Multiplayer Tic Tac Toe with GraphQL

This tutorial demonstrates building a multiplayer Tic-Tac-Toe game using GraphQL, showcasing its power and efficiency for front-end development. GraphQL's strength lies in its ability to let clients precisely specify their data needs, resulting in optimized, predictable responses.

We'll use Hasura GraphQL Engine with a custom GraphQL server for the backend, and React with Apollo Client for the front-end (though any framework is adaptable). This approach combines the ease of database management offered by Hasura with the flexibility of a custom server for game logic.

GraphQL Fundamentals:

GraphQL is an API query language. Key features include:

• Client-specified queries: Clients request only the data they need, avoiding over-fetching. For example, to get a user's ID and name:

query {
  user {
    id
    name
  }
}

• Single endpoint, POST requests: Simplifies API interaction.
• Structured responses: The response structure is predictable based on the query. For the above query, a successful response would look like:

{
  "data": {
    "user": {
      "id": "AUTH:482919",
      "name": "Jon Doe"
    }
  }
}

• Introspection: Clients can query the server for its supported queries.

Why GraphQL for this Game?

GraphQL's precision minimizes data transfer, leading to faster, more efficient responses. Introspection enables dynamic query building and improves developer experience (DX) through features like linting and auto-completion. The single endpoint simplifies API management, and built-in support for real-time subscriptions streamlines the creation of multiplayer features.

Key GraphQL Terminology:

• Query: Fetches data.
• Mutation: Modifies data on the server.
• Subscription: Subscribes the client to real-time data updates.
• Query variables: Parameters passed to queries.

Backend Setup:

Our backend utilizes Hasura GraphQL Engine (for database interaction) and a custom GraphQL server (for game logic). We'll use Postgres as the database. Hasura provides instant, real-time GraphQL APIs over Postgres, handling CRUD operations and offering webhook triggers and remote schema support.

The steps for setting up the backend include:

1. Deploy Hasura: Deploy a free instance of Hasura GraphQL Engine on Heroku.
2. Create Database Tables: Create user, board, and move tables in Postgres via the Hasura console. Define relationships between these tables to enable efficient querying.
3. Custom Server: Deploy a custom GraphQL server (provided in the original tutorial) to handle game logic, such as move validation and turn switching. This server requires a Postgres connection string as an environment variable.
4. Integrate Remote Schema: Add the custom server's URL to Hasura as a remote schema to unify the API endpoint.

Front-End Development (Queries and Mutations):

While the front-end implementation is framework-agnostic, here are the essential GraphQL queries and mutations:

• insert_user Mutation: Inserts a new user.
• board Subscription: Subscribes to available game boards.
• insert_board Mutation: Creates a new game board.
• update_board Mutation: Joins a game board.
• board_by_pk Subscription: Subscribes to updates on a specific game board.
• make_move Mutation: Makes a move on the board, validating it and switching turns.

Using Apollo Client simplifies front-end GraphQL integration.

By following these steps, you can create a fully functional multiplayer Tic-Tac-Toe game leveraging the power and efficiency of GraphQL.

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