return pins }, } }

The last step to having a working schema is connecting typeDefs to resolvers . To achieve that we will use a function from graphql-tools called makeExecutableSchema .

Finally we will define two routes. Our API endpoint will be server at /graphql . We will expose a GraphiQL instance at graphiql to let users discover our schema, and send queries.

After all the previous code changes, this is what index.js should look like:

const express = require ( 'express' ) const bodyParser = require ( 'body-parser' ) const { graphqlExpress, graphiqlExpress } = require ( 'apollo-server-express' ) const { makeExecutableSchema } = require ( 'graphql-tools' ) const database = require ( './database' ) const PORT = process.env.PORT || 3000 const HOST = process.env.HOST || 'localhost' const typeDefs = ` type Pin { title: String!, link: String!, image: String!, id: Int! } type Query { pins: [Pin] } ` const resolvers = { Query : { pins : async () => { const pins = await database( 'pins' ).select() return pins }, } } const schema = makeExecutableSchema({ typeDefs, resolvers, }) const server = express() server.use( '/graphql' , bodyParser.json(), graphqlExpress({ schema })) server.use( '/graphiql' , graphiqlExpress({ endpointURL : '/graphql' , subscriptionsEndpoint : `ws:// ${HOST} : ${PORT} /subscriptions` , }) ) server.listen(PORT, () => { console .log( `Go to http:// ${HOST} : ${PORT} /graphiql to run queries!` ) })

Add start and dev commands to your package.json :

{ "name" : /* */, "version" : /* */, "description" : /* */, "main" : /* */, "repository" : /* */, "author" : /* */, "license" : /* */, "scripts" : { "start: " node index.js ", " dev ": " nodemon index.js ", " db:create ": " run.env createdb pinapp ", " db:migrate ": " run.env knex migrate:latest " } }

Install Nodemon as dev dependency so that our server restarts itself after every change:

yarn add nodemon --dev

Go ahead, start the server with yarn dev and send your first query at http://localhost:3001/graphiql .

{ pins { id title link image } }

The API allows client to list pins, so the next step is allowing them to create pins.

Server side GraphQL mutations

In order to let clients create pins, we need to do two things. Define a new Mutation type in our type definitions, and also create a corresponding resolver.

We will create a mutation called addPin . It will receive title , link and image s required values. It will return the created pin id .

const typeDefs = ` type Pin { title: String!, link: String!, image: String!, id: Int! } type Query { pins: [Pin] } type Mutation { addPin(title: String!, link: String!, image: String!): Int } ` ;

We will add a Mutation field to resolvers . It's function will insert a pin to the database and return the created id.

const resolvers = { Query : { }, Mutation : { addPin : async (_, { title, link, image }) => { const [id] = await database( "pins" ) .returning( "id" ) .insert({ title, link, image }); return id; } } };

That's all we need in order to allow users to create pins. Try the new mutation by going to http://localhost:3001/graphiql and send the following query:

mutation { addPin ( title : "Best GraphQL video ever!" , link : "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQw4w9WgXcQ" , image : "https://graphql.org/img/logo.svg" ) }

The final feature of our API is providing a way for clients to get notified whenever a user adds new pins. We will use GraphQL Subscriptions to achieve that.

Server side GraphQL subscriptions

Adding Subscriptions to an Apollo GraphQL Server is pretty straightforward. We will follow the steps defined in Apollo Server Subscription docs. It will require five steps:

Install dependencies:

yarn add subscriptions-transport-ws graphql-postgres-subscriptions

Change our schema by adding a Subscription query and resolver

const typeDefs = ` type Pin { title: String!, link: String!, image: String!, id: Int! } type Query { pins: [Pin] } type Mutation { addPin(title: String!, link: String!, image: String!): Int } type Subscription { pinAdded: Pin } `

Setup a PostgresPubSub instance that our server will publish new events to

const pubsub = new PostgresPubSub({ user : process.env.USER, host : process.env.PGHOST, database : process.env.PGDATABASE, password : process.env.PGPASSWORD, port : process.env.PGPORT, })

