Web3 data querying with The Graph and subgraphs

The Graph is an indexing protocol for organizing blockchain knowledge. It makes use of a GraphQL API to offer simpler entry to on-chain data than the standard technique of sending an RPC name.

The community organizes the info with subgraphs; open-source APIs which are created by the neighborhood and are used for retrieving knowledge from Indexers, Curators, and Delegators.

On this article, we’re going to be looking at how you should use The Graph and subgraphs for Web3 knowledge querying.

Indexers function the community nodes

Indexers function the nodes of the community, which index knowledge and serve the queries.

For the reason that Graph Community makes use of a proof-of-stake algorithm, indexers stake Graph Tokens (GRT) to offer indexing and question processing providers. In flip, Indexers can earn question charges and indexing rewards.

They choose subgraphs to index primarily based on the subgraph’s curation sign. Purposes that eat the Indexers’ knowledge can set parameters for which Indexers they need to course of their queries, together with their preferences for question price pricing.

Curators sign high-quality subgraphs

Curators set up knowledge from the subgraphs by signaling the subgraphs that ought to be listed by the Graph Community.

They do that utilizing Graph Curation Shares (GCS), which permit them to put the equal of an funding on a subgraph.

Curators stake GRT, which permits them to mint GCS. Every subgraph has a bonding curve that determines the connection between the value of GRT and the variety of shares that may be minted.

In response to the Graph’s documentation, curating is taken into account dangerous and will solely be carried out after completely researching and investigating the trade-offs concerned.

Delegators safe the community by staking

Delegators stake GRT to a number of Indexers to assist safe the community with out having to run a node themselves.

Delegators earn parts of the Indexer’s question charges and rewards, that are depending on the Indexer’s and Delegator’s stake, together with the value the Indexer prices for every question.

Allocating extra stake to an Indexer permits extra potential queries to be processed. The Graph’s documentation claims that being a Delegator carries much less threat than being a Curator as a result of they aren’t uncovered to fluctuations within the value of GRT, because of burning shares of GCS.

The Graph Basis

The Graph is developed and maintained by The Graph Basis. To ensure the community and bigger neighborhood proceed to enhance, the inspiration distributes grants (known as Graph Grants) to neighborhood members engaged on protocol infrastructure, tooling, dApps, subgraphs, and neighborhood constructing.

Three completely different graph providers

There are three alternative ways to work together with the Graph if you’re not internet hosting your personal subgraph:

• Graph Explorer: Discover completely different subgraphs and work together with the Graph protocol
• Subgraph Studio: Create, handle, and publish subgraphs and API keys utilizing Ethereum Mainnet
• Hosted Service: Create, handle, and publish subgraphs and API keys utilizing different networks apart from Ethereum, comparable to Avalanche, Concord, Fantom, and Celo

The hosted service doesn’t require a crypto pockets and can be utilized with a GitHub account. The Graph Explorer and Subgraph Studio will each ask you to attach a pockets comparable to MetaMask or Coinbase.

Create a challenge on Hosted Service

After creating an account on the hosted service, click on “My Dashboard” on the navigation bar to see your dashboard.

Click on “Add Subgraph” to create a subgraph.

Add a reputation and subtitle on your subgraph. When you’ve crammed in your subgraph’s data, scroll all the way down to the underside of the web page and click on “Create subgraph”.

With our subgraph setup on the hosted service, we are able to create our challenge recordsdata. Create a brand new listing, initialize a package deal.json, and set up dependencies.

mkdir graphrocket
cd graphrocket
yarn init -y
yarn add -D @graphprotocol/graph-cli @graphprotocol/graph-ts

Copy the entry token obtainable in your challenge dashboard on Hosted Service. Paste the token after the yarn graph auth --product hosted-service command.

yarn graph auth --product hosted-service YOURTOKEN

Create configuration recordsdata for TypeScript and Git.

echo '{"extends": "@graphprotocol/graph-ts/varieties/tsconfig.base.json"}' > tsconfig.json
echo '.DS_Storennode_modules' > .gitignore

Good contracts on the Ethereum blockchain expose an utility binary interface (or ABI) as an interface between client-side functions and the Ethereum blockchain. We’ll want this for our subgraph.

