Contentful Plugin: Should output complete schema regardless of whether content is available #29874

rshackleton · 2021-01-06T15:44:30Z

rshackleton
Jan 6, 2021

Description

When content types are created but are not yet populated they do not include any of their fields in the GraphQL schema, this means that we cannot write queries against those fields which will work when the data is available.

This issue would arise if the content was available but subsequently unpublished or deleted.

The content model can be represented in the schema by using the schema customisation API rather than using inference.

Partially discussed here: #1517

Note: I appreciate this is mentioned in the plugin's readme but this is a serious drawback of the plugin.

A similar fix was put in place on the Kentico Kontent source plugin last year:

https://github.com/Kentico/kontent-gatsby-packages/blob/master/packages/gatsby-source-kontent/src/createSchemaCustomization.items.ts

Steps to reproduce

Create a new content model in Contentful.
Setup the source plugin with default settings, space ID and access token.
Run gatsby develop and inspect the schema

Expected result

The schema should include the full model rather than a "skeleton" structure with only the default fields.

Actual result

The type exists but does not include the full model, only the base Contentful fields.

Environment

  System:
    OS: Windows 10 10.0.19041
    CPU: (12) x64 Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-5930K CPU @ 3.50GHz
  Binaries:
    Node: 12.18.3 - C:\Program Files\nodejs\node.EXE
    Yarn: 1.22.5 - C:\Program Files (x86)\Yarn\bin\yarn.CMD
    npm: 6.14.6 - C:\Program Files\nodejs\npm.CMD
  Browsers:
    Chrome: 87.0.4280.88
    Edge: Spartan (44.19041.423.0), Chromium (87.0.664.66)
  npmPackages:
    gatsby: ^2.26.1 => 2.29.3 
    gatsby-image: ^2.5.0 => 2.8.0 
    gatsby-plugin-alias-imports: ^1.0.5 => 1.0.5 
    gatsby-plugin-layout: ^1.7.0 => 1.7.0 
    gatsby-plugin-manifest: ^2.6.1 => 2.9.1 
    gatsby-plugin-offline: ^3.4.0 => 3.7.1 
    gatsby-plugin-react-helmet: ^3.4.0 => 3.7.0 
    gatsby-plugin-sass: ^2.8.0 => 2.8.0 
    gatsby-plugin-sharp: ^2.8.0 => 2.11.2 
    gatsby-source-contentful: ^4.3.1 => 4.3.1 
    gatsby-source-filesystem: ^2.5.0 => 2.8.1 
    gatsby-transformer-sharp: ^2.6.0 => 2.9.0

Answered by LekoArts

Oct 8, 2021

This feature is still a WIP, you can follow the progress here: https://github.com/gatsbyjs/gatsby/projects/24
(with #30855)

View full answer

rshackleton · 2021-01-06T17:36:24Z

rshackleton
Jan 6, 2021
Author

The code that needs to be updated should begin here:

https://github.com/gatsbyjs/gatsby/blob/master/packages/gatsby-source-contentful/src/gatsby-node.js#L347

The types are being generated but the fields are not explicitly defined.

The following breakdown of field types in Contentful can be used to determine the appropriate GraphQL type.

https://www.contentful.com/developers/docs/concepts/data-model/

Reference field types should be either ContentfulEntry or ContentfulReference if singular or an array of those if a collection.

This would allow the underlying data to be queried using inline fragments.

0 replies

LekoArts · 2021-01-07T08:32:51Z

LekoArts
Jan 7, 2021

Sounds like it's the same as #12816 ?

0 replies

rshackleton · 2021-01-07T09:18:15Z

rshackleton
Jan 7, 2021
Author

@LekoArts thanks for finding this, I was searching for open issues but couldn't find any.

Happy to see some progress has been made on this but it is very disheartening to see that PR has been open for over 6 months. 😫

0 replies

2021-01-27T12:08:06Z

github-actions[bot]
bot Jan 27, 2021

Hiya!

This issue has gone quiet. Spooky quiet. 👻

We get a lot of issues, so we currently close issues after 60 days of inactivity. It’s been at least 20 days since the last update here.
If we missed this issue or if you want to keep it open, please reply here.
As a friendly reminder: the best way to see this issue, or any other, fixed is to open a Pull Request. Check out gatsby.dev/contribute for more information about opening PRs, triaging issues, and contributing!

