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GraphQL Migration

2 posts · Jun 2022 – Jun 2023

What this trail covers

Netflix is migrating its mobile applications from Falcor to Federated GraphQL, involving a complete overhaul from the client to the API layer. This migration is being executed in phases, with initial steps involving a GraphQL shim service and subsequent deprecation of legacy APIs in favor of domain-team-owned GraphQL services. The process emphasizes safety through techniques like A/B testing, replay testing for idempotent APIs, and sticky canaries for non-functional and non-idempotent requirements. This post details the query language and search capabilities built on top of this federated graph, leveraging Elasticsearch for indexing and a custom DSL for querying, with late-binding authorization and dynamic schema registration for efficient onboarding and customization.

All Netflix trails
  1. Migrating Netflix to GraphQL SafelyThis post details the strategies employed for a safe migration of Netflix's mobile applications from Falcor to Federated GraphQL. It introduces and explains three key techniques: A/B Testing for evaluating overall client-side GraphQL implementation and QoE metrics; Replay Testing for validating the functional correctness of idempotent API migrations by comparing responses from the old and new services; and Sticky Canaries for assessing non-functional requirements and non-idempotent API behavior through infrastructure experiments that assign users to specific hosts for the duration of the test.
  2. How Netflix Content Engineering makes a federated graph searchable (Part 2)This post details the implementation of a query language and search capabilities for a federated GraphQL graph. It describes the use of a custom DSL built with ANTLR to abstract Elasticsearch complexity, the integration of Elasticsearch for indexing and searching, and the use of GraphQL federation to hydrate search results. It also covers late-binding authorization for securing data access and dynamic schema registration for efficient onboarding of new search indices.