Icon LinkDirectives

Per GraphQL: A directive is a keyword preceded by a @ character (optionally followed by a list of named arguments) which can appear after almost any form of syntax in the GraphQL query or schema languages.

As of this writing, the list of supported Fuel GraphQL schema directives includes:

• @indexed
• @unique
• @join
• @virtual

Icon Link@indexed

The @indexed directive adds a database index Icon Link to the underlying column for the indicated field of that type. Generally, a database index is a data structure that allows you to quickly locate data without having to search each row in a database table.

type Book {
    id: ID!
    name: Bytes8! @indexed
}
 
type Library {
    id: ID!
    book: Book!
}

In this example, a single BTREE INDEX constraint will be created on the book table's name column, which allows for faster lookups on that field.

Important: At the moment, database index constraint support is limited to BTREE in Postgres with ON DELETE, and ON UPDATE actions not being supported.

Icon Link@unique

The @unique directive adds a UNIQUE database constraint to the underlying database column for the indicated field of that type. A constraint specifies a rule for the data in a table and can be used to limit the type of data that can be placed in the table. In the case of a column with a UNIQUE constraint, all values in the column must be different.

type Book {
    id: ID!
    name: Bytes8! @unique
}
 
type Library {
    id: ID!
    book: Book!
}

A UNIQUE constraint will be created on the book table's name column, ensuring that no books can share the same name.

Important: When using explict or implicit foreign keys, it is required that the reference column name in your foreign key relationship be unique. ID types are by default unique, but all other types will have to be explicitly specified as being unique via the @unique directive.

Icon Link@join

The @join directive is used to relate a field in one type to others by referencing fields in another type. You can think of it as a link between two tables in your database. The field in the referenced type is called a foreign key and it is required to be unique.

type Book {
    id: ID!
    name: Charfield! @unique
}
 
type Library {
    id: ID!
    book: Book! @join(on:name)
}

A foreign key constraint will be created on library.book that references book.name, which relates the Books in a Library to the underlying Book table.

Icon Link@virtual

The @virtual directive instructs the indexer's SQL schema builder to not build SQL tables from types that include this directive on any field.

type Title {
    name: CharField! @virtual
}
 
type Book {
    id: ID!
    title: Title!
}

When SQL tables are generated for the entities above, a table will be created for Book, but no table will be created for Title. Rather, the title field on the Book object will exist on the book table as a JSON field.

Important: When using the @virtual directive with GraphQL union types, each member of the union type must either include only types that are not virtual, or only types that are virtual. We do not support mixing and matching virtual types with non-virtual types in unions.