React Ecosystem

Relay

Relay is a JavaScript framework developed by Facebook for building data-driven React applications that efficiently fetch and manage data from GraphQL APIs. It provides a declarative approach to data fetching, automatically handling caching, pagination, and mutations while optimizing network requests. By co-locating data requirements with React components, Relay ensures that applications only request the data they need, improving performance and developer productivity.

Also known as: Relay.js, Relay Framework, Facebook Relay, Relay Modern, Relay Classic

🧊Why learn Relay?

Developers should learn Relay when building complex, data-intensive React applications that require efficient data management and real-time updates, such as social media platforms, dashboards, or collaborative tools. It is particularly useful in scenarios where minimizing network requests, handling large datasets with pagination, and maintaining consistent client-side state are critical, as it reduces boilerplate code and enforces best practices for GraphQL integration.

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Compare Relay

Relay vs Apollo Client→Relay vs Urql→Relay vs React Query→

Learning Resources

Relay Official Documentation

Getting Started with Relay Tutorial

Relay Modern Course on Egghead.io

Introduction to Relay Video by Facebook

Fullstack GraphQL with Relay Book

Related Tools

React Graphql Javascript Typescript Apollo Client

Alternatives to Relay

Apollo Client Urql React Query

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