Task-Relevant API Development for Higher Education Using GraphQL

Abstract

To develop applications that support a variety of campus needs, North Dakota State University's Enterprise Application Development team requires a method of accessing North Dakota State University System data related to university students, faculty, and staff. As state requirements limit direct access to this data, and conventional API access methods are not well-suited to application use cases, this paper will explore how the data is acquired, stored, and then made accessible to individual applications using GraphQL. A single application, Graduate Waiver Wire, is presented as a use case depicting how GraphQL aids in the automatic data update process, freeing the time previously spent by Graduate School personnel in manually updating graduate student information.