Extension to bring back file upload support

[jasonkuhrt]

Perceived Problem

Loss of file upload support #400

Ideas / Proposed Solution(s)

• need an extension system (tbd)

[jasonkuhrt]

Can someone please share the requirements for file uploads at runtime? I've never done it myself.

[ThallesP]

Can someone please share the requirements for file uploads at runtime? I've never done it myself.

hi, wdym by requirements? dependencies?

[jasonkuhrt]

Hey, I mean what does the implementation of file uploads need to do. Knowing details about that will help drive the extension design, because we'll know what kinds of knobs and levers need to be exposed.

[onionhammer]

For one thing, you have to change the type of request that's made from normal JSON data to multipart/form-data, you need to replace files in the payload with a reference to the file, etc, which means recursively searching the body for files.

It's not that hard, just fiddly to get everything 100%. See this code for reference:

https://github.com/lynxtaa/awesome-graphql-client/blob/a3ecec2fdd3b72b005268a24b2364dd647dc6efd/packages/awesome-graphql-client/src/AwesomeGraphQLClient.ts#L83

Written by @lynxtaa

which uses https://www.npmjs.com/package/extract-files

Spec: https://github.com/jaydenseric/graphql-multipart-request-spec

[jasonkuhrt]

Thanks, I'll check those links out when the time comes.

you need to replace files in the payload

what would "payload" be and what would "files in payload" mean? Does recursively searching the body mean the graphql document selection set?

[onionhammer]

By payload, I mean the object being POSTed;

i.e. https://github.com/jaydenseric/graphql-multipart-request-spec?tab=readme-ov-file#file-list

You can see the variables get swapped out for nulls, then a map is appended to the form data with the variables that were present in that list, but the shape of variables likely isn't known, so you have to search it for File objects.

[ThallesP]

Thanks, I'll check those links out when the time comes.

you need to replace files in the payload

what would "payload" be and what would "files in payload" mean? Does recursively searching the body mean the graphql document selection set?

Yep, also please accept a Readable stream from node or the web api, loading the entire file in memory using a Buffer should be optional and not the only way.