Federico Cargnelutti

A Data Access Layer (DAL) is the layer of your application that provides simplified access to data stored in persistent storage of some kind. For example, the DAL might return a reference to an object complete with its attributes instead of a row of fields from a database table.

A Data Access Objects (DAO) is used to abstract and encapsulate all access to the data source. The DAO manages the connection with the data source to obtain and store data. Also, it implements the access mechanism required to work with the data source. The data source could be a persistent store like a database, a file or a Web service.

And finally, a DataMapper is used to move data between the object and a database while keeping them independent of each other. The DataMapper main responsibility is to transfer data between the two and also to isolate them from each other.

Zend Framework Example

app/
    controllers/
        UserController.php
    views/
lib/
    Project/
        Dao/
            Db/
                User.php
            Service/
                User.php
        DataMapper/
            User.php
        Entity/
            User.php
        Model/
            User.php
    Zf/
        DataSource/
            Dao/
                Mapper.php
        Domain/
            Entity.php
        Db/
            Adapter.php

Database Table Structure

CREATE TABLE `user` (
 `id` int(11) NOT NULL auto_increment,
 `first_name` varchar(100) NOT NULL,
 `last_name` varchar(100) NOT NULL,
 PRIMARY KEY  (`id`)
)

The User DAO

The DAO pattern provides a simple, consistent API for data access that does not require knowledge of an ORM interface. DAO does not just apply to simple mappings of one object to one relational table, but also allows complex queries to be performed and allows for stored procedures and database views to be mapped into data structures.

A typical DAO design pattern interface is shown below:

class Project_Dao_Db_User extends Zf_Db_Adapter
{
    public function find($id)
    {
        $db = $this->getConnection();
        $query = $db->select()->from('user')->where('id = ?', $id);
        return $db->fetchRow($query);
    }

    public function findAll()
    {
        $db = $this->getConnection();
        $query = $db->select()->from('user');
        return $db->fetchAll($query);
    }

    public function insert($data)
    {
        $db = $this->getConnection();
        $db->insert('user', $data);
        return $db->lastInsertId();
    }

    public function update($id, $data)
    {
        $db = $this->getConnection();
        $where = $db->quoteInto('id = ?', $id);
        return $db->update('user', $data, $where);
    }

    public function delete($id)
    {
        $db = $this->getConnection();
        $where = $db->quoteInto('id = ?', $id);
        return $db->delete('user', $where);
    }
}

Source Code: Zf_Db_Adapter

The User 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.

class Project_Entity_User extends Zf_Domain_Entity
{
    public $id;
    public $firstName;
    public $lastName;
}

Source Code: Zf_Domain_Entity

The User DataMapper

class Project_DataMapper_User extends Zf_DataSource_Dao_Mapper
{
    protected $_map = array(
        'id'         => 'id',
        'first_name' => 'firstName',
        'last_name'  => 'lastName'
    );

    public function find($id)
    {
        $dao = new Project_Dao_Db_User();
        $row = $dao->find($id);
        if (!$row) {
            return false;
        }
        return $this->map($row);
    }
}

Source Code: Zf_DataSource_Dao_Mapper

The User Model

The following class represents the User Relational Model:

class Project_Model_User
{
    public function getUser($id)
    {
        $mapper = new Project_DataMapper_User();
        $mapper->setEntity(new Project_Entity_User());
        $user = $mapper->find($id);

        return $user;
    }
}

The User Controller

class UserController extends Zend_Controller_Action
{
    public function viewAction()
    {
        $model = new Project_Model_User();
        $user = $model->getUser($this->_getParam('id'));
        if ($user) {
            $userId = $user->getId();
            $userFirstName = $user->getFirstName();
            $userLastName = $user->getLastName();

            // get an array of database fields and values
            $row = $user->getRow();
        }
    }
}

Keep in mind that ORM tools such as phpDataMapper and Doctrine offer an alternative way of modeling data. ORMs and ERMs are popular with Web frameworks, and the combination of an ORM and DDD makes DAOs redundant, however, it has not been proven to be better than a straightforward approach of implementing a collection of domain-specific data access functions.

That’s all, I hope you’ve found this post useful.

