End Your If

Tag: repository

  • Implementing the Repository Pattern with CakePHP

    I must admit, my recent articles are becoming a bit obsessed around the repository pattern.  What can I say, I like it, it’s useful, and it’s not restrictive based on a language or a framework.

    I’ve long professed how I dislike convoluted controllers.  CakePHP’s find method almost immediately causes this when used inside a controller.  More importantly, the code inside the find method is extremely unreadable.  This is almost more important than a large controller function!

    This is where the repository pattern comes in.  At its most basic example (which some will consider overkill – you know who you are), I still think the repository pattern is clearer.

    Here is an example using the regular find approach:

    [code]
$user = $this->User->find('first', array('conditions' => array('id' => $id)));
[/code]

    Compared to a repository example:

    [code]
$user = $this->UserRepository->GetById($id);
[/code]

    The code is almost identically; however, in the second example, it’s clear that if I were to “read” the code I am retrieving a user by id opposed to I’m finding the first user with the conditions of id being equal to the variable $id.

    So if you are sold, let’s continue with a full suite example…

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  • Why the Repository Pattern

    After the incredible reaction to a recent blog post, Entity Framework Beginner’s Guide Done Right, I feel like before writing some more code to further the basic example, I’ll take a step back and explain my beliefs in the repository pattern.

    I was really overwhelmed with the reaction; what started with a simple 30 minute blogging effort has turned into something absolutely incredible.  The original post was really a starting point about not placing direct querying and saving to the database mingled with the core code.

    Please note, these are my thoughts on the pattern based on current and previous pain points that I’ve/am experiencing and I’d love to hear others input in making things better.

    (more…)