Subscriptions

In GraphQL you can use subscriptions to stream data from a server. To enable this with Strawberry your server must support ASGI and websockets or use the AIOHTTP integration.

This is how you define a subscription-capable resolver:

import asyncio
from typing import AsyncGenerator

import strawberry


@strawberry.type
class Query:
    @strawberry.field
    def hello(self) -> str:
        return "world"


@strawberry.type
class Subscription:
    @strawberry.subscription
    async def count(self, target: int = 100) -> AsyncGenerator[int, None]:
        for i in range(target):
            yield i
            await asyncio.sleep(0.5)


schema = strawberry.Schema(query=Query, subscription=Subscription)

Like queries and mutations, subscriptions are defined in a class and passed to the Schema function. Here we create a rudimentary counting function which counts from 0 to the target sleeping between each loop iteration.

We would send the following GraphQL document to our server to subscribe to this data stream:

subscription {
  count(target: 5)
}

In this example, the data looks like this as it passes over the websocket:

This is a very short example of what is possible. Like with queries and mutations the subscription can return any GraphQL type, not only scalars as demonstrated here.

Authenticating Subscriptions

Without going into detail on why, custom headers cannot be set on websocket requests that originate in browsers. Therefore, when making any GraphQL requests that rely on a websocket connection, header-based authentication is impossible.

Other popular GraphQL solutions, like Apollo for example, implement functionality to pass information from the client to the server at the point of websocket connection initialisation. In this way, information that is relevant to the websocket connection initialisation and to the lifetime of the connection overall can be passed to the server before any data is streamed back by the server. As such, it is not limited to only authentication credentials!

Strawberry's implementation follows that of Apollo's, which as documentation for client and server implementations, by reading the contents of the initial websocket connection message into the info.context object.

With Apollo-client as an example of how to send this initial connection information, one defines a ws-link as:

import { GraphQLWsLink } from "@apollo/client/link/subscriptions";
import { createClient } from "graphql-ws";

const wsLink = new GraphQLWsLink(
  createClient({
    url: "ws://localhost:4000/subscriptions",
    connectionParams: {
      authToken: "Bearer I_AM_A_VALID_AUTH_TOKEN",
    },
  }),
);

and then, upon the establishment of the Susbcription request and underlying websocket connection, Strawberry injects this connectionParams object as follows:

import asyncio
from typing import AsyncGenerator

import strawberry

from .auth import authenticate_token


@strawberry.type
class Query:
    @strawberry.field
    def hello(self) -> str:
        return "world"


@strawberry.type
class Subscription:
    @strawberry.subscription
    async def count(
        self, info: strawberry.Info, target: int = 100
    ) -> AsyncGenerator[int, None]:
        connection_params: dict = info.context.get("connection_params")
        token: str = connection_params.get(
            "authToken"
        )  # equal to "Bearer I_AM_A_VALID_AUTH_TOKEN"
        if not authenticate_token(token):
            raise Exception("Forbidden!")
        for i in range(target):
            yield i
            await asyncio.sleep(0.5)


schema = strawberry.Schema(query=Query, subscription=Subscription)

Strawberry expects the connection_params object to be any type, so the client is free to send any valid JSON object as the initial message of the websocket connection, which is abstracted as connectionParams in Apollo-client, and it will be successfully injected into the info.context object. It is then up to you to handle it correctly!

Advanced Subscription Patterns

Typically a GraphQL subscription is streaming something more interesting back. With that in mind your subscription function can return one of:

• AsyncIterator, or
• AsyncGenerator

Both of these types are documented in PEP-525. Anything yielded from these types of resolvers will be shipped across the websocket. Care needs to be taken to ensure the returned values conform to the GraphQL schema.

The benefit of an AsyncGenerator, over an iterator, is that the complex business logic can be broken out into a separate module within your codebase. Allowing you to keep the resolver logic succinct.

The following example is similar to the one above, except it returns an AsyncGenerator to the ASGI server which is responsible for streaming subscription results until the Generator exits.

import strawberry
import asyncio
import asyncio.subprocess as subprocess
from asyncio import streams
from typing import Any, AsyncGenerator, AsyncIterator, Coroutine, Optional


async def wait_for_call(coro: Coroutine[Any, Any, bytes]) -> Optional[bytes]:
    """
    wait_for_call calls the supplied coroutine in a wait_for block.

    This mitigates cases where the coroutine doesn't yield until it has
    completed its task. In this case, reading a line from a StreamReader; if
    there are no `\n` line chars in the stream the function will never exit
    """
    try:
        return await asyncio.wait_for(coro(), timeout=0.1)
    except asyncio.TimeoutError:
        pass


async def lines(stream: streams.StreamReader) -> AsyncIterator[str]:
    """
    lines reads all lines from the provided stream, decoding them as UTF-8
    strings.
    """
    while True:
        b = await wait_for_call(stream.readline)
        if b:
            yield b.decode("UTF-8").rstrip()
        else:
            break


async def exec_proc(target: int) -> subprocess.Process:
    """
    exec_proc starts a sub process and returns the handle to it.
    """
    return await asyncio.create_subprocess_exec(
        "/bin/bash",
        "-c",
        f"for ((i = 0 ; i < {target} ; i++)); do echo $i; sleep 0.2; done",
        stdout=subprocess.PIPE,
    )


async def tail(proc: subprocess.Process) -> AsyncGenerator[str, None]:
    """
    tail reads from stdout until the process finishes
    """
    # Note: race conditions are possible here since we're in a subprocess. In
    # this case the process can finish between the loop predicate and the call
    # to read a line from stdout. This is a good example of why you need to
    # be defensive by using asyncio.wait_for in wait_for_call().
    while proc.returncode is None:
        async for l in lines(proc.stdout):
            yield l
    else:
        # read anything left on the pipe after the process has finished
        async for l in lines(proc.stdout):
            yield l


