Getting graphql-playground-react to work when offline

[penx]

Partially fixes #1421

• merge of renderPlaygroundPage - cdnUrl config option graphql/graphql-playground#845 in to master
• inclusion of renderPlaygroundPage - cdnUrl config option graphql/graphql-playground#845 in to fork @apollographql/graphql-playground-html
• release of @apollographql/graphql-playground-html
• plan on how to handle this for all middlewares/configuration - current code is just tested for the demo code/express with default configuration options, called ApolloServer.listen()
• decide on best way to mount a node_module as a static asset, given that the location of the node_module on disk may not be easily determined (e.g. when using npm link)

• Update CHANGELOG.md with your change (include reference to issue & this PR)
• Make sure all of the significant new logic is covered by tests
• Rebase your changes on master so that they can be merged easily
• Make sure all tests and linter rules pass

[apollo-cla]

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[penx]

Another option, once graphql/graphql-playground#845 is in @apollographql/graphql-playground-html, is to rely on the parent application to implement this static server and supply the appropriate cdnUrl as a config option, thereby bypassing any need for a code change in apollo-server, other than maybe documentation/how to.

According to this comment, though, this may already be fixed making this PR redundant:
#295 (comment)

@abernix can you confirm? You referenced issue #1421 but didn't close #1421 so not sure

[penx]

Working example that doesn't need a modification to apollo-server-express here:

https://github.com/penx/graphql-server-example

Up to the maintainers where you want to take this. Let me know if you want me to do anything - would be great if you can get graphql/graphql-playground#845 in to your fork once merged, this should be all that's needed for now.

[abernix]

Another option, once prisma/graphql-playground#845

Good news! That landed and should be included in Apollo Server once #1855 lands.

Your workaround you provided in #1734 is great and along the lines of what I was looking at! I had been considering using server-static since it might have a better chance of working in the various integration flavors of Apollo Server than express.static (e.g. apollo-server-hapi, apollo-server-koa, etc.), but I do think we should consider making this a more permanent resident of Apollo Server since, as you know, it's not possible to run Playground offline. That said, I do think it should still be configurable since the serving of those HTML assets might not be desirable or possible in some environments, for example where only a single endpoint is available.

[penx]

decide on best way to mount a node_module as a static asset, given that the location of the node_module on disk may not be easily determined (e.g. when using npm link)

I think this can be done using require.resolve

app.use(
  '/graphql-playground-react',
  express.static(require.resolve('graphql-playground-react')),
);

[penx]

@abernix I just made a couple of updates - do you reckon this can be merged in? Or did you want to go a different route?

[abernix]

I realize this is quite old at this point but, due to the extra weight of the graphql-playground-react bundle, which is often undesirable in serverless environments or workers where bundle size is critical, I'm mostly tempted to recommend resolving this via documentation, rather than actually bundling the entirety of the React bundle GraphQL Playground into Apollo Server.

For example, it's still possible to just set playground: false and directly use, for example, graphql-playground-middleware-express, right? Thoughts?

[StefanFeederle]

I would favour including the bundled assets by default and having a config value for serverless deployments.

[glasser]

GraphQL Playground's maintainers have retired the project. It is not the default experience as of last year's Apollo Server 3 and won't be distributed as a maintained part of Apollo Server starting with Apollo Server 4 (imminent). So we are not going to improve it. Sorry for the delay!