Thanks for being a part of the Gatsby community! 💪💜

0 replies

rshackleton · 2021-01-27T15:26:35Z

rshackleton
Jan 27, 2021
Author

Definitely not stale, or shouldn't be...

0 replies

2021-02-17T12:06:44Z

github-actions[bot]
bot Feb 17, 2021

Hiya!

This issue has gone quiet. Spooky quiet. 👻

We get a lot of issues, so we currently close issues after 60 days of inactivity. It’s been at least 20 days since the last update here.
If we missed this issue or if you want to keep it open, please reply here.
As a friendly reminder: the best way to see this issue, or any other, fixed is to open a Pull Request. Check out gatsby.dev/contribute for more information about opening PRs, triaging issues, and contributing!

Thanks for being a part of the Gatsby community! 💪💜

0 replies

rshackleton · 2021-02-23T20:09:38Z

rshackleton
Feb 23, 2021
Author

Nope, not stale.

0 replies

stpoa · 2021-03-04T08:49:00Z

stpoa
Mar 4, 2021

Why this issue is closed? @LekoArts It is a bug that should be fixed.

0 replies

georgemillard · 2021-07-26T10:54:10Z

georgemillard
Jul 26, 2021

Hello, whether a bug or a feature request, this is one update that I'd really like to see.
We have a gatsby-contentful setup, and I'm really pleased with both tools. However, my team is spending a lot of time creating and updating dummy content in multiple environments to ensure that instances of all optional fields exist, and the graphql schema is correctly created.
Given how well gatsby and contentful integrate, it is strange to have to rely on manually updating dummy content to ensure a complete GQL schema.
Would be great to see this get more attention 😄

0 replies

LukeVibes · 2021-07-27T20:07:32Z

LukeVibes
Jul 27, 2021

I agree that this feature would be super helpful to see, especially as other CMS have started providing it like strapi. Would be super helpful to see this feature.

0 replies

orsi · 2021-09-28T21:30:59Z

orsi
Sep 28, 2021

What's the status of this? Optional fields, or even multi-relational fields become dangerous with the current state of this.

We just a had a client remove a section from their page, only to have the whole site break because no pages contained that particular section anymore and the GraphQL query shape changed on us.

0 replies

loom-build · 2021-10-06T18:08:02Z

loom-build
Oct 6, 2021

As I'm updating to the latest gatsby-source-contentful version on a project that has custom Schema already defined for our Contentful types, I'm getting the following warning for every type:

warn Plugin `gatsby-source-contentful` has customized the GraphQL type `ContentfulBlock`, which has already been defined
by the plugin `@leshen/gatsby-theme-contentful`. This could potentially cause conflicts.

I agree with the general comments here that having the schema built regardless of entries existing would be super nice. But if that is too difficult and/or isn't coming super soon, what is the correct way to make your own schema for something Contentful is going to provide if you don't want GraphQL to fail the build when no entry exists for a specific type?

1 reply

rshackleton Oct 8, 2021
Author

As I'm updating to the latest gatsby-source-contentful version on a project that has custom Schema already defined for our Contentful types, I'm getting the following warning for every type:
warn Plugin `gatsby-source-contentful` has customized the GraphQL type `ContentfulBlock`, which has already been defined
by the plugin `@leshen/gatsby-theme-contentful`. This could potentially cause conflicts.
I agree with the general comments here that having the schema built regardless of entries existing would be super nice. But if that is too difficult and/or isn't coming super soon, what is the correct way to make your own schema for something Contentful is going to provide if you don't want GraphQL to fail the build when no entry exists for a specific type?

On the project I originally worked on the only "fix" I had was using a branch that had some of the schema generation already done, if you dig around in here you should hopefully find it. We had to make a local version of the plugin based on that branch, fixed a few issues to get it to a working state. However it means the upgrade path for us is now broken. I'd advise moving away from Contentful & Gatsby together if possible. Substitute one of them for Next.js or Kontent by Kentico/Sanity where possible.

rshackleton · 2021-10-08T09:10:50Z

rshackleton
Oct 8, 2021
Author

This, among other reasons, is why I avoid Contentful, and definitely avoid using it with Gatsby. It just isn't fit for purpose in a reasonably complex project. I've moved to using Next.js primarily for this kind of project, or using Kontent by Kentico as a CMS if Gatsby is being used. Much happier with the workflows for both of those.

