Working with Eleventy and GraphQL

Eleventy is a simple static site generator. It turns templates and data into HTML.

In this guide we will explore fetching data from Grafbase using GraphQL.

Make sure you have an Eleventy site up and running. You can follow the getting started guide if you haven't already.

Get the code for this guide →

Initialize a GraphQL backend

Now make sure you install Grafbase CLI and run the following command inside of the grafbook directory created previously:


npx grafbase@latest init

This will generate the file grafbase/schema.graphql. Open this file and replace the contents with a simple @model:


type Message @model {
  author: String!
  body: String!
}

This is all we need to create a backend for our Eleventy app! Run the Grafbase CLI to generate a GraphQL backend:


npx grafbase@latest dev

Install Eleventy Fetch

We will use the library @11ty/eleventy-fetch to handle requests to the Grafbase backend.

Create a new data source

Inside the _data directory in the root of our project you will want to create the file messages.js and import @11ty/eleventy-fetch:


const EleventyFetch = require('@11ty/eleventy-fetch')

Next set the url value we will make requests to.


const EleventyFetch = require('@11ty/eleventy-fetch')

const url = process.env.GRAFBASE_API_URL || 'http://localhost:4000/graphql'

Here we fallback to localhost when the environment variable GRAFBASE_API_URL is missing. You should set this value and GRAFBASE_API_KEY with your deployment platform before you deploy.

Get all messages with GraphQL query

Next add the following query to the messages.js file:


const EleventyFetch = require('@11ty/eleventy-fetch')

const url = process.env.GRAFBASE_API_URL || 'http://localhost:4000/graphql'

const GetAllMessagesQuery = /* GraphQL */ `
  query GetAllMessagesQuery($first: Int, after: String) {
    messageCollection(first: $first, after: $after) {
      edges {
        cursor
        node {
          id
          body
          author
          createdAt
        }
      }
    }
  }
`

Fetch messages using Eleventy Fetch

Inside of _data/messages.js you will want to finish by exporting a new async function that invokes EleventyFetch to execute the GraphQL query.

If you've used fetch with GraphQL previously you will be familiar with the request POST body:


{
  body: JSON.stringify({
    query: GetAllMessagesQuery,
    variables: {
      first: 100,
      after: null,
    },
  })
}

Make sure to set the headers and method inside fetchOptions:


module.exports = async function () {
  const { data } = await EleventyFetch(url, {
    duration: '2s',
    type: 'json',
    fetchOptions: {
      headers: {
        'content-type': 'application/json',
        'x-api-key': process.env.GRAFBASE_API_KEY,
      },
      method: 'POST',
      body: JSON.stringify({
        query: GetAllMessagesQuery,
        variables: {
          first: 100,
          after: null,
        },
      }),
    },
  })

  return data?.messageCollection?.edges || []
}

If you have more than 100 messages you will want to update the query to loop through all pages to populate the Eleventy cache.

Add a custom Date filter

So we can display a formatted createdAt date in our list of messages you can add a custom filter.

Inside your .eleventy.js configuration file use addFilter to configure the date filter:


module.exports = config => {
  config.addFilter('date', date =>
    new Intl.DateTimeFormat('en-GB', {
      dateStyle: 'medium',
      timeStyle: 'short',
    }).format(Date.parse(date)),
  )

  return {
    dir: {
      input: 'src',
      output: 'public',
    },
  }
}

Create index template to list messages

Create the src/index.njk file and loop through messages. The messages value is populated globally using the _data/messages.js file we created previously.


<h1>Grafbook</h1>

<ul>
  {%- for message in messages -%}
  <li>
    <p>
      <strong>{{ message.node.author }}</strong><br />
      <small>
        <a href="/messages/{{ message.node.id }}"
          >{{ message.node.createdAt | date }}</a
        >
      </small>
    </p>
    <p>{{ message.node.body }}</p>
  </li>
  {%- endfor -%}
</ul>

You'll notice above that we link to /messages/{{ message.node.id }}. You also create individual per message too.

Create a page per message

Create the file that matches the path above src/messages/id.njk and add the following:


---
pagination:
  data: messages
  size: 1
  alias: message
permalink: '/messages/{{ message.node.id | slug }}/'
---

<h1>{{ message.node.author }} says</h1>

<p>{{ message.node.body }}</p>

That's it! You have now created a static site using Eleventy with data from your Grafbase backend.