grapql-ws protocol

[kristjanvalur]

Hi there.
I'm using strawberry as a reference to write a custom client application to do subscriptions in graphql.

I'm confused about the actual websocket protocols.

1. First, the documentation here https://strawberry.rocks/docs/general/subscriptions#graphql-over-websocket-protocols seems contraditory, it seems to say that graphql-ws is the old protocol. I think someone got the names and the links wrong in this section.
2. I've arrived at https://github.com/enisdenjo/graphql-ws/blob/master/PROTOCOL.md for the actual protocol specification, but I see discrepcancies. The linked protocol uses a message type: "subscribe" whereas both strawberry and GraphiQL Seem to use type: "start" instead.
3. I'm starting with code originally written for AWS, https://docs.aws.amazon.com/appsync/latest/devguide/real-time-websocket-client.html, and it says its using grapql-ws, but it uses a diferent payload again, using a data field instead of a query field.

Any thoughs on this? What is the actual graphql spec to use to work with standard servers these days?

(I tried passing a "subscribe" type message to strawberry and it just ignores it, doesn't even respond, whereas it should probably close the websocket with error 4400, according to the spec.)

Cheers, and thanks for any help.

[DoctorJohn]

Take a look at the protocol specs you linked. Under "Communication" it says:

The WebSocket sub-protocol for this specification is: graphql-transport-ws

In other words: graphql-ws is the legacy protocol and graphql-transport-ws is the new protocol. It's confusing since the new protocols repository is named graphql-ws but the actual protocol is called graphql-transport-ws.

[kristjanvalur]

Thank you. Reading the doc with a comb again, I finally noticed the quote.
Additionally, GraphiQL is currently using the graphql-ws and I was assuming it was using the latest spec.