Hook together PubSub and GraphQL Subscription

const resolvers = { Query : { }, Mutation : { addPin : async (_, { title, link, image }) => { pubsub.publish( "pinAdded" , { pinAdded : { title, link, image, id } }); return id; } }, Subscription : { pinAdded : { subscribe : () => pubsub.asyncIterator( 'pinAdded' ), }, }, }

Set up a SubscriptionServer . Delete the existing server.listen() call and replace it with ws.listen() .

const ws = createServer(server) ws.listen(PORT, () => { console .log( `Go to http:// ${HOST} : ${PORT} /graphiql to run queries!` ) new SubscriptionServer( { execute, subscribe, schema, }, { server : ws, path : '/subscriptions' , } ) })

This is what the new changes in index.js look like:

const { execute, subscribe } = require ( 'graphql' ) const { createServer } = require ( 'http' ) const { SubscriptionServer } = require ( 'subscriptions-transport-ws' ) const { PostgresPubSub } = require ( 'graphql-postgres-subscriptions' ) const pubsub = new PostgresPubSub({ user : process.env.USER, host : process.env.PGHOST, database : process.env.PGDATABASE, password : process.env.PGPASSWORD, port : process.env.PGPORT, }) const typeDefs = ` type Pin { title: String!, link: String!, image: String!, id: Int! } type Query { pins: [Pin] } type Mutation { addPin(title: String!, link: String!, image: String!): Int } type Subscription { pinAdded: Pin } ` const resolvers = { Query : { }, Mutation : { addPin : async (_, { title, link, image }) => { pubsub.publish( "pinAdded" , { pinAdded : { title, link, image, id } }); return id; } }, Subscription : { pinAdded : { subscribe : () => pubsub.asyncIterator( 'pinAdded' ), }, }, } const schema = makeExecutableSchema({ typeDefs, resolvers, }) const server = express() server.use( '/graphql' , bodyParser.json(), graphqlExpress({ schema })) server.use( '/graphiql' , graphiqlExpress({ endpointURL : '/graphql' , subscriptionsEndpoint : `ws:// ${HOST} : ${PORT} /subscriptions` , }) ) const ws = createServer(server) ws.listen(PORT, () => { console .log( `Go to http:// ${HOST} : ${PORT} /graphiql to run queries!` ) new SubscriptionServer( { execute, subscribe, schema, }, { server : ws, path : '/subscriptions' , } ) })

You can play with subscriptions by starting two servers at the same time.

node index.js PORT=3002 node index.js

Send a subscription query to one of them using GraphiQL (http://localhost:3001/graphiql).

subscription { pinAdded { id title link image } }

Afterwards send a mutation to the other server (http://localhost:3002/graphiql).

mutation { addPin ( title : "Truly the best GraphQL video ever!" , link : "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQw4w9WgXcQ" , image : "https://graphql.org/img/logo.svg" ) }

This is what that should look like. Notice that the subscription query receives the data we asked as soon as we send the mutation.

That's it, we are finished with the server for now. Here is it's source code in case you need it.

Now let's connect client and server using Apollo Client.

Setup React Apollo

We will use React Apollo to connect our components with GraphQL queries. React Apollo is a library which lets us query GraphQL APIs using React components. Not only Apollo Client makes it dead easy to query GraphQL APIs, but it also provides several features like merging queries from different components into a single HTTP request and zero-config caching.

There are two ways to setup React Apollo. One way is installing Apollo Boost, and the other is installing several dependencies. The first one is a quicker way to get started. It's perfectly fine for simple use cases. But if we want greater flexibility or we have advanced requirements (such as using Subscriptions), then the second one is the only choice.

We will install the required libraries with the following command:

yarn add apollo-cache-inmemory apollo-client apollo-link apollo-link-error apollo-link-http graphql graphql-tag react-apollo

To use React Apollo we need to wrap our components with a <ApolloProvider /> . It must be one of the top level components of our app. ApolloProvider receives a client property, which we can create with new ApolloClient({ link, cache }) .