Cloud Computing is rising fast, with its data centers growing at an unprecedented rate. However, this has come with concerns of privacy, efficiency at the expense of resilience, and environmental sustainability, because of the dependence on Cloud vendors such as Google, Amazon, and Microsoft. Community Cloud Computing makes use of the principles of Digital Ecosystems to provide a paradigm for Clouds in the community, offering an alternative architecture for the use cases of Cloud Computing. It is more technically challenging to deal with issues of distributed computing, such as latency, differential resource management, and additional security requirements. However, these are not insurmountable challenges, and with the need to retain control over our digital lives and the potential environmental consequences, it is a challenge we must pursue.

Towards Community Cloud Computing (Visit Site | Download PDF)

Java has no goto statement, to break or continue multiple-nested loop or switch constructs, Java programmers place labels on loop and switch constructs, and then break out of or continue to the block named by the label. The following example shows how to use java break statement to terminate the labeled loop:

public class BreakLabel
{
    public static void main(String[] args)
    {
        int[][] array = new int[][]{{1,2,3,4},{10,20,30,40}};
        boolean found = false;
        System.out.println("Searching 30 in two dimensional int array");

        Outer:
        for (int intOuter = 0; intOuter < array.length ; intOuter++) {
            Inner:
            for (int intInner = 0; intInner < array[intOuter].length; intInner++) {
                if (array[intOuter][intInner] == 30) {
                    found = true;
                    break Outer;
                }
            }
        }

        if (found == true) {
            System.out.println("30 found in the array");
        } else {
            System.out.println("30 not found in the array");
        }
    }
}

Use of labeled blocks in Java leads to considerable simplification in programming effort and a major reduction in maintenance.

On the other hand, the C continue statement can only continue the immediately enclosing block; to continue or exit outer blocks, programmers have traditionally either used auxiliary Boolean variables whose only purpose is to determine if the outer block is to be continued or exited; alternatively, programmers have misused the goto statement to exit out of nested blocks.

What’s interesting is that Python rejected the labeled break and continue proposal a while ago. And here’s why:

Guido van Rossum wrote:

I’m rejecting it on the basis that code so complicated to require this feature is very rare. While I’m sure there are some (rare) real cases where clarity of the code would suffer from a refactoring that makes it possible to use return, this is offset by two issues:

1. The complexity added to the language, permanently.

2. My expectation that the feature will be abused more than it will be used right, leading to a net decrease in code clarity (measured across all Python code written henceforth). Lazy programmers are everywhere, and before you know it you have an incredible mess on your hands of unintelligible code.

But what’s more interesting is that the idea of adding a goto statement was never ever mentioned.

Common sense perhaps?

Mather Corgan, president of HotPads, gave a great talk on how HotPads uses AWS to run their real estate search engine. HotPads abandoned their managed hosting in December and took the leap over to EC2 and its siblings. The presentation has a lot of detail on costs and other things to watch out for, so if you’re currently planning your “cloud” architecture, you’ll find some of this really helpful.

HotPads on AWS

This manual gathers together the key insights into API design that were discovered through many years of software development on the Qt application development framework at Trolltech (now part of Nokia). When designing and implementing a library, you should also keep other factors in mind, such as efficiency and ease of implementation, in addition to pure API considerations. And although the focus is on public APIs, there is no harm in applying the principles described here when writing application code or internal library code.

The Little Manual of API Design (PDF)

Zend Framework is very flexible and one of its strengths is that it allows developers to implement their own components. The Zend_Controller component, for example, is very powerful. Of course, it’s not my intention to replace it, but to offer an alternative that decreases the number of decisions a developer needs to make when developing an application.

Meet Zf_Controller. The Zf_Controller component has the following goals:

• Abstract complexity: Try to reduce the level of details so the developer can focus on a few concepts at a time.
• Emphasize Convention over Configuration: Emphasize CoC, meaning that the user only needs to specify unconventional aspects of the application.
• Maintain backwards compatibility: Allow the developer to replace Zf_Controller with Zend_Controller in case the application grows in size or complexity.
• Improve performance: Load less classes, execute less code.
• Remove circular references: Avoid circular references.
• Remove Singleton classes: Avoid implementing the Singleton pattern.
• Research: Learn more about the framework, what it does, how it works.

