Can't Programatically fetch data with Apollo Client - apollo

Question

Most of the information out there about Apollo Client and GraphQL queries is about fetching data and immediately rendering something.
What about the common use case where I want to fetch data to, let say, update the state in which I clearly don't need to render JSX, I just want to run Javascript code.
Use the following code snippet as an example
onRefChange (formValues) {
let { project, ref } = formValues
let projectFound = find(this.state.projects, (o) => { return o.id === project.value } )
let variables = {
slug: projectFound.slug, ref: parseInt(ref)
}
console.info('variables ready', variables)
return (
<Query query={RESOLVE_REF} variables={variables}>
{ ({ data, error }) => {
console.info('data response', data)
console.info('error response', error)
return data
}}
</Query>
)
}
Apollo forces me to use the Query component just to perform a query, even when I don't want to render anything. Also those console.info never log anything, but the variables ready text does appear.
I have found that the documentation is pretty clear on using the Query component, but obscure on every option which is different. I feel I'm missing something.
I'm also concerned about how Apollo doesn't seems respect the separation of responsibilities, apparently merging both data and presentation into a single responsibility (as is clear with the Query component), which in my current understanding is quite silly, but most likely I'm fucking things up.
Any insight is appreciated.

Answer 1

As long as you've configured and included an ApolloProvider at the top of your component tree, you can get your query instance using either the withApollo HOC, or the ApolloConsumer:
const MyComponent = ({ client }) => {
// use it!
}
withApollo(MyComponent)
<ApolloConsumer>
{client => (
// use it!
)}
</ApolloConsumer>
You can then use any of the methods that are available to the client instance, including query and mutation, both of which return a Promise that resolves to an ApolloQueryResult object that includes data and errors. The full documentation for the client's API can be found here. Your code would then look something like:
async onRefChange (formValues) {
let { project, ref } = formValues
let projectFound = find(this.state.projects, (o) => { return o.id === project.value } )
let variables = {
slug: projectFound.slug, ref: parseInt(ref)
}
try {
const { data } = await this.props.client(RESOLVE_REF, { variables })
} catch (e) {
// Handle errors
}
}