We will create a link using ApolloLink.from . It composes different links into one, which we can send to ApolloClient constructor. We will use apollo-link-http and apollo-link-error . We configure http link with our server's URI. Error link exposes an onError function, which we will use to log our app GraphQL and network errors.

To summarize, you need to do three things:

Add new dependencies Setup Apollo Client Wrap your components with ApolloProvider

This is what App.js must look like after those changes:

import React, { Component } from "react" ; import { Container, Nav, PinListPage, AddPinPage, Spinner } from "apollo-subscription-example-components" ; import gql from "graphql-tag" ; import { ApolloProvider, Query, Mutation } from "react-apollo" ; import { ApolloClient } from "apollo-client" ; import { InMemoryCache } from "apollo-cache-inmemory" ; import { HttpLink } from "apollo-link-http" ; import { onError } from "apollo-link-error" ; import { ApolloLink } from "apollo-link" ; const client = new ApolloClient({ link : ApolloLink.from([ onError( ( { graphQLErrors, networkError } ) => { if (graphQLErrors) graphQLErrors.map( ( { message, locations, path } ) => console .log( `[GraphQL error]: Message: ${message} , Location: ${locations} , Path: ${path} ` ) ); if (networkError) console .log( `[Network error]: ${networkError} ` ); }), new HttpLink({ uri : "http://localhost:3001/graphql" , credentials : "same-origin" }) ]), cache : new InMemoryCache() }); class App extends Component { state = { pins : this .props.pins || [] }; render() { return ( < ApolloProvider client = {client} > <Container> <PinListPage pins={this.state.pins} /> <AddPinPage addPin={pin => { this.setState(({ pins }) => ({ pins: pins.concat([pin]) })); }} /> <Nav /> </Container> </ApolloProvider> ); } } export default App;

We must make an additional change to our server. By default, it rejects requests made from different domains. To change that behavior, we will add and install a package called cors . It will make our API (hosted at http://localhost:3001) accept requests from our client, which is at a different domain (http://localhost:3000).

Run these commands:

cd ../server yarn add cors

Require and setup CORS middleware in server/index.js :

const cors = require ( "cors" ); const schema = makeExecutableSchema({ typeDefs, resolvers, }) const server = express() server.use(cors()) server.use( '/graphql' , bodyParser.json(), graphqlExpress({ schema }))

Now that we have setup our client and server, it's time to use React Apollo's <Query /> component to fetch data from the API.

## React Apollo's Query component

React Apollo provides a <Query /> component. It receives a GraphQL query as input, and outputs an object with loading , error and data properties. It looks a little bit like this: <Query query={MY_QUERY}>{({ data, loading, error }) => <YourComponent data={data} loading={loading} error={error} />}</Query> .

As you may have noticed, <Query /> receives a function as children. Most React components receive other components as child, not functions. Both Query and Mutation components implement a technique called render props. It is just a way of sharing data between React components. Read more about it in this page from the official React documentation.

We will use React Apollo's <Query /> component to create a component called PinsQuery . It will fetch data from our API, and return that information to <PinListPage /> . To understand what we'll make, it's useful to look at how we want to use it.

<PinsQuery>{pins => < PinListPage pins = {pins} /> } </ PinsQuery >

As you can see, we will create this component using render props, the same technique that React Apollo uses.

The responsibilities of <PinsQuery /> are:

Receive PINS_QUERY

Fetch data

If loading is true, render a <Spinner />

If error is true, show an error message

If data is defined, then pass it as an argument to children

This is what the implementation looks like:

const PINS_QUERY = gql ` { pins { title link image id } } ` ; const PinsQuery = ( { children } ) => ( < Query query = {PINS_QUERY} > {({ loading, error, data }) => { if (loading) return ( <div style={{ paddingTop: 20 }}> <Spinner show /> </div> ); if (error) return <p>Error :(</p>; return children(data.pins); }} </Query> );

The following step is creating a <AddPinMutation /> component, using the same technique that we used on <PinsQuery /> .

React Apollo's Mutation component

We will implement a component called <AddPinMutation /> which will output a function to its children. Our <AddPinPage /> component will receive that function and call it when it needs to.