Project Structure

Zend_Controller allows you to use the project structure that best suits your needs. On the other hand, Zf_Controller is more rigid, it only allows you to use the standard project structure:

project/
  app/
    config/
    controllers/
      ErrorController.php
      IndexController.php
    views/
      layouts/
      scripts/
        error/
        index/
          index.phtml
  domain/
    Model/
      Example.php
  lib/
    Zend/
    Zf/

Zf_Controller classes:

Zf/
  Controller/
    Action/
      Helper/
        Layout.php
    Action.php
    Front.php

Bootstrap File

Zend_Controller:

define('APPLICATION_PATH', realpath(dirname(__FILE__) . '/../app'));
set_include_path(APPLICATION_PATH . '/../lib'
    . PATH_SEPARATOR . get_include_path());

require_once "Zend/Loader.php";
Zend_Loader::registerAutoload();

$frontController = Zend_Controller_Front::getInstance();
$router = $frontController->getRouter();
$routes = include_once APPLICATION_PATH . '/config/routes.php';
$router->addRoutes($routes);

$layout = Zend_Layout::startMvc();
$layout->setLayoutPath(APPLICATION_PATH . '/views/layouts');

$frontController->dispatch();

Zf_Controller (no Router):

define('APPLICATION_PATH', realpath(dirname(__FILE__) . '/../app'));
set_include_path(APPLICATION_PATH . '/../lib'
    . PATH_SEPARATOR . APPLICATION_PATH . '/../domain);

require_once "Zend/Loader.php";
Zend_Loader::registerAutoload();

$frontController = new Zf_Controller_Front();
$frontController->setLayoutPath(APPLICATION_PATH . '/views/layouts');
$frontController->dispatch();

Action Controller

The default action controller and the default action are named “index”:

class IndexController extends Zf_Controller_Action
{
  public function indexAction()
  {}
}

Error Controller

Zend_Controller:

class ErrorController extends Zend_Controller_Action
{
  // Action used by Zend_Controller
  public function errorAction()
  {
    $error = $this->_getParam('error_handler');
    echo $error->exception->getMessage();
  }
}

Zf_Controller:

class ErrorController extends Zf_Controller_Action
{
  // Action used by Zf_Controller
  public function indexAction($e)
  {
    echo $e->getMessage();
  }
}

Rendering a View Script

Zf_Controller does not use the ViewRenderer helper class. To make the code more readable and testable, you need to call the render() method and return a value:

class IndexController extends Zf_Controller_Action
{
  public function indexAction()
  {
    $view = $this->initView();
    $view->message = 'Hello';

    // Renders views/scripts/index/index.phtml
    return $this->render();
  }

  public function testAction()
  {
    $view = $this->initView();
    $view->message = 'Goodbye';

    // Renders views/scripts/index/index.phtml
    return $this->render('index');
  }}

index.phtml file:

<p><?php echo $this->message ?></p>

Using a Layout

By setting the path to your layouts in the Bootstrap file, you automatically enable the default layout “layout.phtml”:

$frontController = new Zf_Controller_Front();
$frontController->setLayoutPath(APPLICATION_PATH . '/views/layouts');

To disable the layout:

class IndexController extends Zf_Controller_Action
{
    protected $_isLayoutEnabled = false;
}

To use a different layout:

class IndexController extends Zf_Controller_Action
{
    protected $_layoutScript = 'main.phtml';
}

main.phtml file:

<!DOCTYPE html
PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN"
"http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd">
<html>
<head>
<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8" />
<?php echo $this->headTitle() ?>
<?php echo $this->headScript() ?>
<?php echo $this->headStyle() ?>
</head>
<body>
<div id="content"><?php echo $this->layout()->content ?></div>
</body>
</html>

Source Code:
http://svn.fedecarg.com/repo/Zf/Controller/

There’s no doubt that the additional complexity of implementing the default Front Controller in ZF results in a number of benefits. The most important ones are flexibility and extensibility. The Front Controller implementation takes into consideration the future growth of your application and its design reduces the level of effort required to extend it. A good example of this is the plugin architecture.

But, what if after evaluating the requirements of your system, you determine that there’s not sufficient complexity to implement the default Front Controller? What if you don’t need all that flexibility, a URL mapper, a ViewRendered plugin or an ActionStack helper. Maybe all you need is just a couple of controllers, and that’s it. It’s clear that the standard Front Controller does provide more options and meets every possible use case requirement, but at the cost of complexity and a lot of classes.

