If Book aggregates Chapter which in turn aggregates Page, then what should be the aggregate root? One possibility might be:
Book is an aggregate root with Chapter as a leaf and Chapter is an aggregate with Page as a leaf.
In this scenario, Chapter is a leaf in one aggregate and a root in another. Is this okay? Would it make sense in this scenario to have two repositories, one for Book and another for Chapter? If so, then couldn't the Chapter repository be used to circumvent the fact that access to Chapter should only happen via Book? What would be the best way to handle a situation like this?
In my opinion, the whole idea of aggregate roots make sense only when there is a single root for a given aggregate. Which one -- it depends on your requirements. Let's examine two possibilities:
Book is a root and it contains Chapters containing Pages. This design is useful when your usage scenarios all include interacting with books: users select books and apply their operations/commands on whole books. Notice, that the Book aggregate is in 'operations' layer of your domain model -- it, as a whole, represents concepts what part of are day-to-day business.
Chapter is the root. Is contains Pages. It also has reference to Book. This design is useful when usage scenarios focus on interacting with individual chapters. Chapter aggregate is in 'operations' layer now. Book forms an aggregate by itself but is is placed in 'potencial/capabilities' layer beneath the operations layer. This means that books are an asset to the organization, an enabler for the business, but are not part of day-to-day activities. Moreover, books don't know anything about being referenced by Chapters.
To sum up, all depends on specifics of you case, the requirements you have. Be aware that layers in the domain model ore primarily a business concept, not technical one -- they hep you to model the domain well. For further information please read Eric Evans' Domain-Driven Design, especially 'Large scale structure' part.
Related
I attended a Webinar today by someone quite famous and respected author, lecturer, and expert in software engineering, architecture, and design. The webinar topic was "Incremental Architecture". This luminary stated that the concept of an entity in DDD has nothing to do with the concept of entity in databases. It was an unfortunate choice of term by Eric Evans in his original 2003 book. I was not satisfied with his explanation, and I find that his statement to potentially be very confusing to anyone trying to use DDD in design.
My question: what exactly does the term entity in DDD mean? - if it is not the very well understood and very well defined concept of entity in databases, ORM frameworks, JPA, development frameworks (Spring), etc.
Extensive research in software architecture.
This is a question about DDD strategic design. Coding is not involved.
Not relevant to my question. You allow a topic tag about DDD, which is a design approach, not a coding approach, yet you insist on having code-related questions. How is DDD related to coding?
My question: what exactly does the term entity in DDD mean?
Evan's defined entity in Chapter 5 (A Model Expressed in Software) of Domain Driven Design.
Entities (a.k.a. Reference Objects) ... are not fundamentally defined by their properties, but rather by a thread of continuity and identity.
An object defined primarily by its identity is called an ENTITY.
An ENTITY is anything that has continuity through a life cycle and distinctions independent of attributes that are important to the application's user.
It is an in memory abstraction of something that changes over time. It's a temporally varying membership function which for time t maps an identifier to some state. It's used within the domain model to represent things that change.
An example of a entity in a domain model might be... a question on stack overflow.
The meaning of "entity" in Domain-Driven Design
When somebody edits the text, or changes the title, or downvotes... it's still the same question, in that there's a progression from what the text used to be to what the text is now. It changes over time from having this text to having that text.
A simple entity in a domain model might map to a single row in a relational database, but it won't necessarily do so. More precisely, we might save the current state of the entity in a single row. But if that state includes a collection, then it is likely that the state will be distributed across multiple rows, perhaps in multiple tables.
You allow a topic tag about DDD, which is a design approach, not a coding approach, yet you insist on having code-related questions. How is DDD related to coding?
If The Source Code is The Design, then the design necessarily includes coding. The middle section of the Domain Driven Design book, which gets most of the attention, covers topics in modeling domains in code.
Truth be told: domain-driven-design turns up fewer questions with authoritative answers than, for example java.
An entity is a type that has an identity. The id could be anything but it has to be unique to the system and in fact depending on the subdomain you are in, the identity/entity might change.
For example:
A database might have a "User" Table that has fields "firstname", "lastname" e.t.c.
In DDD for an ecommerce application's purchase subdomain, you might have "Shoppers". These Shoppers might have an id of "firstname lastname". In the "Shipping" subdomain of the same application, you'll also have the concept of a "Shopper"(or buyer) but this time the identity of the shopper might be "Full address".
So, where a database entity is nothing more than a grouping of data with an identifier, A DDD entity is a concept. The concept is pertinent to the system, described in the ubiquitous language and is the central actor around which many functions in the domain will operate. The data that populates a DDD's entity usually comes from several datatable entities.