Go back to client folder

cd ../client

<AddPinMutation> {addPin => ( < AddPinPage addPin = {({ title , link , image }) => addPin({ variables: { title, link, image } }) } /> )} </ AddPinMutation >

To create this component we'll use React Apollo's <Mutation /> component.

Just like the <Query /> component we used earlier, it receives a function as a children and a query property.

It also receives a property called refetchQueries . We want to update our app with the new data generated after a mutation. One way of doing that is fetching all pins after the user adds a new one. That is the simplest way to make sure that our data is updated, and is the options that we will choose for the moment.

The query that we will send to AddPinMutation has a new aspect compared to PINS_QUERY : It implements GraphQL variables because it is dynamic. We want to be able to create pins with different names, links and images.

We will define three required variables called $title , $link and $image . This is what our query will look like:

mutation AddPin($title: String !, $link: String !, $image: String !) { addPin(title: $title, link : $link, image: $image) }

Add the following code after the PinsQuery definition to create <AddPinMutation /> :

const PinsQuery = const AddPinMutation = ( { children } ) => ( < Mutation mutation = {gql ` mutation AddPin ($ title: String !, $ link: String !, $ image: String !) { addPin ( title: $ title , link: $ link , image: $ image ) } `} refetchQueries = {[{ query: PINS_QUERY }]} > {(addPin, { data, loading, error }) => children(addPin, { data, loading, error }) } </ Mutation > );

We just added queries and mutations to our app in a few lines of code thanks to React Apollo. This is what App.js looks like after sending queries and mutations to our API:

import React, { Component } from "react" ; import { Container, Nav, PinListPage, AddPinPage, Spinner } from "apollo-subscription-example-components" ; import gql from "graphql-tag" ; import { ApolloProvider, Query, Mutation } from "react-apollo" ; import { ApolloClient } from "apollo-client" ; import { InMemoryCache } from "apollo-cache-inmemory" ; import { HttpLink } from "apollo-link-http" ; import { onError } from "apollo-link-error" ; import { ApolloLink } from "apollo-link" ; const client = new ApolloClient({ link : ApolloLink.from([ onError( ( { graphQLErrors, networkError } ) => { if (graphQLErrors) graphQLErrors.map( ( { message, locations, path } ) => console .log( `[GraphQL error]: Message: ${message} , Location: ${locations} , Path: ${path} ` ) ); if (networkError) console .log( `[Network error]: ${networkError} ` ); }), new HttpLink({ uri : "http://localhost:3001/graphql" , credentials : "same-origin" }) ]), cache : new InMemoryCache() }); const PINS_QUERY = gql ` { pins { title link image id } } ` ; const PinsQuery = ( { children } ) => ( < Query query = {PINS_QUERY} > {({ loading, error, data }) => { if (loading) return ( <div style={{ paddingTop: 20 }}> <Spinner show /> </div> ); if (error) return <p>Error :(</p>; return children(data.pins); }} </Query> ); const AddPinMutation = ({ children }) => ( <Mutation mutation={gql` mutation AddPin($title: String!, $link: String!, $image: String!) { addPin(title: $title, link: $link, image: $image) } `} refetchQueries={[{ query: PINS_QUERY }]} > {(addPin, { data, loading, error }) => children(addPin, { data, loading, error }) } </Mutation> ); class App extends Component { render() { return ( <ApolloProvider client={client}> <Container> <PinsQuery>{pins => <PinListPage pins={pins} />}</PinsQuery> <AddPinMutation> {(addPin, { data, loading, error }) => ( <AddPinPage addPin={({ title, link, image }) => addPin({ variables: { title, link, image } }) } /> )} </AddPinMutation> <Nav /> </Container> </ApolloProvider> ); } } export default App;

In case you need it, this is the complete source code for the client after we added React Apollo.

After making these changes, you will be able to persist created pins. That is a huge step forward compared with the previous version of the app, where a browser refresh wiped off all your fancy pins.

## Real time updates with GraphQL Subscriptions

We want to update our list of pins when a user adds a new one. React Apollo's <Query /> component provides a very intuitive way of doing that with a property called subscribeToMore . It is a function that receives a subscription query and an updateQuery field which is a function.

