tottem | Bookmark manager on steroid | Frontend Framework library

The unfortunate truth about update is that it trades simplicity for performance. A truly "dumb" client would only receive data from the server and render it, never manipulating it. By instructing Apollo how to modify our cache after a mutation, we're inevitably duplicating the business logic that already exists on our server. The only way to avoid this is to either:

• Have the mutation return a larger section of the graph. For example, if a user creates a post, instead of returning the created post, return the complete user object, including all of the user's posts.
• Refetch the affected queries.

Of course, often neither approach is particularly desirable and we opt for injecting business logic into our client apps instead.

Separating this business logic could be as simple as keeping your update functions in a separate file and importing them as needed. This way, at least you can test the update logic separately. You may also prefer a more elegant solution like utilizing a Link. apollo-link-watched-mutation is a good example of a Link that lets you separate the update logic from your components. It also solves the issue of having to keep track of query variables in order to perform those updates.