GraphQL query complaints during page creation of DigitalGarden notes

Question

I'm trying to learn how to build Digital Gardens in GatsbyJS by understanding the workings of Maggie Appleton's website (maggieappleton.com), which is an amazing website imo.

The mdx notes are sorted in different folders depending of their nature (books, essays, illustrations or digital garden notes). They are found in the content folder.

The general folder structure is as so:

--content
  --books
  --notes
  [...]
--src
  --@aengusm
     --gatsby-theme-brain
       --components
         --BrainNote.js 
       --templates
         --Brain,js
  --components
  --fonts
  --lib
  --pages
  --stories
  --templates
    --bookTemplate.js
    --essayTemplate.js
    --illustrationTemplate.js
    --noteTemplate.js
    --paperTemplate.js       

As I understand it: in gatsby-node.js, createPages first queries the frontmatter and note's content and generates the page based on a specific template (found in the templates folder).

This works for all pages excepts the notes of the digital garden. In that case, bi-directional links must be created between notes and that's where the gatsby-them-brain plugin from Aengus McMillin kicks in.

Nodes are created first by onCreateNode and used by the plugin to create the bi-directional links structure. I'm not sure to understand how the notes pages are generated (I believe via the MDXprovider component in BrainNote.js).

When running gatsby develop, I'm faced with the following:

warn The GraphQL query in the non-page component
"[...]/maggieappleton.com/src/templates/noteTemplate.js" will not be  
run.
warn The GraphQL query in the non-page component "[..]/maggieappleton.com/node_modules/@aengusm/gatsby-theme-brain/src/templates/brain.js" will not be run.
Exported queries are only executed for Page components. It's possible you're
trying to create pages in your gatsby-node.js and that's failing for some
reason.

If the failing component(s) is a regular component and not intended to be a page
component, you generally want to use a <StaticQuery> (https://gatsbyjs.org/docs/static-query)
instead of exporting a page query.

If you're more experienced with GraphQL, you can also export GraphQL
fragments from components and compose the fragments in the Page component
query and pass data down into the child component — https://graphql.org/learn/queries/#fragments

gatsby develop works properly but the notes pages are never generated.

The notesQuery in gatsby-node.js seems to work because notes tiles are displayed properly on the front page and digital garden page. However the notes themselves fail to be generated following the logic of the plugin and the noteTemplate.js .

There must be something I'm missing, any help would be appreciated!

Steps to reproduce:

1. Fork from https://github.com/MaggieAppleton/maggieappleton.com
2. yarn install
3. gatsby develop

Here is the gatsby-node.js content:

const path = require('path')
const _ = require('lodash')

// const REDIRECT_SLUGS = ['slugs', 'in', 'here']

exports.createPages = ({ actions, graphql }) => {
  const { createRedirect, createPage } = actions

  //   REDIRECT_SLUGS.forEach(slug => {
  //     createRedirect({
  //       fromPath: `/${slug}`,
  //       toPath: `http://localhost:8001/${slug}`,
  //       redirectInBrowser: true,
  //       isPermanent: true,
  //     })
  //   })

  return graphql(`
    query {
      notesQuery: allMdx(
        filter: {
          frontmatter: { type: { eq: "note" }, published: { ne: false } }
        }
        sort: { order: DESC, fields: frontmatter___updated }
      ) {
        edges {
          node {
            id
            parent {
              ... on File {
                name
                sourceInstanceName
              }
            }
            excerpt(pruneLength: 250)
            fields {
              title
              slug
              updated
              growthStage
            }
          }
        }
      }

      essaysQuery: allMdx(
        filter: {
          frontmatter: { type: { eq: "essay" }, published: { ne: false } }
        }
        sort: { order: DESC, fields: frontmatter___updated }
      ) {
        edges {
          node {
            id
            parent {
              ... on File {
                name
                sourceInstanceName
              }
            }
            excerpt(pruneLength: 250)
            fields {
              title
              slug
              updated
            }
          }
        }
      }

      illustrationQuery: allMdx(
        filter: {
          frontmatter: {
            type: { eq: "illustration" }
            published: { ne: false }
          }
        }
        sort: { order: DESC, fields: frontmatter___updated }
      ) {
        edges {
          node {
            id
            parent {
              ... on File {
                name
                sourceInstanceName
              }
            }
            excerpt(pruneLength: 250)
            fields {
              title
              slug
              updated
            }
          }
        }
      }