So, what to do? Do you choose a different tool for the job, or replace the default Front Controller with your own implementation? How hard can it be? Is it really that difficult to replace the most important component of the Zend Framework and maintain backwards compatibility?

You are about to find out.

In this series of posts, I’ll try to cover a few things I’ve learned about implementing my own Front Controller in Zend Framework. Most of the ideas and code are based on my previous posts:

• Zend Framework: The Cost of Flexibility is Complexity
• Zend Framework Automatic Dependency Tracking
• Zend Framework Controller: 22% Drop in Responsiveness
• Refactoring the Front Controller of the Zend Framework
• Improving the performance of Zend_Controller
• Zend Framework Architecture

Will simplicity finally meet power?

Part 1: Domain-Driven Design and MVC Architectures
Part 2: Domain-Driven Design: Data Access Strategies
Part 3: Domain-Driven Design: The Repository

Some of the Domain-driven design concepts explained in my previous posts are applied in this sample application. I’m also going to use the Zend Framework infrastructure to speed up some development tasks.

Directory Structure

app/     -> Application and UI Layers
domain/  -> Domain Layer
lib/     -> Infrastructure Layer

Application and UI Layers

app/
    controllers/
        UserController.php
    views/
        layouts/
        scripts/

Domain Layer

This layer should be well separated from the other layers and it should have few dependencies on the framework(s) you are using. I’m going to group all the classes and interfaces under the namespace “Project” and add it to my include path:

domain/
    Project/
        Dao/
            Db/
                IUser.php
                IUserProfile.php
                User.php
                UserProfile.php
        Model/
            User/
                IRepository.php
                Repository.php
            User.php
            UserProfile.php
            Users.php

Infrastructure Layer

This layer acts as a supporting library for all the other layers:

lib/
    Zend/
        ...
    Zf/
        Db/
            Adapter.php
            Exception.php
            ReplicationAdapter.php
        Domain/
            Collection.php
            Entity.php
            Exception.php
            Repository.php

User Entity

The User and UserProfile objects have a one-to-one relationship and form an Aggregate. An Aggregate is as a collection of related objects that have references between each other. Within an Aggregate there’s always an Aggregate Root (parent Entity), in this case User:

class Project_Model_User extends Zf_Domain_Entity
{
    /* @var int */
    private $id;

    /* @var string */
    private $name;

    /* @var Project_Model_UserProfile */
    private $profile;

    public function __construct($properties)
    {
        $this->define($properties);
    }
}

Usage:

$array = array('id'=>1, 'name'=>'Federico');
$user = new Project_Model_User($array);
$user->setProfile($profile);

echo $user->getId();   // Outputs 1
echo $user->getName(); // Outputs Federico

Users Collection

A collection is simply an object that groups multiple elements into a single unit.

class Project_Model_Users extends Zf_Domain_Collection
{
    public function __construct($users)
    {
        foreach ($users as $user) {
            if (!($user instanceof Project_Model_User)) {
                throw new Zf_Domain_Exception(...);
            }
            $this->append($user);
        }
    }
}

User DAO

The UserDAO class allows data access mechanisms to change independently of the code that uses the data:

class Project_Dao_Db_User extends Zf_Db_Adapter
{
    public function find($id)
    {
        $db = $this->getConnection();
        $query = $db->select();
        $query->from('user');
        $query->where('id = ?', $id);
        $result = $db->fetchRow($query);

        return $result;
    }

    public function findAll()
    {
        ...
        return $resultSet;
    }
}

User Repository

A Repository is basically a collection of Aggregate Roots. Collections are used to store, retrieve and manipulate Entities and Value objects, however, object management is beyond the scope of this post.