@strawberry.type
class Query:
    @strawberry.field
    def hello() -> str:
        return "world"


@strawberry.type
class Subscription:
    @strawberry.subscription
    async def run_command(self, target: int = 100) -> AsyncGenerator[str, None]:
        proc = await exec_proc(target)
        return tail(proc)


schema = strawberry.Schema(query=Query, subscription=Subscription)

Unsubscribing subscriptions

In GraphQL, it is possible to unsubscribe from a subscription. Strawberry supports this behaviour, and is done using a try...except block.

In Apollo-client, closing a subscription can be achieved like the following:

const client = useApolloClient();
const subscriber = client.subscribe({query: ...}).subscribe({...})
// ...
// done with subscription. now unsubscribe
subscriber.unsubscribe();

Strawberry can capture when a subscriber unsubscribes using an asyncio.CancelledError exception.

import asyncio
from typing import AsyncGenerator
from uuid import uuid4

import strawberry

# track active subscribers
event_messages = {}


@strawberry.type
class Subscription:
    @strawberry.subscription
    async def message(self) -> AsyncGenerator[int, None]:
        try:
            subscription_id = uuid4()

            event_messages[subscription_id] = []

            while True:
                if len(event_messages[subscription_id]) > 0:
                    yield event_messages[subscription_id]
                    event_messages[subscription_id].clear()

                await asyncio.sleep(1)
        except asyncio.CancelledError:
            # stop listening to events
            del event_messages[subscription_id]

GraphQL over WebSocket protocols

Strawberry support both the legacy graphql-ws and the newer recommended graphql-transport-ws WebSocket sub-protocols.

Note that the graphql-ws sub-protocol is mainly supported for backwards compatibility. Read the graphql-ws-transport protocols announcement to learn more about why the newer protocol is preferred.

Strawberry allows you to choose which protocols you want to accept. All integrations supporting subscriptions can be configured with a list of subscription_protocols to accept. By default, all protocols are accepted.

AIOHTTP

from strawberry.aiohttp.views import GraphQLView
from strawberry.subscriptions import GRAPHQL_TRANSPORT_WS_PROTOCOL, GRAPHQL_WS_PROTOCOL
from api.schema import schema
 
 
view = GraphQLView(
    schema, subscription_protocols=[GRAPHQL_TRANSPORT_WS_PROTOCOL, GRAPHQL_WS_PROTOCOL]
)

ASGI

from strawberry.asgi import GraphQL
from strawberry.subscriptions import GRAPHQL_TRANSPORT_WS_PROTOCOL, GRAPHQL_WS_PROTOCOL
from api.schema import schema
 
 
app = GraphQL(
    schema,
    subscription_protocols=[
        GRAPHQL_TRANSPORT_WS_PROTOCOL,
        GRAPHQL_WS_PROTOCOL,
    ],
)

Django + Channels

import os

from django.core.asgi import get_asgi_application
from strawberry.channels import GraphQLProtocolTypeRouter
 
os.environ.setdefault("DJANGO_SETTINGS_MODULE", "mysite.settings")
django_asgi_app = get_asgi_application()

# Import your Strawberry schema after creating the django ASGI application
# This ensures django.setup() has been called before any ORM models are imported
# for the schema.
from mysite.graphql import schema
 
 
application = GraphQLProtocolTypeRouter(
    schema,
    django_application=django_asgi_app,
)

Note: Check the channels integraton page for more information regarding it.

FastAPI

from strawberry.fastapi import GraphQLRouter
from strawberry.subscriptions import GRAPHQL_TRANSPORT_WS_PROTOCOL, GRAPHQL_WS_PROTOCOL
from fastapi import FastAPI
from api.schema import schema
 
graphql_router = GraphQLRouter(
    schema,
    subscription_protocols=[
        GRAPHQL_TRANSPORT_WS_PROTOCOL,
        GRAPHQL_WS_PROTOCOL,
    ],
)
app = FastAPI()
app.include_router(graphql_router, prefix="/graphql")

Single result operations

In addition to streaming operations (i.e. subscriptions), the graphql-transport-ws protocol supports so called single result operations (i.e. queries and mutations).

This enables clients to use one protocol and one connection for queries, mutations and subscriptions. Take a look at the protocols repository to learn how to correctly set up the graphql client of your choice.

Strawberry supports single result operations out of the box when the graphql-transport-ws protocol is enabled. Single result operations are normal queries and mutations, so there is no need to adjust any resolvers.

Edit on Github