      bookQuery: allMdx(
        filter: {
          frontmatter: { type: { eq: "book" }, published: { ne: false } }
        }
        sort: { order: DESC, fields: frontmatter___updated }
      ) {
        edges {
          node {
            id
            parent {
              ... on File {
                name
                sourceInstanceName
              }
            }
            excerpt(pruneLength: 250)
            fields {
              title
              slug
              updated
            }
          }
        }
      }

      paperQuery: allMdx(
        filter: {
          frontmatter: { type: { eq: "paper" }, published: { ne: false } }
        }
        sort: { order: DESC, fields: frontmatter___updated }
      ) {
        edges {
          node {
            id
            parent {
              ... on File {
                name
                sourceInstanceName
              }
            }
            excerpt(pruneLength: 250)
            fields {
              title
              slug
              updated
            }
          }
        }
      }
    }
  `).then(({ data, errors }) => {
    if (errors) {
      return Promise.reject(errors)
    }

    const pageRedirects = node => {
      if (node.fields.redirects) {
        node.fields.redirects.forEach(fromPath => {
          createRedirect({
            fromPath,
            toPath: node.fields.slug,
            redirectInBrowser: true,
            isPermanent: true,
          })
        })
      }
    }

    data.essaysQuery.edges.forEach(({ node }, i) => {
      const { edges } = data.essaysQuery
      const prevPage = i === 0 ? null : edges[i - 1].node
      const nextPage = i === edges.length - 1 ? null : edges[i + 1].node
      pageRedirects(node)
      createPage({
        path: node.fields.slug,
        component: path.resolve('./src/templates/essayTemplate.js'),
        context: {
          id: node.id,
          prevPage,
          nextPage,
        },
      })
    })

    data.illustrationQuery.edges.forEach(({ node }, i) => {
      const { edges } = data.illustrationQuery
      const prevPage = i === 0 ? null : edges[i - 1].node
      const nextPage = i === edges.length - 1 ? null : edges[i + 1].node

      pageRedirects(node)
      createPage({
        path: node.fields.slug,
        component: path.resolve('./src/templates/illustrationTemplate.js'),
        context: {
          id: node.id,
          prevPage,
          nextPage,
        },
      })
    })

    data.bookQuery.edges.forEach(({ node }, i) => {
      const { edges } = data.bookQuery
      const prevPage = i === 0 ? null : edges[i - 1].node
      const nextPage = i === edges.length - 1 ? null : edges[i + 1].node
      pageRedirects(node)
      createPage({
        path: node.fields.slug,
        component: path.resolve('./src/templates/bookTemplate.js'),
        context: {
          id: node.id,
          prevPage,
          nextPage,
        },
      })
    })

    data.paperQuery.edges.forEach(({ node }, i) => {
      const { edges } = data.paperQuery
      const prevPage = i === 0 ? null : edges[i - 1].node
      const nextPage = i === edges.length - 1 ? null : edges[i + 1].node
      pageRedirects(node)
      createPage({
        path: node.fields.slug,
        component: path.resolve('./src/templates/paperTemplate.js'),
        context: {
          id: node.id,
          prevPage,
          nextPage,
        },
      })
    })
  })
}

exports.onCreateWebpackConfig = ({ actions }) => {
  actions.setWebpackConfig({
    resolve: {
      modules: [path.resolve(__dirname, 'src'), 'node_modules'],
      alias: {
        'react-dom': '@hot-loader/react-dom',
        $components: path.resolve(__dirname, 'src/components'),
      },
    },
  })
}

exports.onCreateNode = ({ node, getNode, actions }) => {
  const { createNodeField } = actions

  if (
    node.internal.type === `Mdx` &&
    !_.get(node, 'frontmatter.type', []).includes('note')
  ) {
    const parent = getNode(node.parent)
    if (_.isUndefined(parent.name)) {
      return
    }
    const titleSlugged = _.join(_.drop(parent.name.split('-'), 3), '-')
    const slug =
      parent.sourceInstanceName === 'legacy'
        ? `notes/${node.frontmatter.updated
            .split('T')[0]
            .replace(/-/g, '/')}/${titleSlugged}`
        : node.frontmatter.slug || titleSlugged

    createNodeField({
      name: 'id',
      node,
      value: node.id,
    })

    createNodeField({
      name: 'published',
      node,
      value: node.frontmatter.published,
    })

    createNodeField({
      name: 'title',
      node,
      value: node.frontmatter.title,
    })

    createNodeField({
      name: 'subtitle',
      node,
      value: node.frontmatter.subtitle,
    })

