Research what it would take to migrate the backend to Prisma

[wdoug]

Prisma is the successor to the graphcool-framework backend that we are using currently. Previously we avoided this because we would have to set up a new database and jump through several other hoops.

It is possible this is still the case, but the benefits might be worth the cost. One thing to note is that running:

npm install -g graphql-cli
graphql create my-app --boilerplate node-basic

(see https://github.com/graphql-boilerplates/node-graphql-server/tree/master/basic) will automatically set up a database and a live graphql server for you, so maybe we can just use that functionality (I don't actually understand exactly what it is doing to be honest).

[cvanem]

Summary

The components used with a Prisma configuration are similar to Graphcool, but consist of an additional seperate GraphQL server layer between the client and the Prisma GraphQL server layer. For our implementation (and what the boilerplate examples use), this GraphQL server layer is implemented with the graphql-yoga package and automatically bound to the Prisma layer with the prisma-binding package. This separation provides more flexibility in regards to middleware or custom functionality needed, such as third party authorization. For this specific project it means we will need to move some of the authentication and permission logic around. See here for more information. https://www.prisma.io/docs/maintain/graphcool-to-prisma/overview-gcf1/#new-architecture:-your-graphql-server-uses-prisma-as-a-database-layer

Advantages

• Newer technology.
• Built in database seed functionality.
• Added flexibility for GraphQL layer
• CLI tools appear to work better than the Graphcool CLI, at least on Windows.

Disadvantages

• Development migration cost
• Production migration cost

Hosting Options (Prisma Cloud)

• Free for up to 3 users
• Provides the interface for viewing and managing your database and deployment.
• The Heroku integration automatically creates a Postgres database and deploys the GraphQL and Prisma servers and hosts them on Heroku.

Required Tasks

1. Migrate project structure. Use one of the boilerplates for folder structure examples:
   https://github.com/graphql-boilerplates/node-graphql-server
   https://github.com/graphql-boilerplates/react-fullstack-graphql

2. Migrate data model. The data model modifications can be found here.

3. Populate seed file with some data, setup secret key and test deployment.

4. Migrate Resolvers. See Migrate Resolver Functions

   • Create resolvers for GraphQL server
   • Move authenticate functionality in graphcool.yml into a resolver
   • Integarate resolver with Auth0 code (server/src/auth0)

5. Migrate Permissions

   • Move permission logic from graphcool.yml to new GraphQL Server structure. See Migrate Permission Rules)

6. Update Documentation with new instructions

7. Migrate Production Database

Research

• Determine what will need to be done to migrate the existing production database to the new deployment? We should be able to point the prism deployment to the existing production database. More research will need to be done to determine how this can be done.
  See Data Import and Export
  See Migrating to Prisma

• Determine how Prisma will be used/deployed to production and what modifications will be necessary to support this.
  Prisma Cloud is free for up to 3 users. This provides the interface for viewing and managing your database and deployment. The Heroku integration allows you to automatically create a Postgres database and Prisma server that are hosted on Heroku with minimal effort. There are other hosting and deployment options available, which will typically require more configuration.

• Determine how to create a development database with Prisma.
  The 'prisma init' and 'prisma deploy' commands can be used to setup the database. The commands are very similar to graphcool, except they actually seem to work on Windows 👍. Minimal modifications to the data model will be required to get this working. The data model modifications can be found here.

• Determine how to seed the database.
  Prisma supports seeding by simply adding the seed file and a reference to the file in the prisma.yml file. The seed file is then populated with the desired seed data and the Prisma CLI can be used to perform seed operations as needed.

• Determine how to migrate the permission structure.
  The permissions will need to be migrated. (See: Migrate Permission Rules)

• Determine how login/signup will be handled.
  The authenticate function that is currently in graphcool.yml will need to be adapted or replaced for use with Prisma. (See: Graph Cool To Prisma: Resolver Section and Migrate Resolver Functions)

• Determine, what if any modifications will need to be made to the client application to support using Prisma.
  I don't believe any other code will be modified. The existing logic and Apollo connections should work as is.

• Determine if we need to use the Prisma secret key and if so, what changes need to be done to support this.
  Yes. The only change required would be adding the key to the new configuration. The secret key adds security to the Prisma layer which is good, especially when hosted on a public server.

[wdoug]

Awesome. Thanks for this research @cvanem! Did you by chance look into what database gets backs the prisma servers when you create an app with something like graphql create my-app --boilerplate node-basic? I'm curious what that is and if we could use one of those databases for prod or if they are only useful for development purposes.

[wdoug]

Also, I'm going to edit the title of this card to reflect the work that you did on the research side to make way for a followup spike of an actual implementation of this work.

[cvanem]

@wdoug I dug into that source code a little but but got stuck trying to trace down the --boilerplate argument.

My best guess to what it is actually doing is the same as running prisma deploy and auto-selecting the options for you and deploying to a public server. Let me investigate more and I will update this post.