Hot Chocolatev13

Scalars

Scalar types are the primitives of our schema and can hold a specific type of data. They are leaf types, meaning we cannot use e.g. { fieldName } to further drill down into the type. The main purpose of a scalar is to define how a value is serialized and deserialized.

Besides basic scalars like String and Int, we can also create custom scalars like CreditCardNumber or SocialSecurityNumber. These custom scalars can greatly enhance the expressiveness of our schema and help new developers to get a grasp of our API.

GraphQL scalars

The GraphQL specification defines the following scalars.

String

SDL
type Product {
description: String;
}

This scalar represents an UTF-8 character sequence.

It is automatically inferred from the usage of the .NET string type.

Boolean

SDL
type Product {
purchasable: Boolean;
}

This scalar represents a Boolean value, which can be either true or false.

It is automatically inferred from the usage of the .NET bool type.

Int

SDL
type Product {
quantity: Int;
}

This scalar represents a signed 32-bit numeric non-fractional value.

It is automatically inferred from the usage of the .NET int type.

Float

SDL
type Product {
price: Float;
}

This scalar represents double-precision fractional values, as specified by IEEE 754.

It is automatically inferred from the usage of the .NET float or double type.

Note: We introduced a separate Decimal scalar to handle decimal values.

ID

SDL
type Product {
id: ID!;
}

This scalar is used to facilitate technology-specific Ids, like int, string or Guid.

It is not automatically inferred and the IdType needs to be explicitly specified.

ID values are always represented as a String in client-server communication, but can be coerced to their expected type on the server.

C#
public class Product
{
[GraphQLType(typeof(IdType))]
public int Id { get; set; }
}
public class Query
{
public Product GetProduct([GraphQLType(typeof(IdType))] int id)
{
// Omitted code for brevity
}
}

Notice how our code uses int for the Id, but in a request / response it would be serialized as a string. This allows us to switch the CLR type of our Id, without affecting the schema and our clients.

GraphQL Community Scalars

The website https://www.graphql-scalars.com/ hosts specifications for GraphQL scalars defined by the community. The community scalars use the @specifiedBy directive to point to the spec that is implemented.

SDL
scalar UUID @specifiedBy(url: "https://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc4122")

DateTime Type

A custom GraphQL scalar which represents an exact point in time. This point in time is specified by having an offset to UTC and does not use time zone.

The DateTime scalar is based RFC3339.

SDL
scalar DateTime @specifiedBy(url: "https://www.graphql-scalars.com/date-time/")

.NET Scalars

In addition to the scalars defined by the specification, Hot Chocolate also supports the following set of scalar types:

TypeDescription
ByteByte
ByteArrayBase64 encoded array of bytes
ShortSigned 16-bit numeric non-fractional value
LongSigned 64-bit numeric non-fractional value
Decimal.NET Floating Point Type
UrlUrl
DateISO-8601 date
TimeSpanISO-8601 duration
UuidGUID
AnyThis type can be anything, string, int, list or object, etc.

Uuid Type

The Uuid scalar supports the following serialization formats.

SpecifierFormat
N00000000000000000000000000000000
D (default)00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000
B{00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000}
P(00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000)
X{0x00000000,0x0000,0x0000,{0x00,0x00,0x00,0x00,0x00,0x00,0x00,0x00}}

The UuidType will always return the value in the specified format. In case it is used as an input type, it will first try to parse the result in the specified format. If the parsing does not succeed, it will try to parse the value in other formats.

To change the default format we have to register the UuidType with the specifier on the schema:

C#
services
.AddGraphQLServer()
.AddType(new UuidType('D'));

Any Type

The Any scalar is a special type that can be compared to object in C#. Any allows us to specify any literal or return any output type.