    createNodeField({
      name: 'description',
      node,
      value: node.frontmatter.description,
    })

    createNodeField({
      name: 'slug',
      node,
      value: slug,
    })

    createNodeField({
      name: 'url',
      node,
      value: node.frontmatter.url,
    })

    createNodeField({
      name: 'updated',
      node,
      value: node.frontmatter.updated
        ? node.frontmatter.updated.split(' ')[0]
        : '',
    })

    createNodeField({
      name: 'cover',
      node,
      value: node.frontmatter.cover,
    })

    createNodeField({
      name: 'type',
      node,
      value: node.frontmatter.type || [],
    })

    createNodeField({
      name: 'topics',
      node,
      value: node.frontmatter.topics || [],
    })

    createNodeField({
      name: 'redirects',
      node,
      value: node.frontmatter.redirects,
    })

    createNodeField({
      name: 'redirectTo',
      node,
      value: node.frontmatter.redirectTo,
    })

    createNodeField({
      name: 'isPost',
      node,
      value: true,
    })

    createNodeField({
      name: 'growthStage',
      node,
      value: node.frontmatter.growthStage,
    })
  }
}

BrainNote.js

import React from 'react'
import { MDXProvider } from '@mdx-js/react'
import { useStaticQuery, graphql } from 'gatsby'
import 'tippy.js/animations/shift-away.css'
import Note from '../../../components/Note'
import components from '../../../components/mdx'
import { ReferenceBlock, ReferenceItem } from '../../../components/ReferenceBlock'


const BrainNote = ({ note }) => {

  //GraphQL Query
  const { site } = useStaticQuery(graphql`
    query BrainNoteStaticQuery {
      site {
        siteMetadata {
          title
          description
          author {
            name
          }
          keywords
        }
      }
    }
  `)

    //Declare the references array and the references block
  let references = []
  let referenceBlock

  // If the inbound note (eg. notes that point TO this note) is NOT null, map each inbound note's contents to a list item that links to the source and shows a preview of the HTML. This list item is assigned to the variable "references"
  //These are the notes that will show up in the references block
      // Turn this into a component
  if (note.inboundReferenceNotes != null) {
    references = note.inboundReferenceNotes.map(ref => (<ReferenceItem pageLink={ref.slug} pageTitle={ref.title} excerpt={ref.childMdx.excerpt} />))

    // If the number of inbound reference notes is longer than 0 list items, render a Reference Block.
    // Turn this into a component
    if (references.length > 0) {
      referenceBlock = <ReferenceBlock references={references} />
    }
  }

  // Declare a variable for Bidirectional Link Previews
  const bidirectionallinkpreviews = {}

  // If there are outbound reference notes (notes this note it pointing to), filter each note. Find the title, slug, and excerpt and map it to a preview component
   // Turn this into a component
  if (note.outboundReferenceNotes) {
    note.outboundReferenceNotes
      .filter(reference => !!reference.childMdx.excerpt)
      .forEach((ln, i) => {
        bidirectionallinkpreviews[ln.slug] = (
          <div style={{ padding: '1em 0.6em' }} id={ln.slug}>
            <h2 style={{ margin: '0 0 0.4em 0', fontSize: '1.66em' }}>{ln.title}</h2>
            <p>{ln.childMdx.excerpt}</p>
          </div>
        )
      })
  }

  // Decalre a variable called 'Tippy Link with Previews' and assign it to a function component. The function takes in props, and returns a standard MDX link component. It assigned the bidirectionallinkpreviews variable to a new bidirectionallinkpreviews props
  const TippyLinkWithPreviews = props => (
    <components.a
      {...props}
      bidirectionallinkpreviews={bidirectionallinkpreviews}
    />
  )

  return (
    <MDXProvider components={{...components, a: TippyLinkWithPreviews }}>
      <Note referenceBlock={referenceBlock} note={note} site={site} />
    </MDXProvider>
  )
}

export default BrainNote

Brain.js

import React from 'react'
import { graphql } from 'gatsby'
import BrainNote from '../components/BrainNote'

export default props => {
  return <BrainNote note={props.data.brainNote} />
}

export const query = graphql`
  query BrainNoteWithRefsBySlug($slug: String!) {
    site {
      ...site
    }
    brainNote(slug: { eq: $slug }) {
      slug
      title
      childMdx {
        body
        frontmatter {
          title
          updated(formatString: "MMM DD, YYYY")
          startDate(formatString: "MMM DD, YYYY")
          slug
          topics
          growthStage
        }
      }
      inboundReferenceNotes {
        title
        slug
        childMdx {
          excerpt(pruneLength: 200)
        }
      }
      outboundReferenceNotes {
        title
        slug
        childMdx {
          excerpt(pruneLength: 280)
        }
      }
    }
  }
`

