Pagination: merge nodes field in addition to edges

[BoD]

Currently it is possible to configure the (incubating) pagination system to handle Relay-style pagination by using @TypePolicy(connectionFields: ...) and ConnectionFieldMerger.

This will automatically merge the lists in edges into a single record, allowing the app code to watch it and update the UI.

In addition to the edges field, it is common for schemas to also have a nodes field (e.g. the GitHub and Shopify schemas), which simplifies a bit the usage of the API. ConnectionFieldMerger could handle this by merging nodes in addition to edges, if present.

Original question about this here.

[martinbonnin]

Is there? (Or can we add?) an existing pull request or proposal to add this to the Relay specification? Would be rad to add this but having some proposal before doing the implementation would be even rad-er!

[sonatard]

I also hope that Nodes will be reflected in the Relay specification.

In the Relay specification, Edge cursors are not used, but even so, this is in the Note format and does not fundamentally address the issue.
https://github.com/facebook/relay/blob/12965cec6b239ae9f020a4c97c1e8a00c6da5248/website/spec/Connections.md?plain=1#L377-L381

Additionally, the terms "Relay Classic", "Relay Legacy", and "Relay Modern" appear in the Relay specification, but we do not understand what each of them refers to.

[martinbonnin]

@sonatard do you want to open an issue in the Relay repo and we can follow up with the Relay team to clarify the terms and explore the possible addition of nodes?

[sonatard]

Thank you for the suggestion. I plan to open two issues.

[sonatard]

Create a following issue
facebook/relay#4653

And I had actually created an issue about nodes in the past. I had forgotten about it until today.
facebook/relay#3850

[martinbonnin]

Good find! upvoted!

[BoD]

Closing now as this is available in the incubating caching artifact. Don't hesitate to open tickets for comments/issues with this.

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