Architecture Patterns with Python

Enabling Test-Driven Development, Domain-Driven Design and Event-Driven Microservices

Harry J. W. Percival, Bob Gregory

Publisher: O'Reilly, 2020, 276 pages

ISBN: 978-1-492-05220-3

Keywords: IT Architecture, Python

Last modified: April 1, 2021, 6:57 p.m.

As Python continues to grow in popularity, projects are becoming larger and more complex. Many Python developers are taking an interest in high-level software design patterns such as hexagonal/clean architecture, event-driven architecture, and the strategic patterns prescribed by domain-driven design (DDD). But translating those patterns into Python isn’t always straightforward.

With this hands-on guide, Harry Percival and Bob Gregory from MADE.com introduce proven architectural design patterns to help Python developers manage application complexity — and get the most value out of their test suites.

Each pattern is illustrated with concrete examples in beautiful, idiomatic Python, avoiding some of the verbosity of Java and C# syntax. Patterns include:

  • Dependency inversion and its links to ports and adapters (hexagonal/clean architecture)
  • Domain-driven design's distinction between Entities, Value Objects, and Aggregates
  • Repository and Unit of Work patterns for persistent storage
  • Events, commands, and the message bus
  • Command-query responsibility segregation (CQRS)
  • Event-driven architecture and reactive microservices
  • Preface
    • Managing Complexity, Solving Business Problems
    • Why Python?
    • TDD, DDD, and Event-Driven Architecture
    • Who Should Read This Book
    • A Brief Overview of What You'll Learn
      • Part I, Building an Architecture to Support Domain Modeling
      • Part II, Event-Driven Architecture
      • Addtional Content
    • Example Code and Coding Along
    • License
    • Conventions Used in This Book
    • O'Reilly Online Learning
    • How to Contact O'Reilly
    • Acknowledgments
  • Introduction
    • Why Do Our Designs Go Wrong?
    • Encapsulation and Abstractions
    • Layering
    • The Dependency Inversion Principle
    • A Place for All Our Business Logic: The Domain Model
  1. I. Building an Architecture to Support Domain Modeling
    1. Domain Modeling
      • What Is a Domain Model?
      • Exploring the Domain Language
      • Unit Testing Domain Models
        • Dataclasses Are Great for Value Objects
        • Value Objects and Entities
      • Not Everything Has to Be an Object: A Domain Service Function
        • Python's Magic Methods Let Us Use Our Models with Idiomatic Python
        • Exceptions Can Express Domain Concepts Too
    2. Repository Pattern
      • Persisting Our Domain Model
      • Some Pseudocode: What Are We Going to Need?
      • Applying the DIP to Data Access
      • Reminder: Our Model
        • The "Normal" ORM Way: Model Depends on ORM
        • Inverting the Dependency: ORM Depends on Model
      • Introducing the Repository Pattern
        • The Repository in the Abstract
        • What Is the Trade-Off?
      • Building a Fake Repository for Tests Is Now Trivial!
      • What Is a Port and What Is an Adapter, in Python?
      • Wrap-Up
    3. A Brief Interlude: On Coupling and Abstractions
      • Abstracting State Aids Testability
      • Choosing the Right Abstraction(s)
      • Implementing Our Chosen Abstractions
        • Testing Edge to Edge with Fakes and Dependency Injection
        • Why Not Just Patch It Out?
      • Wrap-Up
    4. Our First Use Case: Flask API and Service Layer
      • Connecting Our Application to the Real World
      • A First End-to-End Test
      • The Straightforward Implementation
      • Error Conditions That Require Database Checks
      • Introducing a Service Layer, and Using FakeRepository to Unit Test It
        • A Typical Service Function
      • Why Is Everything Called a Service?
      • Putting Things in Folders to See Where It All Belongs
      • Wrap-Up
        • The DIP in Action
    5. TDD in High Gear and Low Gear
      • How Is Our Test Pyramid Looking?
      • Should Domain Layer Tests Move to the Service Layer?
      • On Deciding What Kind of Tests to Write
      • High and Low Gear
      • Fully Decoupling the Service-Layer Tests from the Domain
        • Mitigation: Keep All Domain Dependencies in Fixture Functions
        • Adding a Missing Service
      • Carrying the Improvement Through to the E2E Tests
      • Wrap-Up
    6. Unit of Work Pattern
      • The Unit of Work Collaborates with the Repository
      • Test-Driving a UoW with Integration Tests
      • Unit of Work and Its Context Manager
        • The Real Unit of Work Uses SQLAlchemy Sessions
        • Fake Unit of Work for Testing
      • Using the UoW in the Service Layer
      • Explicit Tests for Commit/Rollback Behavior
      • Explicit Versus Implicit Commits
      • Examples: Using UoW to Group Multiple Operations into an Atomic Unit
        • Example 1: Reallocate
        • Example 2: Change Batch Quantity
      • Tidying Up the Integration Tests
      • Wrap-Up
    7. Aggregates and Consistency Boundaries
      • Why Not Just Run Everything in a Spreadsheet?
      • Invariants, Constraints, and Consistency
        • Invariants, Concurrency, and Locks
      • What Is an Aggregate?
      • Choosing an Aggregate
      • One Aggregate = One Repository
      • What About Performance?
      • Optimistic Concurrency with Version Numbers
        • Implementation Options for Version Numbers
      • Testing for Our Data Integrity Rules
        • Enforcing Concurrency Rules by Using Database Transaction Isolation Levels
        • Pessimistic Concurrency Control Example: SELECT FOR UPDATE
      • Wrap-Up
      • Part I Recap