Obtain the contract’s ABI with cURL and put it aside to a file known as Token.json.

curl "http://api.etherscan.io/api?module=contract&motion=getabi&deal with=0xe7c29cba93ef8017c7824dd0f25923c38d08065c&format=uncooked" > Token.json

Create three challenge recordsdata together with:

• token.ts for AssemblyScript code that interprets Ethereum occasion knowledge into the entities outlined within the scheme
• subgraph.yaml for a YAML configuration of the subgraph’s manifest
• schema.graphql for a GraphQL schema defining the info saved for the subgraph and question it through GraphQL

echo > token.ts
echo > schema.graphql
echo > subgraph.yaml

Outline Token and Person entities

In schema.graphql we’ve outlined two varieties, Token and Person.

# schema.graphql

sort Token @entity {}
sort Person @entity {}

The Token has a identify and different data comparable to when it was created, the content material URI, and the IPFS file path. It additionally consists of details about the creator and proprietor.

# schema.graphql

sort Token @entity {
  id: ID!
  tokenID: BigInt!
  contentURI: String
  tokenIPFSPath: String
  identify: String!
  createdAtTimestamp: BigInt!
  creator: Person!
  proprietor: Person!
}

The creator and proprietor are Person varieties. They’ve an id, an array of tokens they personal, and an array of tokens they’ve created.

# schema.graphql

sort Person @entity {
  id: ID!
  tokens: [Token!]! @derivedFrom(discipline: "proprietor")
  created: [Token!]! @derivedFrom(discipline: "creator")
}

@derivedFrom allows reverse lookups, which suggests we don’t retailer each side of the connection to enhance indexing and question efficiency. For one-to-many relationships, the connection ought to be saved on the “one” facet with the “many” facet derived from it.

Create subgraph

The subgraph.yaml file will include the definition of our subgraph. Begin with the model of the specification used and a file path to the entity varieties in schema.graphql.

# subgraph.yaml

specVersion: 0.0.4
schema:
  file: ./schema.graphql

Subsequent is the community containing our knowledge sources. dataSources.supply wants the deal with and ABI of the sensible contract.

# subgraph.yaml

dataSources:
  - type: ethereum
    identify: Token
    community: mainnet
    supply:
      deal with: "0x3B3ee1931Dc30C1957379FAc9aba94D1C48a5405"
      abi: Token
      startBlock: 11648721

dataSources.mapping.entities defines the entities that the info supply writes to the shop and is specified by the schema in schema.graphql.

# subgraph.yaml

mapping:
  type: ethereum/occasions
  apiVersion: 0.0.5
  language: wasm/assemblyscript
  entities:
    - Token
    - Person

dataSources.mapping.abis takes the identify and file location of the ABI for the supply contract.

# subgraph.yaml

abis:
  - identify: Token
    file: ./Token.json

dataSources.mapping.eventHandlers lists the sensible contract occasions the subgraph reacts to and the handlers within the mappings that rework these occasions into entities within the retailer.

# subgraph.yaml

eventHandlers:
  - occasion: TokenIPFSPathUpdated(listed uint256,listed string,string)
    handler: handleTokenIPFSPathUpdated
  - occasion: Switch(listed deal with,listed deal with,listed uint256)
    handler: handleTransfer
file: ./token.ts

Full subgraph.yaml file:

# subgraph.yaml

specVersion: 0.0.4
schema:
  file: ./schema.graphql
dataSources:
  - type: ethereum
    identify: Token
    community: mainnet
    supply:
      deal with: "0x3B3ee1931Dc30C1957379FAc9aba94D1C48a5405"
      abi: Token
      startBlock: 11648721
    mapping:
      type: ethereum/occasions
      apiVersion: 0.0.5
      language: wasm/assemblyscript
      entities:
        - Token
        - Person
      abis:
        - identify: Token
          file: ./Token.json
      eventHandlers:
        - occasion: TokenIPFSPathUpdated(listed uint256,listed string,string)
          handler: handleTokenIPFSPathUpdated
        - occasion: Switch(listed deal with,listed deal with,listed uint256)
          handler: handleTransfer
      file: ./token.ts

Generate varieties

Generate AssemblyScript varieties for the ABI and the subgraph schema.

yarn graph codegen

Write mappings

Import the generated varieties and generated schema and create two features: handleTransfer and handleTokenURIUpdated.