Im new to learn DDD concept and i cant understand something.
1-What difference between Context Map and Bounded Context and SubDomain?
2-How to recognize relation between Bounded Context ?
As said in the comment, this is a wide subject, and very important in DDD. It is the strategic part of DDD. Anyway I will try to answer your questions with an overall explanation:
DDD is about understanding and distilling the domain of the problem we want to solve. It is a continuous process of learning about the domain, talking to the domain experts. All people (developers, business people, etc) speak the same language. This language is used everywhere (conversations, documentation, source code, ...). It is called the Ubiquitous Language (UL).
The problem domain may have different areas of functionality, which would be domains too. They are the subdomains. So a subdomain is a subset of the problem domain. It is like splitting the problem into smaller subproblems, and a subdomain would be the domain of a subproblem. There are 3 kinds of subdomains:
Core: The point of distillation is to discover the subdomain that has value for the business, i.e., the one that will make your product better than others of the same kind. Such subdomain is the "core subdomain". For example, in "project management", the "task assignement" would be core.
Supporting: It is specialized in some business aspect that helps the core functionality. For example, in "project management", a "calendar" (for marking tasks delivery dates).
Generic: Functionality that maybe needed by any kind of application. For example, authentication and authorization of users.
Subdomains belong to the problem space.
To solve the problem, you model the subdomains, and you create bounded contexts (BCs). In practice, a BC is an autonomous application that contains the software model of a subdomain. A BC has its own UL. It is the context on which a term of the UL has a meaning. UL and BCs are the most important things in DDD. UL drives the BCs identification.
Ideally, you should align 1:1 the subdomains of the problem space with the BCs of the solution space, i.e., you should have a BC for each subdomain.
A team can develop one or more BCs, but a BC should be developed by just one team.
BCs belong to the solution space.
Context Map: It is a drawing that shows the BCs, and the relationships among them. Every relationship is classified in one of the following patterns:
Partnership
Shared Kernel
Customer-Supplier
Conformist
Anticorruption Layer
Open Host Service
Published Language
Separate Ways
Big Ball of Mud
Recognizing which pattern to apply in a relationship it will depend on the particular case you have. Some things that you have to consider are:
The 2 teams collaborate together.
One of the teams doesn't care about the other one.
The teams can negotiate.
The teams are independent.
Changes on a model (upstream) affects to the other model (downstream).
As #Augusto mentioned, this is a couple of chapters in the blue book, but here goes.
The domain model is found in the business rules and how people talk but a simplification of it is captured in code. Certain naming is consistent and the necessary invariants are enforced in the model.
A bounded context is mostly conceptual (might be a namespace, module, project in code as well...). It is the intention to keep a domain model consistent within it. So within the context, a certain ubiquitous language is used. And a model need only serve the needs of THAT context. It is the boundary in which the model can be used. In terms of recognizing these relationships? Some might be subtle but most are not. At least some people in the team will want to "avoid duplication" by unifying the model... so that is a clear indication that there is a relationship. Names are often the same or similar... or could be the same but one is better suited to one domain and another to another domain.
A context map is a bit more of a project management tool. It is a map of how different contexts (and the models within) relate to each other. In an Ordering Domain in an e-commerce system you may have a product. It would lead to A LOT of complication trying to have a unified Product in a model that spanned Ordering, Payments, Content for the website and Inventory domains (for example). So each of those domains should have a separate model. The context map is a diagram and related documentation that relates these bounded contexts together since there would be relationships and translation of data across from one model to the next, as an order flows through the system.
The last element you asked about is a subdomain. Here you probably are referring to a generic subdomain. Personally, I think the name is a little confusing. It makes it seem like a subset of the model. Maybe this is on purpose but I generally think of them as their own domain, just one that is not central to the business's proposition. For instance, if the aforementioned e-commerce company was known for its same day or next day delivery, then they probably shouldn't buy an off-the-shelf solution to inventory and shipping management. On the other hand, if they were focusing on a market that just wanted the cheapest deal but didn't mind waiting a few days, then that would be a perfect candidate for a generic subdomain.
My DDD glossary which has plenty of links at the bottom to more detailed articles.
If you are serious about learning this subject and can get your hands on some books:
Domain-driven Design by Eric Evans
Implementing Domain-driven Design by Vaughn Vernon
Domain-driven Design made functional by Scott Wlaschin (my favourite)
I've started learning the principles of DDD and I'm currently trying to get a grasp of the concept of a bounded context. In particular, how do you decide just how big (or small) it has to be? Yeah, I know, as small as possible and as big as necessary (according to Vaughn Vernon).
