Sanic + SQLAlchemy + GraphQL Example

A modern, fully updated example project demonstrating integration between Sanic, SQLAlchemy, and GraphQL using Graphene.

🚀 Quick Start

# Install dependencies
pip install -r requirements.txt

# Run the application
python app.py

Visit http://localhost:8000/graphql to access the GraphQL playground.

📋 Features

• Modern Sanic 23.x with sanic-ext integration
• SQLAlchemy 1.4 with SQLite database
• GraphQL API with relay-style connections
• Interactive GraphQL Playground in browser
• Sample data with employees, departments, and roles
• Fully updated dependencies (2024-ready)

🏗️ Project Structure

├── app.py           # Main Sanic application
├── models.py        # SQLAlchemy database models
├── database.py      # Database configuration and initialization
├── schema.py        # GraphQL schema definitions
└── requirements.txt # Python dependencies

📊 Database Models

The project includes three interconnected models:

• Department: Company departments (Engineering, HR, etc.)
• Role: Job roles (Manager, Engineer, etc.)
• Employee: Staff members with department and role relationships

🔍 GraphQL Queries

Get All Employees

{
  allEmployee {
    edges {
      node {
        id
        name
        hiredOn
        department {
          name
        }
        role {
          name
        }
      }
    }
  }
}

Get All Departments

{
  allDepartments {
    edges {
      node {
        id
        name
      }
    }
  }
}

Get All Roles

{
  allRoles {
    edges {
      node {
        id
        name
      }
    }
  }
}

🛠️ Dependencies

• Sanic 23.12.1 - Modern Python web framework
• SQLAlchemy 1.4.54 - Database ORM
• Graphene 2.1.9 - GraphQL framework
• graphene-sqlalchemy 2.3.0 - SQLAlchemy integration for Graphene
• sanic-ext 23.12.0 - Sanic extensions

🔧 API Endpoints

Method	Endpoint	Description
GET	/graphql	GraphQL Playground (Interactive UI)
POST	/graphql	GraphQL API endpoint

💡 Development Guide

1. Database Models (models.py)

Define your SQLAlchemy models with relationships:

from sqlalchemy import Column, DateTime, ForeignKey, Integer, String, func
from sqlalchemy.orm import backref, relationship

class Employee(Base):
    __tablename__ = 'employees'
    employee_id = Column(Integer, primary_key=True)
    name = Column(String)
    hired_on = Column(DateTime, default=func.now())
    department_id = Column(Integer, ForeignKey('department.id'))
    role_id = Column(Integer, ForeignKey('roles.role_id'))
    
    # Relationships
    department = relationship(Department, backref='employees')
    role = relationship(Role, backref='employees')

2. GraphQL Schema (schema.py)

Create GraphQL types from SQLAlchemy models:

from graphene_sqlalchemy import SQLAlchemyObjectType, SQLAlchemyConnectionField

class Employee(SQLAlchemyObjectType):
    class Meta:
        model = EmployeeModel
        interfaces = (relay.Node, )

class Query(graphene.ObjectType):
    all_employee = SQLAlchemyConnectionField(Employee)

3. Sanic Application (app.py)

Modern Sanic setup with GraphQL endpoints:

from sanic import Sanic
from sanic_ext import Extend

app = Sanic(__name__)
Extend(app)

@app.post("/graphql")
async def graphql_handler(request):
    query = request.json.get("query")
    result = await graphql(schema, query)
    return {"data": result.data}

🚦 Sample Data

The application automatically creates sample data:

Departments:

• Engineering
• Human Resources

Roles:

• Manager
• Engineer

Employees:

• Peter (Engineering Manager)
• Roy (Software Engineer)
• Tracy (HR Manager)

🔄 What's Updated

This project has been modernized from the original 2016 version:

• ✅ Sanic 0.4 → 23.12.1 (Modern async web framework)
• ✅ SQLAlchemy 1.0 → 1.4 (Latest compatible version)
• ✅ Replaced deprecated sanic-graphql with sanic-ext
• ✅ Fixed async/await patterns
• ✅ Updated GraphQL playground
• ✅ Modern Python packaging
• ✅ Improved error handling

🤝 Contributing

1. Fork the repository
2. Create a feature branch
3. Make your changes
4. Add tests if applicable
5. Submit a pull request

📄 License

This project is open source and available under the MIT License.