Creating a Data Source

To create a data source, start up your browser and navigate to the "Cook view" of any page in your publication. For example: http://cue-front-host:8101/tomorrow-online/. You should see the JSON data for the page you have chosen. Now add the /edit suffix to the URL to display the GraphiQL editor. Make sure that the editor is displayed and that it has a Save button. If it doesn't, then you need to enable saving (see Saving Your GraphQL changes).

If saving is enabled, then replace the /edit suffix with /_datasource/politicalContent/edit. This should give you a new, empty GraphiQL editor with the title politicalContent.graphql. To start your query, enter:

query {
  
}

and with the cursor inside the braces, press Ctrl-Space. You will see that the editor works in the same way as when editing a content retrieval query, but that the options available to you are different. If you explore the help in the Docs section on the right side of the editor, you will see that it too now contains completely different information, aimed at helping you build a data source query rather than a content retrieval query.

A data source query must contain one top-level and or or element, which can then contain any number of child search elements. For example:

query {
  and {
    tag(tag: "tag:tomorrowonline@escenic.com,2017:politics")
    type(name: "story")
  }
}

This will generate a Solr query in which the child search elements are combined with AND operators:

(classification:"tag:tomorrowonline@escenic.com,2017:politics" AND contenttype:"story")

If the top level element were an or element instead, then the search elements would be combined with OR operators:

(classification:"tag:tomorrowonline@escenic.com,2017:politics" OR contenttype:"story")

Even if your query only has one search element, the Cook requires you to have an and or or element at the top level (although in this case, of course, it doesn't matter which you choose). This data source query:

query {
  and {
    type(name: "story")
  }
}

will generate this Solr query:

(contenttype:"story")

The child search elements of an and or or element may themselves be and or or elements. not elements are also allowed. This allows you to construct more sophisticated queries. This data source query, for example:

query {
  and {
    tag (tag: "tag:tomorrowonline@escenic.com,2017:politics")
    not {
      tag (tag: "tag:tomorrowonline@escenic.com,2017:elections")
    } 
    or {
     type (name: "story")
     type (name: "picture")
    }
  }
}

will generate this Solr query:

(classification:"tag:tomorrowonline@escenic.com,2017:politics"
AND -(classification:"tag:tomorrowonline@escenic.com,2017:elections") 
AND (contenttype:"story" OR contenttype:"picture"))

(contenttype:"story")

When you execute a data source query by clicking the editor's play button ( ), the Cook:

• Generates a Solr query

• Submits the query to Solr

• Displays a response in the editor containing both the query submitted to Solr and the response. The Solr response is a JSON structure containing information about the matching content items found.

For example:

You can use this output to verify that your query is working correctly and returning the content you are interested in. Once you are satisfied, you can save the query by clicking the Save button. The query is save in your CUE Front's recipe/datasources folder. You can modify it at any time either by opening recipe/datasources/politicalContent.graphql in an editor of your choice or by returning to http://cue-front-host:8101/tomorrow-online/_datasource/politicalContent/edit in the browser.