  2. Event-Driven Architecture
    1. Events and the Message Bus
      • Avoiding Making a Mess
        • First, Let's Avoid Making a Mess of Our Web Controllers
        • And Let's Not Make a Mess of Our Model Either
        • Or the Service Layer!
      • Single Responsibility Principle
      • All Aboard the Message Bus!
        • The Model Records Events
        • Events Are Simple Dataclasses
        • The Model Raises Events
        • The Message Bus Maps Events to Handlers
      • Option 1: The Service Layer Takes Events from the Model and Puts Them on the Message Bus
      • Option 2: The Service Layer Raises Its Own Events
      • Option 3: The UoW Publishes Events to the Message Bus
      • Wrap-Up
    2. Going to Town on the Message Bus
      • A New Requirement Leads Us to a New Architecture
        • Imagining an Architecture Change: Everything Will Be an Event Handler
      • Refactoring Service Functions to Message Handlers
        • The Message Bus Now Collects Events from the UoW
        • Our Tests Are All Written in Terms of Events Too
        • A Temporary Ugly Hack: The Message Bus Has to Return Results
        • Modifying Our API to Work with Events
      • Implementing Our New Requirement
        • Our New Event
      • Test-Driving a New Handler
        • Implementation
        • A New Method on the Domain Model
      • Optionally: Unit Testing Event Handlers in Isolation with a Fake Message Bus
      • Wrap-Up
        • What Have We Achieved?
        • Why Have We Achieved?
    3. Commands and Command Handler
      • Commands and Events
      • Differences in Exception Handling
      • Discussion: Events, Commands, and Error Handling
      • Recovering from Errors Synchronously
      • Wrap-Up
    4. Event-Driven Architecture: Using Events to Integrate Microservices
      • Distributed Ball of Mud, and Thinking in Nouns
      • Error Handling in Distributed Systems
      • The Alternative: Temporal Decoupling Using Asynchronous Messaging
      • Using a Redis Pub/Sub Channel for Integration
      • Test-Driving It All Using an End-to-End Test
        • Redis Is Another Thin Adapter Around Our Message Bus
        • Our New Outgoing Event
      • Internal Versus External Events
      • Wrap-Up
    5. Command-Query Responsibility Segregation (CQRS)
      • Domain Models Are for Writing
      • Most Users Aren't Going to Buy Your Furniture
      • Post/Redirect/Get and CQS
      • Hold On to Your Lunch, Folks
      • Testing CQRS Views
      • "Obvious" Alternative 1: Using the Existing Repository
      • Your Domain Model Is Not Optimized for Read Operations
      • "Obvious" Alternative 2: Using the ORM
      • SELECT N+1 and Other Performance Considerations
      • Time to Completely Jump the Shark
        • Updating a Read Model Table Using an Event Handler
      • Changing Our Read Model Implementation Is Easy
      • Wrap-Up
    6. Dependency Injection (and Bootstrapping)
      • Implicit Versus Explicit Dependencies
      • Aren't Explicit Dependencies Totally Weird and Java-y?
      • Preparing Handlers: Manual DI with Closures and Partials
      • An Alternative Using Classes
      • A Bootstrap Script
      • Message Bus Is Given Handlers at Runtime
      • Using Bootstrap in Our Entrypoints
      • Initializing DI in Our Tests
      • Building an Adapter "Properly": A Worked Example
        • Define the Abstract and Concrete Implementations
        • Make a Fake Version for Your Tests
        • Figure Out How to Integration Test the Real Thing
      • Wrap-Up
    • Epilogue
      • What Now?
      • How Do I Get There from Here?
      • Separating Entangled Responsibilities
      • Identifying Aggregates and Bounded Contexts
      • An Event-Driven Approach to Go to Microservices via Strangler Pattern
      • Convincing Your Stakeholders to Try Something New
      • Questions Our Tech Reviewers Asked That We Couldn't Work into Prose
      • Footguns
      • More Required Reading
      • Wrap-Up
    1. Summary Diagram and Table
    2. A Template Project Structure
      • Env Vars, 12-Factor, and Config, Inside and Outside Containers
      • Config.py
      • Docker-Compose and Containers Config
      • Installing Your Source as a Package
      • Dockerfile
      • Tests
      • Wrap-Up
    3. Swapping Out the Infrastructure: Do Everything with CSVs
      • Implementing a Repository and Unit of Work for CSVs
    4. Repository and Unit of Work Patterns with Django
      • Repository Pattern with Django
        • Custom Methods on Django ORM Classes to Translate to/from Our Domain Model
      • Unit of Work Pattern with Django
      • API: Django Views Are Adapters
      • Why Was This All So Hard?
      • What to Do If You Already Have Django
      • Steps Along the Way
    5. Validation
      • What Is Validation, Anyway?
      • Validating Syntax
      • Postel's Law and the Tolerant Reader Pattern
      • Validating at the Edge
      • Validating Semantics
      • Validating Pragmatics

Reviews

Architecture Patterns with Python

Reviewed by Roland Buresund

Decent ****** (6 out of 10)

Last modified: March 13, 2022, 8:03 a.m.

Something as unusual as a book about large scale development techniques (patterns) in python. It does a fairly good presentation of the concept, but is predicated on you knowing TDD, ED DDD and Microsoervices beforehand (not everything based on these premises).

It is a bit dry, and utilise Redis and Flask (Django is mentioned in an Appendix) as base platforms. Also, the patterns are really geared only towards business examples, which is a bit limiting.

All in all, a decent book, but not my first goto book when developing.

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