Get started

Hello! This short tutorial gets you up and running with Apollo Client.

For a more complete introduction to the entire Apollo platform, we recommend first completing the full-stack tutorial.

Installation

First, let's install the packages we need:

npm install @apollo/client graphql

• @apollo/client: This single package contains virtually everything you need to set up Apollo Client. It includes the in-memory cache, local state management, error handling, and a React-based view layer.
• graphql: This package provides logic for parsing GraphQL queries.

If you'd like to walk through this tutorial yourself, we recommend either running a new React project locally with Create React App or creating a new React sandbox on CodeSandbox. For reference, we will be using this CodeSandbox as our GraphQL server for our sample app, which pulls exchange rate data from the Coinbase API. If you'd like to skip ahead and see the app we're about to build, you can view it on CodeSandbox.

Create a client

Now that we have all the dependencies we need, let's initialize an ApolloClient instance. You'll need to provide it the URL of a running GraphQL server, such as this CodeSandbox instance.

In index.js, let's import ApolloClient from @apollo/client and provide our GraphQL server's URL as the uri property of the constructor's configuration object:

import { ApolloClient, InMemoryCache } from '@apollo/client';

const client = new ApolloClient({
  uri: 'https://48p1r2roz4.sse.codesandbox.io',
  cache: new InMemoryCache()
});

That's it! Our client is ready to start fetching data. Now, before we start using Apollo Client with React, let's first try sending a query with plain JavaScript.

In the same index.js file, call client.query() with the query string shown below. You'll need to import the gql function to parse the query string into a query document.

import { gql } from '@apollo/client';

// const client = ...

client
  .query({
    query: gql`
      query GetRates {
        rates(currency: "USD") {
          currency
        }
      }
    `
  })
  .then(result => console.log(result));

Run this code, open your console, and inspect the result object. You should see a data property with rates attached, along with some other properties like loading and networkStatus.

Although executing GraphQL operations like this can be useful, Apollo Client really shines when it's integrated with a view layer like React. You can bind queries to your UI and update it automatically as new data is fetched.

Let's look at how that works!

Connect your client to React

You connect Apollo Client to React with the ApolloProvider component. The ApolloProvider is similar to React's Context.Provider. It wraps your React app and places the client on the context, which enables you to access it from anywhere in your component tree.

In index.js, let's wrap our React app with an ApolloProvider. We suggest putting the ApolloProvider somewhere high in your app, above any component that might need to access GraphQL data. For example, it could be outside of your root route component if you're using React Router.

import React from 'react';
import { render } from 'react-dom';

import { ApolloProvider } from '@apollo/client';

function App() {
  return (
    <ApolloProvider client={client}>
      <div>
        <h2>My first Apollo app 🚀</h2>
      </div>
    </ApolloProvider>
  );
}

render(<App />, document.getElementById('root'));

Request data

Once your ApolloProvider is hooked up, you're ready to start requesting data with useQuery. useQuery is a React hook that use the Hooks API to share GraphQL data with your UI.

First, pass your GraphQL query (wrapped in the gql function) to the useQuery hook. When your component renders and the useQuery hook runs, a result object is returned that contains loading, error, and data properties:

• Apollo Client tracks error and loading state for you, which are reflected in the loading and error properties.
• When the result of your query comes back, it's attached to the data property.

Let's create an ExchangeRates component in index.js to see the useQuery hook in action:

import { useQuery, gql } from '@apollo/client';

const EXCHANGE_RATES = gql`
  query GetExchangeRates {
    rates(currency: "USD") {
      currency
      rate
    }
  }
`;

function ExchangeRates() {
  const { loading, error, data } = useQuery(EXCHANGE_RATES);

  if (loading) return <p>Loading...</p>;
  if (error) return <p>Error :(</p>;

  return data.rates.map(({ currency, rate }) => (
    <div key={currency}>
      <p>
        {currency}: {rate}
      </p>
    </div>
  ));
}

Congrats, you just made your first useQuery-based component! 🎉 If you render your ExchangeRates component within your App component from the previous example, you'll first see a loading indicator on the page, followed by data when it's ready. Apollo Client automatically caches this data when it comes back from the server, so you won't see a loading indicator if you run the same query again.

To play around with the app we just built, check it out on CodeSandbox. But don't stop there! Try building more components that use useQuery, and experiment with the concepts you just learned.

Next steps

Now that you've learned how to fetch data with Apollo Client, you're ready to dive deeper into creating more complex queries and mutations. After this section, we recommend moving on to:

• Queries: Learn how to fetch queries with arguments and dive deeper into configuration options. For a full list of options, check out the API reference for useQuery.
• Mutations: Learn how to update data with mutations and when you'll need to update the Apollo cache. For a full list of options, check out the API reference for useMutation.
• Apollo Client API: Sometimes, you'll need to access the client directly like we did in our plain JavaScript example above. Visit the API reference for a full list of options.