NestJS Dataloader

NestJS dataloader simplifies adding graphql/dataloader to your NestJS project. DataLoader aims to solve the common N+1 loading problem.

Installation

Install with yarn

yarn add nestjs-dataloader

Install with npm

npm install --save nestjs-dataloader

Usage

NestDataLoader Creation

We start by implementing the NestDataLoader interface. This tells DataLoader how to load our objects.

import * as DataLoader from 'dataloader';
import { Injectable } from '@nestjs/common';
import { NestDataLoader } from 'nestjs-dataloader';
...

@Injectable()
export class AccountLoader implements NestDataLoader<string, Account> {
  constructor(private readonly accountService: AccountService) { }

  generateDataLoader(): DataLoader<string, Account> {
    return new DataLoader<string, Account>(keys => this.accountService.findByIds(keys));
  }
}

The first generic of the interface is the type of ID the datastore uses. The second generic is the type of object that will be returned. In the above instance, we want DataLoader to return instances of the Account class.

Providing the NestDataLoader

For each NestDataLoader we create, we need to provide it to our module.

import { Module } from '@nestjs/common';
import { APP_INTERCEPTOR } from '@nestjs/core';
import {DataLoaderInterceptor} from 'nestjs-dataloader'
...

@Module({
  providers: [
    AccountResolver,
    AccountLoader,
    {
      provide: APP_INTERCEPTOR,
      useClass: DataLoaderInterceptor,
    },
  ],

})
export class ResolversModule { }

Using the NestDataLoader

Now that we have a dataloader and our module is aware of it, we need to pass it as a parameter to an endpoint in our graphQL resolver.

import * as DataLoader from 'dataloader';
import { Loader } from 'nestjs-dataloader';
...

@Resolver(Account)
export class AccountResolver {

    @Query(() => [Account])
    public getAccounts(
        @Args({ name: 'ids', type: () => [String] }) ids: string[],
        @Loader(AccountLoader) accountLoader: DataLoader<Account['id'], Account>): Promise<Account[]> {
        return accountLoader.loadMany(ids);
    }
}

The important thing to note is that the parameter of the @Loader decorator is the entity/class of the NestDataLoader we want to be injected to the method. The DataLoader library will handle bulk retrieval and caching of our requests. Note that the caching is stored on a per-request basis.

Contributing

Pull requests are always welcome. For major changes, please open an issue first to discuss what you would like to change.