Fragments

A fragment is a piece of schema, usually used to define what data you want to query for.

Registering Fragments

You can register fragments by passing the fragment string to registerFragment:

import { registerFragment } from 'meteor/vulcan:core';

registerFragment(`
  fragment PostsList on Post {
    _id
    title
    url
    slug
  }
`);

Using Fragments

You can get a fragment with:

import { getFragment } from 'meteor/vulcan:lib';

getFragment('PostsList');

Sub-Fragments

When registering a fragment, you'll often want to use sub-fragments to avoid repeating frequently used properties. For example, the PostsList fragment uses the UserMinimumInfo fragment:

registerFragment(`
  fragment PostsList on Post {
    # vulcan:posts
    _id
    title
    url
    slug
    user {
      ...UsersMinimumInfo
    }
  }
`);

Note that in “regular” Apollo code, you need to include any sub-fragment used by a fragment as tagged template literal, but Vulcan takes care of this for you (provided you've previously registered any sub-fragment using registerFragment).

Extending Fragments

You often need to add one or more properties to a fragment without modifying its existing properties. You can do this with extendFragment:

import { extendFragment } from 'meteor/vulcan:lib';

extendFragment(
  'PostsList',
  `
  color # new custom property!
`
);

This is the same as registering the entire PostsList fragment with color tacked on at the end.

Replacing Fragments

To replace a fragment completely, you can just register it again under the same name.

import { registerFragment } from 'meteor/vulcan:lib';

registerFragment(`
  fragment UsersMinimumInfo on User {
    _id
    slug
    username
    # displayName # remove this
    # emailHash # and this
    mySuperCustomProperty # but add this
  }
`);

Note that you can replace both “regular” fragments and sub-fragments.

Default Fragments

Every collection automatically gets a default fragment associated with it called FooDefaultFragment (for example PostsDefaultFragment).

This default fragment simply contain all fields where canRead is defined (in other words, all public fields). Note that it does not follow field resolvers, meaning that the default fragment will e.g. include userId but not user.

Alternative Approach

You can use standard Apollo fragments at any point in your Vulcan app (passing them as fragment instead of fragmentName), but be aware that you will lose the ability to extend and replace fragments. You will also need to manually specify sub-fragments.