Not intended as a knock on Gatsby or Contentful but this type of issue being open for several years doesn't fill me with confidence.

Open source contributions are great, but both Gatsby and Contentful have significant funding and this should have been resolved by Gatsby or Contentful developers by now.

0 replies

LekoArts · 2021-10-08T10:13:16Z

LekoArts
Oct 8, 2021

This feature is still a WIP, you can follow the progress here: https://github.com/gatsbyjs/gatsby/projects/24
(with #30855)

0 replies

JoelWakefield · 2022-06-07T23:43:48Z

JoelWakefield
Jun 7, 2022

I know this doesn't fully resolve things, but part of the difficulty I've had was knowing the types which are generated by contentful; gatsby-plugin-schema-snapshot can be helpful in showing every part of the schema, and you can use createSchemaCustomization to ensure stability in your schema.

Components that have multiple types within them, which are usually accessed by a fragment in graphql - those actually reference a union of many different components. Adjusting that union to account for other types will result in them appearing in your schema - even if no instance of that type is published in contentful. Of course, nothing will appear when you run your query, but the bright side is, the entire site won't crash; it just queries empty objects.

It's a workaround, I know.

I agree that gatsby should offer a better solution for ensuring certain parts of the schema are constant (at least they should match the structure of the content models, not an assumption of a schema based on current data - I assume it has to do with creating as "bare minimum" of a schema as possible (and all those types really add up), but it would be better for devs to control those aspects).

Creating dummy content (as is often suggested) is a terrible fix, one that not only adds more work, but can easily, and accidently, be undone - breaking the schema and the site.

Here's where I found this workaround - credit to user schpet: https://stackoverflow.com/questions/61587167/customizing-gatsby-contentful-schema

Hope this helps :)

Let me know if you encounter any issues - I just found this today, so there may be gaps that I haven't found.

0 replies

aintHuman · 2022-09-05T11:46:02Z

aintHuman
Sep 5, 2022

This is honestly such a BS bug.

0 replies

thomhoward · 2023-10-05T09:59:22Z

thomhoward
Oct 5, 2023

It's hard to believe this bug exists in the first place. And that it hasn't been fixed in over a year is unbelievable. Optional fields are part of every content model and database since the beginning of time. How could they not be? To not address them or say "well just create a record with all the values" is bizarre.

0 replies

olivier5741 · 2023-10-11T09:28:07Z

olivier5741
Oct 11, 2023

Hi there, I have the same issue with MongoDB connector (type generation). If the field is never used in the database, the graphQL query using this field is failing the build ... (see the log extract below)

[I'm using Mongo Realm to create the schema in typescript (also using the generated graphQL API in Mongo Atlas) but I didn't find an easy way of having a smooth experience with all this...]

Cannot query field "netVolume" on type "mongodbProduct".

If you don't expect "netVolume" to exist on the type "mongodbProduct" it is most likely a typo. However, if you expect "netVolume" to exist there
are a couple of solutions to common problems:

- If you added a new data source and/or changed something inside gatsby-node/gatsby-config, please try a restart of your development server.
- You want to optionally use your field "netVolume" and right now it is not used anywhere.

It is recommended to explicitly type your GraphQL schema if you want to use optional fields.

0 replies

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Contentful Plugin: Should output complete schema regardless of whether content is available #29874

Description

Steps to reproduce

Expected result

Actual result

Environment

Replies: 18 comments · 1 reply

rshackleton Jan 6, 2021 Author

rshackleton Jan 7, 2021 Author

github-actions[bot] bot Jan 27, 2021

rshackleton Jan 27, 2021 Author

github-actions[bot] bot Feb 17, 2021

rshackleton Feb 23, 2021 Author

rshackleton Oct 8, 2021 Author

rshackleton Oct 8, 2021 Author

Replies: 18 comments 1 reply

rshackleton
Jan 6, 2021
Author

rshackleton
Jan 7, 2021
Author

github-actions[bot]
bot Jan 27, 2021

rshackleton
Jan 27, 2021
Author

github-actions[bot]
bot Feb 17, 2021

rshackleton
Feb 23, 2021
Author

rshackleton Oct 8, 2021
Author

rshackleton
Oct 8, 2021
Author