Consider the following type:

SDL
type Query {
foo(bar: Any): String
}

Since our field foo specifies an argument bar of type Any all of the following queries would be valid:

GraphQL
{
a: foo(bar: 1)
b: foo(bar: [1, 2, 3, 4, 5])
a: foo(bar: "abcdef")
a: foo(bar: true)
a: foo(bar: { a: "foo", b: { c: 1 } })
a: foo(bar: [{ a: "foo", b: { c: 1 } }, { a: "foo", b: { c: 1 } }])
}

The same goes for the output side. Any can return a structure of data although it is a scalar type.

If we want to access the data we can either fetch data as an object or you can ask the context to provide it as a specific object.

C#
object foo = context.ArgumentValue<object>("bar");
Foo foo = context.ArgumentValue<Foo>("bar");

We can also ask the context which kind the current argument is:

C#
ValueKind kind = context.ArgumentKind("bar");

The value kind will tell us by which kind of literal the argument is represented.

An integer literal can still contain a long value and a float literal could be a decimal but it also could just be a float.

C#
public enum ValueKind
{
String,
Integer,
Float,
Boolean,
Enum,
Object,
Null
}

If we want to access an object dynamically without serializing it to a strongly typed model we can get it as IReadOnlyDictionary<string, object> or as ObjectValueNode.

Lists can be accessed generically by getting them as IReadOnlyList<object> or as ListValueNode.

Additional Scalars

We also offer a separate package with scalars for more specific use cases.

To use these scalars we have to add the HotChocolate.Types.Scalars package.

Bash
dotnet add package HotChocolate.Types.Scalars
Warning
All HotChocolate.* packages need to have the same version.

Available Scalars:

TypeDescription
EmailAddressEmail address, represented as UTF-8 character sequences, as defined in RFC5322
HexColorHEX color code
HslCSS HSL color as defined here
HslaCSS HSLA color as defined here
IPv4IPv4 address as defined here
IPv6IPv6 address as defined in RFC8064
IsbnISBN-10 or ISBN-13 number as defined here
LatitudeDecimal degrees latitude number
LongitudeDecimal degrees longitude number
LocalCurrencyCurrency string
LocalDateISO date string, represented as UTF-8 character sequences yyyy-mm-dd, as defined in RFC3339
LocalTimeLocal time string (i.e., with no associated timezone) in 24-hr HH:mm:ss
MacAddressIEEE 802 48-bit (MAC-48/EUI-48) and 64-bit (EUI-64) Mac addresses, represented as UTF-8 character sequences, as defined in RFC7042 and RFC7043
NegativeFloatDouble‐precision fractional value less than 0
NegativeIntSigned 32-bit numeric non-fractional with a maximum of -1
NonEmptyStringNon empty textual data, represented as UTF‐8 character sequences with at least one character
NonNegativeFloatDouble‐precision fractional value greater than or equal to 0
NonNegativeIntUnsigned 32-bit numeric non-fractional value greater than or equal to 0
NonPositiveFloatDouble‐precision fractional value less than or equal to 0
NonPositiveIntSigned 32-bit numeric non-fractional value less than or equal to 0
PhoneNumberA value that conforms to the standard E.164 format as defined here
PositiveIntSigned 32‐bit numeric non‐fractional value of at least the value 1
PostalCodePostal code
PortTCP port within the range of 0 to 65535
RgbCSS RGB color as defined here
RgbaCSS RGBA color as defined here
SignedByteSigned 8-bit numeric non‐fractional value greater than or equal to -127 and smaller than or equal to 128.
UnsignedIntUnsigned 32‐bit numeric non‐fractional value greater than or equal to 0
UnsignedLongUnsigned 64‐bit numeric non‐fractional value greater than or equal to 0
UnsignedShortUnsigned 16‐bit numeric non‐fractional value greater than or equal to 0 and smaller or equal to 65535.
UtcOffsetA value of format ±hh:mm

Most of these scalars are built on top of native .NET types. An Email Address for example is represented as a string, but just returning a string from our resolver would result in Hot Chocolate interpreting it as a StringType. We need to explicitly specify that the returned type (string) should be treated as an EmailAddressType.