When a brand new token is created, transferred, or up to date, an occasion is fired and the mappings save the info into the subgraph.

// token.ts

import {
  TokenIPFSPathUpdated as TokenIPFSPathUpdatedEvent,
  Switch as TransferEvent,
  Token as TokenContract,
} from "./generated/Token/Token"
import {
  Token, Person
} from './generated/schema'

export perform handleTransfer(occasion: TransferEvent): void {}

export perform handleTokenURIUpdated(occasion: TokenIPFSPathUpdatedEvent): void {}

handleTransfer hundreds the tokenId and units the proprietor.

// token.ts

export perform handleTransfer(occasion: TransferEvent): void {
  let token = Token.load(occasion.params.tokenId.toString())
  if (!token) {
    token = new Token(occasion.params.tokenId.toString())
    token.creator = occasion.params.to.toHexString()
    token.tokenID = occasion.params.tokenId

    let tokenContract = TokenContract.bind(occasion.deal with)
    token.contentURI = tokenContract.tokenURI(occasion.params.tokenId)
    token.tokenIPFSPath = tokenContract.getTokenIPFSPath(occasion.params.tokenId)
    token.identify = tokenContract.identify()
    token.createdAtTimestamp = occasion.block.timestamp
  }
  token.proprietor = occasion.params.to.toHexString()
  token.save()

  let consumer = Person.load(occasion.params.to.toHexString())
  if (!consumer) {
    consumer = new Person(occasion.params.to.toHexString())
    consumer.save()
  }
}

handleTokenURIUpdated updates the tokenIPFSPath anytime it modifications.

// token.ts

export perform handleTokenURIUpdated(occasion: TokenIPFSPathUpdatedEvent): void {
  let token = Token.load(occasion.params.tokenId.toString())
  if (!token) return
  token.tokenIPFSPath = occasion.params.tokenIPFSPath
  token.save()
}

Deploy subgraph

Construct your challenge for deployment:

yarn graph construct

Embrace your personal GitHub username adopted by the identify of your subgraph:

yarn graph deploy --product hosted-service USERNAME/logrocketgraph

The terminal will return a URL with an explorer for the subgraph and an API endpoint for sending queries.

Deployed to https://thegraph.com/explorer/subgraph/ajcwebdev/logrocketgraph

Subgraph endpoints:
Queries (HTTP):     https://api.thegraph.com/subgraphs/identify/ajcwebdev/logrocketgraph

You will have to attend on your subgraph to sync with the present state of the blockchain. As soon as the syncing is full, run the next question to indicate the primary two tokens ordered by id in descending order.

{
  tokens(first: 2, orderBy: id, orderDirection: desc) {
    id
    tokenID
    contentURI
    tokenIPFSPath
  }
}

This may output the next:

{
  "knowledge": {
    "tokens": [
      {
        "id": "99999",
        "tokenID": "99999",
        "contentURI": "https://ipfs.foundation.app/ipfs/QmdDdmRAw8zgmN9iE23oz14a55oHGWtqBrR1RbFcFq4Abn/metadata.json",
        "tokenIPFSPath": "QmdDdmRAw8zgmN9iE23oz14a55oHGWtqBrR1RbFcFq4Abn/metadata.json"
      },
      {
        "id": "99998",
        "tokenID": "99998",
        "contentURI": "https://ipfs.foundation.app/ipfs/QmZwZ5ChjHNwAS5rFDGkom2GpZvTau6xzr8M7gro5HqQhB/metadata.json",
        "tokenIPFSPath": "QmZwZ5ChjHNwAS5rFDGkom2GpZvTau6xzr8M7gro5HqQhB/metadata.json"
      }
    ]
  }
}

