GraphQL Heroes: Oleg Ilyenko
Author of Sangria (GraphQL Scala implementation)
In our new format GraphQL Heroes we’re inviting thoughtleaders in the GraphQL community to talk about themselves and GraphQL.
Welcome our first guest, Oleg Ilyenko, who is working on Sangria (the GraphQL implementation in Scala) and other open source projects.
1. Introduce yourself in the most nerdish way possible
I am a very curious person. Absolutely love big, crazy and innovative ideas, challenging problems and working on things that help other people.
I’m working on Scala GraphQL implementation Sangria (http://sangria-graphql.org), Scala dependency injection library Scaldi (http://scaldi.org) and author several blogs (Oleg Ilyenko, http://hacking-scala.org).
I love engaging with the community, having great discussions, giving talks at conferences and meetups. Most recently I co-organized Berlin GraphQL meetup (https://www.meetup.com/graphql-berlin) together with Graphcool.
2. What was the impact of GraphQL in your life?
GraphQL became a big part of my life and had a big impact on it. From the moment I learned about it, I got immediately excited and noticed a huge potential of this technology. After working one and half years on Scala GraphQL implementation I learned a lot not only about GraphQL itself and its impact on our industry, but also about open-source software development in general, open-source community growth, and a bunch of other very interesting and exciting things.
Working on something this big takes a lot of personal time and effort, but seeing it being helpful for many people and companies is very empowering and keeps me going forward even faster.
3. Where do you see GraphQL in three years?
I believe that GraphQL would be widely adopted by that point. Just like REST API nowadays, GraphQL would be the technology of choice for new projects (though, I believe this change will happen much faster).
I think that GraphQL has a lot of potential in server-to-server communication. So we will explore this area as well as other areas where this technology can add value and be beneficial.
I also believe that new generation of technologies will emerge, which are based on GraphQL core principles and try to innovate in different areas.
4. What is your favourite feature of GraphQL?
If I would boil it down to a single feature, then it would be the communication of data requirements. Client and server are finally able to have a detailed and meaningful dialog about things that server is able to provide and the client actually wants to consume. In my opinion, many of GraphQL benefits are enabled by this simple concept.
5. If you could change one thing about GraphQL, what would it be?
I love GraphQL as it is :) It has a very good balance between features and simplicity. Though, I think, it would be very interesting to explore the idea of namespaces (https://github.com/facebook/graphql/issues/163). This may open a door for many new interesting use-cases and accelerate GraphQL adoption even more.
Thanks to Oleg Ilyenko for joining us in the first episode of GraphQL Heroes! This was only the first of many interviews to come. Who are your GraphQL Heroes? What questions do you want to ask them? Tweet us @graphqlweekly so we can invite them in one of the coming episodes!