The UserRepository object injects dependencies on demand, making the instantiation process inexpensive. A caller method is responsible for dynamically creating the setter and getter methods. You can easily mock objects by passing a custom config array via the constructor.

class Project_Model_User_Repository extends Zf_Domain_Repository
{
    /* @var Project_Dao_Db_User */
    private $userDao;

    /* @var Project_Dao_Db_UserProfile */
    private $userProfileDao;

    /* @var array IoC Spec */
    private $inject = array(
        'userDao'        => 'Project_Dao_Db_User',
        'userProfileDao' => 'Project_Dao_Db_UserProfile'
    );

    public function getUserById($id)
    {
        $row = $this->getUserDao()->find($id);
        $user = new Project_Model_User($row);

        $row = $this->getUserProfileDao()->findByUserId($id);
        $profile = new Project_Model_Profile($row);
        $user->setProfile($profile);

        return $user;
    }

    public function getUsers()
    {
        $users = array();
        $rows = $this->getUserDao()->findAll();
        foreach ($rows as $row) {
            $users[] = new Project_Model_User($row);
        }

        return new Project_Model_Users($users);
    }
}

Usage:

$repo = new Project_Model_User_Repository();
$user = $repo->getUserById(1);
$profile = $user->getProfile();
$users = $repo->getUsers();

Source Code

http://fedecarg.com/projects/show/zfdomain
http://fedecarg.com/projects/show/zfreplicationadapter

Links

If you’re interested in learning more about Domain-driven design, I recommend the following articles:

Domain Driven Design and Development In Practice
Domain-Driven Design in an Evolving Architecture

Part 2: Domain-Driven Design: Data Access Strategies

The Ubiquitous Language

The ubiquitous language is the foundation of Domain-driven design. The concept is simple, developers and domain experts share a common language that both understand. This language is set in business terminology, not technical terminology. This ubiquitous language allows the technical team become part of the business.

The Repository

Repositories play an important part in DDD, they speak the language of the domain and act as mediators between the domain and data mapping layers. They provide a common language to all team members by translating technical terminology into business terminology.

In a nutshell, a Repository:

• Is not a data access layer
• Provides a higher level of data manipulation
• Is persistence ignorance
• Is a collection of aggregate roots
• Offers a mechanism to manage entities

Injecting DAO’s

In DDD, you inject Repositories, not DAO’s in domain entities. In the absence of an ORM framework, the DAO handles the impedance mismatch that a relational database has with object-oriented techniques. For example, imagine you have an entity named User that needs to access the database to retrieve the User details:

class User
{
    // DAO needs to be injected
    private $_dao;
    private $_data;

    public function setDao(UserDaoInterface $dao) {}
    public function getDao() {}

    public function setData($data) {}
    public function getData()
    {
        if (null === $this->_data) {
            $data = $this->getDao()->find($id);
            $this->setData($data);
        }
        return $this->_data;
    }
}

The User DAO class will look something like this:

interface UserDaoInterface
{
    public function find($id);
}

class UserDaoDb implements UserDaoInterface
{
    // Db needs to be injected
    private $_db;

    public function setDb(DbInterface $db) {}
    public function getDb() {}

    public function find($id)
    {
        $db = $this->getDb();

        $query = $db->select();
        $query->from('user');
        $query->where('id = ?', $id);

        return $db->fetchRow($query);
    }
}

$userDao = new UserDaoDb();
$userDao->setDb($db);

$user = new User();
$user->setDao($userDao);
$data = $user->getData();

Is there an easier way to create entities and inject dependencies? The process of creating an entity is complex, because an entity always has relationship with other objects in your domain model. When creating an entity, we have to initialize its relationships as well. Therefore, it’s a good practice to delegate this task to another object.

But, what about separation of concerns? DAO’s are related to persistence, and persistence is infrastructure, not domain. The main problem with the example above is that we have lots of different concerns polluting the domain. According to DDD, an object should be distilled until nothing remains that does not relate to its meaning or support its role in interactions. And that’s exactly the problem the Repository pattern tries to solve.

