ports_and_adapters

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🔌 Ports and Adapters Example

• ⚖️ What is the benefit of doing this?
  • How much to do this (create Ports and Adapters)?
  • Is it worth the overhead of contract checking at runtime?
• 🏃‍♂️ How to run the application?

Ports and Adapters is an architectural pattern that separates the application's core logic (Ports) from external dependencies (Adapters).

This example shows how to implement a simple application using this pattern and the gem solid-adapters.

Let's start seeing the code structure:

├── Rakefile
├── config.rb
├── db
├── app
│  └── models
│     └── user
│        ├── record
│        │  └── repository.rb
│        └── record.rb
├── lib
│  └── user
│     ├── creation.rb
│     ├── data.rb
│     └── repository.rb
└── test
   └── user_test
      └── repository.rb

The files and directories are organized as follows:

• Rakefile runs the application.
• config.rb file contains the configuration of the application.
• db directory contains the database. It is not part of the application, but it is used by the application.
• app directory contains "Rails" components.
• lib directory contains the core business logic.
• test directory contains the tests.

The application is a simple "user management system". It unique core functionality is to create users.

Now we understand the code structure, let's see the how the pattern is implemented.

The Port

In this application, there is only one business process: User::Creation (see lib/user/creation.rb), which relies on the User::Repository (see lib/user/repository.rb) to persist the user.

The User::Repository is an example of port, because it is an interface/contract that defines how the core business logic will persist user records.

module User::Repository
  include Solid::Adapters::Interface

  module Methods
    def create(name:, email:)
      name => String
      email => String

      super.tap { _1 => ::User::Data[id: Integer, name: String, email: String] }
    end
  end
end

The Adapters

The User::Repository is implemented by two adapters:

• User::Record::Repository (see app/models/user/record/repository.rb) is an adapter that persists user records in the database (through the User::Record, that is an ActiveRecord model).

• UserTest::Repository (see test/user_test/repository.rb) is an adapter that persists user records in memory (through the UserTest::Data, that is a simple in-memory data structure).

⚖️ What is the benefit of doing this?

The benefit of doing this is that the core business logic is decoupled from the external dependencies, which makes it easier to test and promote changes in the code.

For example, if we need to change the persistence layer (start to send the data to a REST API or a Redis DB), we just need to implement a new adapter and make the business processes (User::Creation) use it.

How much to do this (create Ports and Adapters)?

Use this pattern when there is a real need to decouple the core business logic from external dependencies.

You can start with a simple implementation (without Ports and Adapters) and refactor it to use this pattern when the need arises.

Is it worth the overhead of contract checking at runtime?

You can eliminate the overhead by disabling the Solid::Adapters::Interface, which is enabled by default.

When it is disabled, the Solid::Adapters::Interface won't prepend the interface methods module to the adapter, which means that the adapter won't be checked against the interface.

To disable it, set the configuration to false:

Solid::Adapters.configuration do |config|
  config.interface_enabled = false
end

🏃‍♂️ How to run the application?

In the same directory as this README, run:

rake # or rake SOLID_ADAPTERS_ENABLED=enabled

# or

rake SOLID_ADAPTERS_ENABLED=false

Proxy enabled

rake # or rake SOLID_ADAPTERS_ENABLED=enabled

# Output sample:
#
# --  Valid input  --
#
# Created user: #<struct User::Data id=1, name="Jane", email="[email protected]">
# Created user: #<struct User::Data id=1, name="John", email="[email protected]">
#
# --  Invalid input  --
#
# rake aborted!
# NoMatchingPatternError: nil: String === nil does not return true (NoMatchingPatternError)
# /.../lib/user/repository.rb:9:in `create'
# /.../lib/user/creation.rb:12:in `call'
# /.../Rakefile:36:in `block in <top (required)>'

Proxy disabled

rake SOLID_ADAPTERS_ENABLED=false

# Output sample:
#
# --  Valid input  --
#
# Created user: #<struct User::Data id=1, name="Jane", email="[email protected]">
# Created user: #<struct User::Data id=1, name="John", email="[email protected]">
#
# --  Invalid input  --
#
# Created user: #<struct User::Data id=2, name="Jane", email=nil>
# Created user: #<struct User::Data id=3, name="", email=nil>