C#
[GraphQLType(typeof(EmailAddressType))]
public string GetEmail() => "[email protected]";

Learn more about explicitly specifying GraphQL types

NodaTime

We also offer a package specifically for NodaTime.

It can be installed like the following.

Bash
dotnet add package HotChocolate.Types.NodaTime
Warning
All HotChocolate.* packages need to have the same version.

Available Scalars:

TypeDescriptionExample
DateTimeZoneA NodaTime DateTimeZone"Europe/Rome"
DurationA NodaTime Duration"-123:07:53:10.019"
InstantA NodaTime Instant"2020-02-20T17:42:59Z"
IsoDayOfWeekA NodaTime IsoDayOfWeek7
LocalDateA NodaTime LocalDate"2020-12-25"
LocalDateTimeA NodaTime LocalDateTime"2020-12-25T13:46:78"
LocalTimeA NodaTime LocalTime"12:42:13.03101"
OffsetDateTimeA NodaTime OffsetDateTime"2020-12-25T13:46:78+02:35"
OffsetDateA NodaTime OffsetDate"2020-12-25+02:35"
OffsetTimeA NodaTime OffsetTime"13:46:78+02:35"
OffsetA NodeTime Offset"+02:35"
PeriodA NodeTime Period"P-3W3DT139t"
ZonedDateTimeA NodaTime ZonedDateTime"2020-12-31T19:40:13 Asia/Kathmandu +05:45"

When returning a NodaTime type from one of our resolvers, for example a NodaTime.Duration, we also need to explicitly register the corresponding scalar type. In the case of a NodaTime.Duration this would be the DurationType scalar.

C#
public class Query
{
public Duration GetDuration() => Duration.FromMinutes(3);
}
public class Startup
{
public void ConfigureServices(IServiceCollection services)
{
services
.AddGraphQLServer()
.AddQueryType<Query>()
.AddType<DurationType>();
}
}

This package was originally developed by @shoooe.

Binding behavior

Hot Chocolate binds most of the native .NET types automatically. A System.String is for example automatically mapped to a StringType in the schema.

We can override these mappings by explicitly specifying type bindings.

C#
services
.AddGraphQLServer()
.BindRuntimeType<string, StringType>();

Furthermore, we can also bind scalars to arrays or type structures:

C#
services
.AddGraphQLServer()
.BindRuntimeType<byte[], ByteArrayType>();

Hot Chocolate only exposes the used scalars in the generated schema, keeping it simple and clean.

Custom Converters

We can reuse existing scalar types and bind them to different runtime types by specifying converters.

We could for example register converters between NodaTime's OffsetDateTime and .NET's DateTimeOffset to reuse the existing DateTimeType.

C#
public class Query
{
public OffsetDateTime GetDateTime(OffsetDateTime offsetDateTime)
{
return offsetDateTime;
}
}
public class Startup
{
public void ConfigureServices(IServiceCollection services)
{
services
.AddGraphQLServer()
.AddQueryType<Query>()
.BindRuntimeType<OffsetDateTime, DateTimeType>()
.AddTypeConverter<OffsetDateTime, DateTimeOffset>(
x => x.ToDateTimeOffset())
.AddTypeConverter<DateTimeOffset, OffsetDateTime>(
x => OffsetDateTime.FromDateTimeOffset(x));
}
}

Scalar Options

Some scalars like TimeSpan or Uuid have options like their serialization format.

We can specify these options by registering the scalar explicitly.

C#
services
.AddGraphQLServer()
.AddType(new UuidType('D'));

Custom Scalars

All scalars in Hot Chocolate are defined through a ScalarType. The easiest way to create a custom scalar is to extend ScalarType<TRuntimeType, TLiteral>. This base class already includes basic serialization and parsing logic.

