Repositories Introduction

Repository PHP

Read Aggregate Introduction sections first to get more details about Aggregates.

Typicial Aggregate Flow

Repositories are used for retrieving and saving the aggregate to persistent storage. Typical flow for calling aggregate method would looks like below:

class AssignWorkerHandler
{
    private TicketRepository $ticketRepository;

    #[CommandHandler]
    public function handle(AssignWorkerCommand $command) : void
    {
       // fetch the aggregate from repository
       $ticket = $this->ticketRepository->findBy($command->getTicketId());
       // call action method
       $ticket->assignWorker($command);
       // store the aggregate in repository
       $this->ticketRepository->save($ticket);    
    }
}

$this->commandBus->send(
   new AssignWorkerCommand(
      $ticketId, $workerId,            
   )
);

By setting up Repository we provide Ecotone with functionality to fetch and store the Aggregate , so we don't need to write the above orchestration code anymore.

Ecotone's Aggregate Flow

If our class is defined as Aggregate, Ecotone will use Repository in order fetch and store it, whenever the Command is sent via Command Bus.

#[Aggregate]
class Ticket
{
    #[Identifier]
    private string $ticketId;

    #[CommandHandler]
    public function assignWorker(AssignWorkerCommand $command)
    {
       // do something with assignation
    }
}

Now when we will send the Command, Ecotone will use ticketId from the Command to fetch related Ticket Aggregate, and will called assignWorker passing the Command. After this is completed it will use the repository to store changed Aggregate instance.

Therefore from high level nothing changes:

$this->commandBus->send(
   new AssignWorkerCommand(
      $ticketId, $workerId,            
   )
);

This way we don't need to write orchestration level code ourselves.