GraphQL Sydney November 2024

Kevin Brown

Let’s Fix Nullability in GraphQL

​Leveraging non-nullable types is very dangerous in GraphQL currently. When you mark a field as non-nullable you are promising the client that you will absolutely give them that data no matter what happens when they ask for it. If your field is serviced by an external service, microservice, SaaS platform, or anything of the sort, then what will you do when this service goes down but you can still answer the rest of the client’s query? You could of course make the field nullable (and this is the recommended approach today), however do? you? like? it? when? your? code? looks? like? this? No, that’s painful. All just because something might go down? Ugh. ​In this talk, I’ll cover the competing proposals to change the specification to allow for a “not null unless error” type, what their pros and cons are, and give you ways to get involved to move the specification forward. Join us to discuss the hottest topic from GraphQL Conf 2024!

Jack Skinner

Failsafes and Safety Fails: How to crash a train and other lessons for software engineers

​Software builders and operators have long looked to transport and aviation for lessons in engineering practices and safety. Today, we’ll turn our attention to the railways as we take 20 years of hindsight to look at the ‘Broady runaway’ and what it can teach us. This talk will dive into the ATSB’s subsequent safety investigation, recommendations and parallels in the software world, offering us critical lessons in complex system design and incident management. ​For software engineers, architects, managers and executives this is an opportunity for us to reflect and learn from the past so that we can build more resilient and easier to operate platforms in the future.