This function will send the query argument to our subscriptions server so it can receive real time updates. When it receives new data, it will run the updateQuery function to merge the new data with the current data.

Before we use subscribeToMore , we need to add two subscription-related dependencies. Run the following command to install apollo-link-ws and subscription-transport-ws .

yarn add apollo-link-ws subscriptions-transport-ws

To setup subscriptions we need to do three things:

Point WebSocketLink to subscriptions server Implement subscribeToMorePins Call subscribeToMorePins in App 's componentDidMount

First of all we will add WebSocketLink to our list of links, alongside apollo-link-http and apollo-link-error .

import { WebSocketLink } from "apollo-link-ws" ; const wsLink = new WebSocketLink({ uri : `ws://localhost:3001/subscriptions` , options : { reconnect : true } }); const client = new ApolloClient({ link : ApolloLink.from([ onError( ), wsLink, new HttpLink({ }) ]), cache : new InMemoryCache() });

Now it's time to update <PinsQuery /> by adding subscribeToMorePins . We create a query called PINS_SUBSCRIPTION and send it to <Query /> 's subscribeToMore function. We also add an updateQuery property, which is a function that receives the added pin, and adds that pin to the previous list of pins.

Finally we pass subscribeToMorePins as a second argument to <PinsQuery /> 's children.

const PINS_SUBSCRIPTION = gql ` subscription { pinAdded { title link image id } } ` ; const PinsQuery = ( { children } ) => ( < Query query = {PINS_QUERY} > {({ loading, error, data, subscribeToMore }) => { if (loading) return ( <div style={{ paddingTop: 20 }}> <Spinner show /> </div> ); if (error) return <p>Error :(</p>; const subscribeToMorePins = () => { subscribeToMore({ document: PINS_SUBSCRIPTION, updateQuery: (prev, { subscriptionData }) => { if (!subscriptionData.data || !subscriptionData.data.pinAdded) return prev; const newPinAdded = subscriptionData.data.pinAdded; return Object.assign({}, prev, { pins: [...prev.pins, newPinAdded] }); } }); }; return children(data.pins, subscribeToMorePins); }} </Query> );

You also need to remove refetchQueries from AddPinMutation because it's not needed anymore. Our list of pins will get updated automatically every time we add a new one, no need to fetch everything again. This is also a performance win, because we used to fetch everything even though we only needed the newest element.

The last step is calling subscribeToMorePins in App 's componentDidMount . To do that we will need to pull ApolloProvider and PinsQuery as App 's parents instead of children. The reason for moving those components up is because App needs to receive subscribeToMorePins as a prop in order to call it from a lifecycle method.

This is what App component looks like after the last changes:

class App extends Component { componentDidMount() { this .props.subscribeToMorePins(); } render() { return ( < Container > <PinListPage pins={this.props.pins} /> <AddPinMutation> {(addPin, { data, loading, error }) => ( <AddPinPage addPin={({ title, link, image }) => addPin({ variables: { title, link, image } }) } /> )} </AddPinMutation> <Nav /> </Container> ); } } export default () => ( <ApolloProvider client={client}> <PinsQuery> {/* Wrap App with PinsQuery because we need to access subscribeToMorePins in componentDidMount */} {(pins, subscribeToMorePins) => ( <App pins={pins} subscribeToMorePins={subscribeToMorePins} /> )} </PinsQuery> </ApolloProvider> );

That's the final rock we needed to climb. You can now have multiple instances of our app which will update themselves every time a new pin is added.

All code is available on Github at https://github.com/GraphQLCollege/apollo-subscriptions-example.

Conclusion

We went from zero to having a functional mini-Pinterest app implemented with React, Node, Apollo Client, Apollo Server and Postgres.

I hope you learned a couple of things along the way! GraphQL Subscriptions are great tools to have at your disposal when creating GraphQL powered apps. They provide powerful real-time functionality and are also really easy to implement thanks to the abstractions provided by the Apollo stack.

Have a great day!