Injecting Repositories

Lets create a UserRepository class to isolate the domain object from details of the UserDaoDb class:

class User
{
    // Repository needs to be injected
    private $_repository;
    private $_data;

    public function setRepository(UserRepositoryInterface $repo) {}
    public function getRepository() {}

    public function setData($data) {}
    public function getData()
    {
        if (null === $this->_data) {
            $data = $this->getRepository()->getUserById($id);
            $this->setData($data);
        }
        return $this->_data;
    }
}

It’s the responsibility of the UserRepository to work with all necessary DAO’s and provide all data access services to the domain model in the language which the domain understands.

class UserRepositoryInterface
{
    public function getUserById($id);
}

class UserRepository implements UserRepositoryInterface
{
    // DAO needs to be injected
    private $_userDao;

    public function setUserDao(UserDaoInterface $userDao) {}
    public function getUserDao() {}

    public function getUserById($id)
    {
        return $this->getUserDao()->find($id);
    }
}

$userDao = new UserDaoDb();
$userDao->setDb($db);

$userRepo = new UserRepository();
$userRepo->setUserDao($userDao);

$user = new User();
$user->setRepository($userRepo);
$data = $user->getData();

The main difference between the Repository and the DAO is that the DAO is at a lower level of abstraction and doesn’t speak the ubiquitous language of the domain.

So, what’s next?

We’ve seen how to write a persistence-ignorant domain model. Next, I’ll explain how to automate the creation and injection of dependencies.

Part 4: Zend Framework Domain-Driven Design

Part 1: Domain-Driven Design and MVC Architectures

The Domain Model

Here are some of the features a Domain-driven design framework should support:

• A domain model that is independent and decoupled from the application.
• A reusable library that can be used in many different domain-specific applications.
• Dependency Injection in order to inject Repositories and Services into Domain Objects.
• Integration with unit testing frameworks, such as PHPUnit.
• Good integration with other frameworks, such as Zend, Symfony, Doctrine, etc.

The Zend Framework, for example, is part of the infrastructure layer and acts as a supporting library for all the other layers. However, the domain layer should be well isolated from the other layers of the application and should not be dependent on the framework you are using.

Data Access Strategies

When accessing data from a data source, you have to decide how your application will communicate with a data source. Each data access strategy has its own advantages and disadvantages. Here are some design patterns that support DDD:

Generic DAO’s

Data Access Objects (DAO’s) and Repositories play an important role in DDD. The goal of a DAO is to abstract and encapsulate all access to the data and provide an interface. The DAO always connects, reads and saves data to a data source. From the applications point of view, it makes no difference when it accesses a database, XML file or Web service:

$user = new UserDbDao();
$row = $user->findUserById(456);
echo $row->name;

$user = new UserXmlDao();
$row = $user->findUserById(456);
echo $row->name;

Table Data Gateway

An object that acts as a Gateway to a database table. One instance handles all the rows in the table. The Zend_Db_Table solution is an implementation of the Table Data Gateway pattern:

$user = new User();
$rows = $user->find(456);
$row = $rows->current();
echo $row->name;

More info: Table Data Gateway

Row Data Gateway

An object that acts as a Gateway to a single record in a data source. There is one instance per row. Zend_Db_Table_Row is an implementation of the Row Data Gateway pattern:

$user = new User();
$row = $user->fetchRow($user->select()->where('user_id = ?', 1));
echo $row->name;

More info: Row Data Gateway

Active Record

An object that wraps a row in a database table or view, encapsulates the database access, and adds domain logic on that data. The Mad_Model component is an  ORM layer that follows the Active Record pattern where tables map to classes, rows map to objects, and columns to object attributes:

$user = new User();
$userFinder = new UserFinder();
$row = $userFinder->find(456);

More info: Active Record

Data Mapper

A layer of Mappers that moves data between objects and a database while keeping them independent of each other and the mapper itself:

$user = new User();
$userMapper = new UserMapper();
$row = $userMapper->findByEmail($email);

More info: Data Mapper

Data Transfer Objects

A Data Transfer Object (DTO) in Domain-driven design is not the same as a Value Object. A DTO is often used in combination with a DAO to encapsulate data. It allows you to reduce communication effort when dealing with a lot of small data entities. For example:

class UserData
{
    public function setId($id) {}
    public function getId() {}
    public function setFirstName($firstName) {}
    public function getFirstName() {}
    public function setLastName($lastName) {}
    public function getLastName() {}
}

$user = new UserData();
$user->setFirstName('Jim');
$user->setLastName('Morrison');

$userDao = new UserDbDao();
$userDao->insert($user);

A DTO is a simple container for a set of aggregated data. It should contain no business logic and limit its behaviour to activities such as internal consistency checking and basic validation. Be careful not to make the DTO depend on any new classes as a result of implementing these methods.

Part 3: Domain-Driven Design: The Repository