Right here’s the question for the primary consumer and their related content material:

{
  customers(first: 1, orderBy: id, orderDirection: desc) {
    id
    tokens {
      contentURI
    }
  }
}

This may output the next:

{
  "knowledge": {
    "customers": [
      {
        "id": "0xfffff449f1a35eb0facca8d4659d8e15cf2f77ba",
        "tokens": [
          {
            "contentURI": "https://ipfs.foundation.app/ipfs/QmVkXqo2hmC2j18udhZG1KavxaTGrnEX7uuddEbghPKCUW/metadata.json"
          },
          {
            "contentURI": "https://ipfs.foundation.app/ipfs/QmTSEgtJmptBCpEJKubK6xDZFiCMEHgGQjhrUAsJSXwzKZ/metadata.json"
          },
          {
            "contentURI": "https://ipfs.foundation.app/ipfs/QmPzSJGhheyyA7MZMYz7VngnZWN8TinH75PTP7M1HAedti/metadata.json"
          },
          {
            "contentURI": "https://ipfs.foundation.app/ipfs/QmeroC2cWfdN31hLd3JpBQMbbWqnQdUdGx94FGUR4AGBUP/metadata.json"
          },
          {
            "contentURI": "https://ipfs.foundation.app/ipfs/QmQVkhqEsZvsstfDp6QAPXB4TkxFnpeAc9BWu2eQo6QvZD/metadata.json"
          },
          {
            "contentURI": "https://ipfs.foundation.app/ipfs/QmRax3fw4skHp95i2v3BzroMoKQVHqAkwbov8FyPdesk3j/metadata.json"
          },
          {
            "contentURI": "https://ipfs.foundation.app/ipfs/QmViGRnvHFBZ6CWHoxZGJoU9iwnoGwZfqj2vgDN3dgsGv4/metadata.json"
          },
          {
            "contentURI": "https://ipfs.foundation.app/ipfs/QmdRBPxDF1tUzm1Pczyme24vguUjW28cLwM4n9MvtxAWX6/metadata.json"
          }
        ]
      }
    ]
  }
}

The question for the 2 most just lately created NFTs.

{
  tokens(
    first: 2,
    orderBy: createdAtTimestamp,
    orderDirection: desc
  ) {
    id
    tokenID
    contentURI
    createdAtTimestamp
  }
}

This may output the next:

{
  "knowledge": {
    "tokens": [
      {
        "id": "133012",
        "tokenID": "133012",
        "contentURI": "https://ipfs.foundation.app/ipfs/QmSmk85TjpaegCmHDRWZQqMz18vJtACZdugVx5a1tmfjpv/metadata.json",
        "createdAtTimestamp": "1656792769"
      },
      {
        "id": "133011",
        "tokenID": "133011",
        "contentURI": "https://ipfs.foundation.app/ipfs/QmU6RFcKFDteUTipg5tg4NFkWKApdVbo9oq9UYMtSmcWVe/metadata.json",
        "createdAtTimestamp": "1653825764"
      }
    ]
  }
}

It’s also possible to use the HTTP endpoint and ship GraphQL queries straight with cURL.

curl 
  --header 'content-type: utility/json' 
  --url 'https://api.thegraph.com/subgraphs/identify/ajcwebdev/logrocketgraph' 
  --data '{"question":"{ tokens(first: 1) { contentURI tokenIPFSPath } }"}'

Conclusion

On this article, we now have seen create a GraphQL endpoint that exposes sure data contained on the Ethereum blockchain. By writing a schema containing our entities, we outlined the knowledge that shall be listed by the subgraph.

The amount and variety of blockchain networks proceed to proliferate in Web3. Having a standardized and extensively adopted question language will allow builders to iterate and check their functions with higher effectivity.