C#
public sealed class CreditCardNumberType : ScalarType<string, StringValueNode>
{
private readonly ICreditCardValidator _validator;
// we can inject services that have been registered
// with the DI container
public CreditCardNumberType(ICreditCardValidator validator)
: base("CreditCardNumber")
{
_validator = validator;
Description = "Represents a credit card number";
}
// is another StringValueNode an instance of this scalar
protected override bool IsInstanceOfType(StringValueNode valueSyntax)
=> IsInstanceOfType(valueSyntax.Value);
// is another string .NET type an instance of this scalar
protected override bool IsInstanceOfType(string runtimeValue)
=> _validator.ValidateCreditCard(runtimeValue);
public override IValueNode ParseResult(object? resultValue)
=> ParseValue(resultValue);
// define how a value node is parsed to the string .NET type
protected override string ParseLiteral(StringValueNode valueSyntax)
=> valueSyntax.Value;
// define how the string .NET type is parsed to a value node
protected override StringValueNode ParseValue(string runtimeValue)
=> new StringValueNode(runtimeValue);
public override bool TryDeserialize(object? resultValue,
out object? runtimeValue)
{
runtimeValue = null;
if (resultValue is string s && _validator.ValidateCreditCard(s))
{
runtimeValue = s;
return true;
}
return false;
}
public override bool TrySerialize(object? runtimeValue,
out object? resultValue)
{
resultValue = null;
if (runtimeValue is string s && _validator.ValidateCreditCard(s))
{
resultValue = s;
return true;
}
return false;
}
}

By extending ScalarType we have full control over serialization and parsing.

C#
public class CreditCardNumberType : ScalarType
{
private readonly ICreditCardValidator _validator;
public CreditCardNumberType(ICreditCardValidator validator)
: base("CreditCardNumber")
{
_validator = validator;
Description = "Represents a credit card number";
}
// define which .NET type represents your type
public override Type RuntimeType { get; } = typeof(string);
// define which value nodes this type can be parsed from
public override bool IsInstanceOfType(IValueNode valueSyntax)
{
if (valueSyntax == null)
{
throw new ArgumentNullException(nameof(valueSyntax));
}
return valueSyntax is StringValueNode stringValueNode &&
_validator.ValidateCreditCard(stringValueNode.Value);
}
// define how a value node is parsed to the native .NET type
public override object ParseLiteral(IValueNode valueSyntax,
bool withDefaults = true)
{
if (valueSyntax is StringValueNode stringLiteral &&
_validator.ValidateCreditCard(stringLiteral.Value))
{
return stringLiteral.Value;
}
throw new SerializationException(
"The specified value has to be a credit card number in the format "
+ "XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX",
this);
}
// define how the .NET type is parsed to a value node
public override IValueNode ParseValue(object? runtimeValue)
{
if (runtimeValue is string s &&
_validator.ValidateCreditCard(s))
{
return new StringValueNode(null, s, false);
}
throw new SerializationException(
"The specified value has to be a credit card number in the format "
+ "XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX",
this);
}
public override IValueNode ParseResult(object? resultValue)
{
if (resultValue is string s &&
_validator.ValidateCreditCard(s))
{
return new StringValueNode(null, s, false);
}
throw new SerializationException(
"The specified value has to be a credit card number in the format "
+ "XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX",
this);
}
public override bool TrySerialize(object? runtimeValue,
out object? resultValue)
{
resultValue = null;
if (runtimeValue is string s &&
_validator.ValidateCreditCard(s))
{
resultValue = s;
return true;
}
return false;
}
public override bool TryDeserialize(object? resultValue,
out object? runtimeValue)
{
runtimeValue = null;
if (resultValue is string s &&
_validator.ValidateCreditCard(s))
{
runtimeValue = s;
return true;
}
return false;
}
}

The implementation of Hot Chocolate's own scalars can be used as a reference for writing custom scalars.