Let's say I were to model a blog. I could then go and say there are 3 bounded contexts involved: 1) Front Page (featuring the most recent articles, no comments shown) 2) Discussion (a single article including comments) 3) Article Composer (where I compose an article).
However, this doesn't feel right (the ubiquitous language is the same for all of them), it seems as if I'm coming from a front end point of view and am still thinking in terms of view models or something.
Could anyone please point me in the right direction?
A blog is not a good example for use of multiple bounded context. It's not really a "big enough" software example to warrant their definitions. DDD & BC's are really aimed at big/complex enterprising software systems.
Like you say, the aggregates always have the same meaning in your 3 examples.
I gave this example of Bounded Context in a previous answer, which I hope explains BC's and when to use them: Bounded Contexts and Aggregate Roots
Try to look at your whole domain from different perspectives, as an editor of article, you probably will use sentences like creating a draft of an article, publishing an article, as an article a reader you will in example read article and comment on it. Alongside building your domain language you will identify entities and their behaviour, some of them will appear only in one perspective, some will appear in both, but you will distinct them by their behaviour. Your domain language shows you the boundries of each perspective, that you implement as a bounded contexts.
The best example I read by subdomains so far is the following.
Just examine the actual company! Each department taking part in the business process can have its own subdomain. In an ideal world each subdomain has its own bounded context in your implementation. You should ask yourself whether the company needs a new department to do this? Is it really that big?
The BC must be big enough to describe a department of a company. A typical example is a webshop, where you have a shopping core domain and invoicing, delivery and storage subdomains. Having multi-tenancy and so multiple aspects - as a previous answer described - is not enough. A blog with an author and a few readers does not require multiple departments, so you can solve this with a single bounded context. You can have multiple modules in your bounded context if you think you have medium size structures in your bounded context.
I have started reading few chapters of the blue book and have read the first three chapters of red book (Implementing Domain Driven Design). I have a two questions:
(1) Can a sub-domain have more than one bounded context? I am particularly looking at the example in Implementing Domain Driven Design book where there is a forecasting sub-domain sort of coupled/overlap with inventory. (Apologies if you have not read the book, but the idea is that there is a strong overlap between the two bounded contexts).
(2) How do I organize my project solution structure (I am using .net), are there any examples of real world projects that I can look at? Should I create folders namely sub-domain, core-domain, generic-domain and then specify the modules under it? I am struggling on how best to define my structure so that it shows the onion/hexagonal layers is in place.
Thanks in advance.
Yes. The Domain is composed from multiple sub domains (if it is complex enough) and each are in fact a group of bounded contexts. The Domain itself can be considered a bounded context (BC) from the app point of view.
A BC doesn't mean that it contains an unique model, but a specific representation of the business concept. So you can have a Book definition in multiple BC but in each, the definition is slightly different, ranging from full details to just an id. So the Book from Inventory is different than a Book from Sales for example. It matters how that BC understands a concept.
The resulting model is valid only in that BC, although it can have the same name as the model from another BC. But that's what namespaces are for.
There isn't a recipe for that, everyone structure their projects how they see fit. But most of the time you'll have at least one Domain project and UI, Persistence, Infrastrcuture projects. I think that the best structure depends on the app and on how the developers thinks so the way I do things might not be the optimum way for you. In a nutshell, structure the app as it makes sense for you.
1.Which of the following types of written design documents do we normally use on DDD projects:
a. Requirements specifications document
b. Document explaining the the meaning of core elements
c. Document giving the bird's eye view of an application structure
d. Document explaining the meaning behind the terms used by Ubiquitous language
e. Document listing the vocabulary of Ubiquitous language
f. Informal UML diagrams
anything else?
2.Which document types should be created as standalone documents and which should be combined within a single document ( example: document containing diagrams surrounded by text )?
3.And what are Requirements specifications? A list of use cases, a list of tasks program is able to perform or combination of both?
thanks
Consider the following:
A statement of the purpose of your application in 25 words or less
A representation of your model in both code and uml
A list of features corresponding to the current or desired model
A list of constraints (business rules) on the model
Where applicable, a sequence diagram for each feature
A statement of non-functional requirements
An architectural overview for team members (including model boundaries and contexts)
Team instructions and procedures
Note: use cases or user stories can inform your list of features. However, I recommend that a feature be the unit of work.
I recommend that the initial model be created (discovered) in a modeling workshop attended by both domain experts (business) and developers. It must be led by someone proficient in domain modeling.
Business rules are constraints on the model of two types: Property and Collaboration. By way of example, business rules prevent an elevator from moving with the doors open, a perishable item being placed in a non-refrigerated bin, or a cancelled purchase being shipped.
I think Event Storming might be a good solution. A photo of the workshop should be enough. If not you can use the same artifacts into a digital document.