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Version: 4.x.x

Subscriptions

Subscriptions are supported with graphql-java. See their documentation first:

https://www.graphql-java.com/documentation/v16/subscriptions/

To make a function a subscription function you just have to have the return type wrapped in an implementation of a reactive-streams Publisher<T>. As an example, here is a function that uses Spring WebFlux to return a random number every second. Since Flux is an implementation of Publisher this is a valid method.

fun counter(): Flux<Int> = Flux.interval(Duration.ofSeconds(1)).map { Random.nextInt() }

Then in the toSchema method you just have to provide a List<TopLevelObject> the same way as queries and mutations are provided with the subscriptions argument.

toSchema(
    config = schemaConfig,
    queries = queries.toTopLevelObjects(),
    mutations = mutations.toTopLevelObjects(),
    subscriptions = subscriptions.toTopLevelObjects()
)

Flow Support​

graphql-kotlin provides support for Kotlin Flow through FlowSubscriptionExecutionStrategy. Thanks to the Kotlin coroutines interoperability, this strategy also works with any Publisher and will automatically convert them to a Flow.

Subscription Hooks​

didGenerateSubscriptionType​

This hook is called after a new subscription type is generated but before it is added to the schema. The other generator hooks are still called so you can add logic for the types and validation of subscriptions the same as queries and mutations.

isValidSubscriptionReturnType​

This hook is called when generating the functions for each subscription. It allows for changing the rules of what classes can be used as the return type. By default, graphql-java supports org.reactivestreams.Publisher.

To effectively use this hook, you should also override the willResolveMonad hook, and if you are using graphql-kotlin-spring-server you should override the GraphQL bean to specify a custom subscription execution strategy.

Server Implementation​

The server that runs your GraphQL schema will have to support some method for subscriptions, like WebSockets. graphql-kotlin-spring-server provides a default WebSocket based implementation. See more details in the server documentation.