And noteTemplate.js

import React from 'react'
import { graphql } from 'gatsby'
import { MDXRenderer } from 'gatsby-plugin-mdx'
import SEO from 'components/SEO'
import { css } from '@emotion/core'
import Container from 'components/Container'
import Layout from '../components/Layout'
import { fonts } from '../lib/typography'
import Share from '../components/Share'
import config from '../../config/website'
import { useTheme } from 'components/Theming'
import { bpMaxSM } from '../lib/breakpoints'
import PreviousNext from '../components/PreviousNext'
// import { BacklinkItem, BacklinksSection } from '../components/BacklinksSection'

export default function Note({
  data: { site, mdx },
  pageContext: { prevPage, nextPage },
}) {
  const updated = mdx.frontmatter.updated
  const title = mdx.frontmatter.title
  // const topics = mdx.frontmatter.topics
  const growthStage = mdx.frontmatter.growthStage
  const theme = useTheme()

  return (
    <Layout site={site} frontmatter={mdx.frontmatter}>
      <SEO frontmatter={mdx.frontmatter} isNotePost />
      <Container
        css={css`
          max-width: 940px;
          margin-top: 3em;
          ${bpMaxSM} {
            margin-top: 0.8em;
          }
        `}
      >
        <div
          className="headerBlock"
          css={css`
            display: flex;
            flex-direction: column;
            justify-content: flex-start;
            max-width: 840px;
            margin: 0 auto;
        `}>
        <h1
          css={css`
            text-align: left;
            font-size: 3em;
            padding: 0 0 0.4em 0;
          `}
        >
          {title}
        </h1>
        <div
          css={css`
          display: flex;
          flex-wrap: wrap;
          margin-bottom: 1em;
            h6 {
              margin: 0;
              border: 1px solid ${theme.colors.lightestGrey};
              text-align: center;
              align-self: center;
              font-family: ${fonts.regularSans}, 
              sans-serif;
              text-transform: capitalize;
              flex-grow: 1;
              padding: 0.4em 0.8em;
            }
            hr {
              margin: 0;
              background: ${theme.colors.lightestGrey};
              align-self: center;
              border: none;
              flex-grow: 50;
              ${bpMaxSM} {
              display: none;
              }
            }
          `}
        >
          {updated && <h6>Last tended on {updated}</h6>}
          {growthStage && <h6><span role="img" aria-label="a small Seedling"></span> {growthStage}</h6>}

        <hr />
        </div>
        </div>
        <br />
        <MDXRenderer>{mdx.body}</MDXRenderer>
        {/* Next and Previous */}
        <PreviousNext
          prevSlug={prevPage && prevPage.fields.slug}
          prevTitle={prevPage && prevPage.fields.title}
          nextSlug={nextPage && nextPage.fields.slug}
          nextTitle={nextPage && nextPage.fields.title}
        />
        {/* Share Container */}
        <Share
          url={`${config.siteUrl}/${mdx.frontmatter.slug}/`}
          title={title}
          twitterHandle={config.twitterHandle}
        />
      </Container>
      {/* <SubscribeForm /> */}
    </Layout>
  )
}

export const pageQuery = graphql`
  query($id: String!) {
    site {
      ...site
    }
    mdx(fields: { id: { eq: $id } }) {
      frontmatter {
        title
        updated(formatString: "MMMM DD, YYYY")
        slug
        topics
        growthStage
      }
      body
    }
  }
`

Answer 1

I'm not sure to fully understand your issue but to me, it seems that you are not linking your gatsby-node.js to the Note template, as you are doing with the rest of the templates. Since Note is requesting a non-nullable id in the GraphQL query, it prompts your issue. Just add it in your gatsby-node.js:

data.notesQuery.edges.forEach(({ node }, i) => {
  // uncomment the following if needed

  //const { edges } = data.notesQuery
  //const prevPage = i === 0 ? null : edges[i - 1].node
  //const nextPage = i === edges.length - 1 ? null : edges[i + 1].node
  //pageRedirects(node)
  createPage({
    path: node.fields.slug,
    component: path.resolve('./src/templates/noteTemplate.js'),
    context: {
      id: node.id,
    },
  })
})