And a 5 min introduction to Archiejs - a library for writing modular code in Nodejs.

Modular-services in a Nodejs Monolith

Decompositional Techniques

• Microservices    - micro, separate network, db
• Modules             - few files, monolith, central db
• Shared library   - npm modules

Startups

pre product-market fit,

experimental stuff

Reasons for building microservices

• Are easier to scale
• Improve team productivity
• Many tools are available
• Enforce good designed

Startups

~ 95%

Reasons for NOT building microservices

• Are easier to scale 
• You would likely pivot

The Pivot Startup Curve

Reasons for NOT building microservices

• Improve team productivity 
• for bigger teams

SOA vs Mircroservice is about Agility in large teams; and not about scalability. 

Reasons for NOT building microservices

• Many tools are available​​
• “You need a mature operations team to manage lots of services, which are being redeployed regularly” - Martin Flower

Reasons for NOT building microservices

• Enforces good design 
• Difficult to predict correct boundaries from start

Monolith first - Martin flower

Advantages of Monolith 

over microservices

• Faster to the market
• Easier to refactor
• Lower infra and dev costs initially

Monolith: 3      vs    Microservices: 0

A few months down the line...

Monolith vs Microservices

• Agile development
• Composable services

Monolith: 0      vs    Microservices: 2

Microservice vs Modular Monolith

• Agile development
• Composable services

Microservices: 2    vs   Modular Monolith: 5

• Strong encapsulation
• Well defined interfaces
• Explicit dependencies 

Tenets of Modular Architecture

Messy Monolith

Micro-service

Modular Monolith

Micro-service

Special Thanks

• Sander Mak's 'Modules or microservices?' is a great talk where I first saw the ISS example for modular architectures.

• Definition and design
• Theory and code
• Demo - breaking a modular app

Implementing Modular Architecture

• Modules are self-contained, Interconnected units of business logic. 
• A module has:-
  • Strong encapsulation
  • Well-defined interfaces
  • Explicit dependencies

Definition

Book ticket

Cache Lib

cache.js

Reserve ticket

Ticket Db

db-wrap.js

Implementation

booking.js

Booking Module

Setup

{ imports, config }

uses cache module

ticket DB module

Module Interface

Tests

/test/

Metadata package.json, index.js

• Modularity is optimizing for
  • Readability
  • Reusablity
  • Maintainability
  • Agility

Modular Design

Domain

Aggregator

Booking

Customer (ie. user)

Authentication

Interface

Web-express

SMS-twilio

Messenger-chat

Ticket Booking App

Modular Directory Structure

Payments

Database

User

Venue

Ticket

Domain

Aggregator

Booking

Customer (ie. user)

Authentication

Interface

Web-express

SMS-twilio

Messenger-chat

Ticket Booking App

Modular Directory Structure

Payments

Database

User

Venue

Ticket

>> Readability

Domain

Aggregator

Booking

Customer (ie. user)

Authentication

Interface

Web-express

SMS-twilio

Messenger-chat

Ticket Booking App

Modular Directory Structure

Payments

Database

User

Venue

Ticket

>> Readability

>> Maintainability

Domain

Aggregator

Booking

Customer (ie. user)

Authentication

Interface

Web-express

SMS-twilio

Messenger-chat

Ticket Booking App

Modular Directory Structure

Payments

Database

User

Venue

Ticket

>> Readability

>> Maintainability

>> Reusability

Domain

Aggregator

Booking

Customer (ie. user)

Authentication

Interface

Ticket Booking App

Modular Directory Structure

India-Aggregator

US-Aggregator

Payments

Database

India-Payments

US-Payments

EU-Payments

>> Agility

or, Teamwork

Imports between directories

Disadvantages:-

• Strong encapsulation is broken.
• We end up with a good directory structure, but a spaghetti like code.

Book ticket

Cache Lib

(cache.js)

Reserve ticket

Ticket Db

(db-wrap.js)

Implementation logic

Booking Directory

Another

Directory / Module

• Code
• Configuration

Enforcing the rules of Modularity?

• Code
• Configuration

Enforcing the rules of Modularity?

like npm modules

additional abstraction and dependency injection

Only import the Main file (or index.js)

Rules enforced:-​​

• We are allowed to import only index.js between module directories.
• The index.js file exports and imports other modules.

/domains/booking/index.js

  /** fetch config **/

import { redisConfig } from './../../config/env';

  /** consumes services from modules **/

import { ticketDb } from './../../models';
...

  /** initialize implementation files **/

import initImpl from './impl'; 

const { availableSeats, 
        reserveSeat, 
        ...
      } = initImpl(redisConfig, cache, ticketDb);


  /** provides services **/

export const {
  availableSeats,
  reserveSeats,
  ...
};

Plain (NPM like) Modules Approach

Disadvantages:-

• Directories are hardcoded in imports, giving lesser flexibility to plugin new modules.
• Does not support async initializations.

/domains/booking/index.js

  /** fetch config **/

import { redisConfig } from './../../config/env';

  /** consumes services from modules **/

import { ticketDb } from './../../models';
...

  /** initialize implementation files **/

import initImpl from './impl'; 

const { availableSeats, 
        reserveSeat, 
        ...
      } = initImpl(redisConfig, cache, ticketDb);


  /** provides services **/

export const {
  availableSeats,
  reserveSeats,
  ...
};

ArchieJs Modules

Move linkages to configuration.

{
  "name": "booking",
  "version": "1.0.0",
  "description": "a ticket book...",
  "author": "ns@work.com",

  "plugin": {
    "consumes": [
      "db.Ticket",
      "cache"
    ],
    "provides": {
      "booking@v1": "booking_v1.js",
      "booking@v2": "booking_v2.js"
    }
  },

  "scripts": {
    "test": "mocha tests"
  }
}

let cache, ticketDb;
let blockDuration;

module.exports = function setup(imports, 
                             config) {
      /** config values **/
    blockDuration = config.blockDuration 
                             || 120;
      /** imports **/
    cache = imports['cache'];
    ticketsDb = imports['db.Ticket'];

      /** provides services **/    
    return {
      availableSeats,
      blockSeats,
      ...
    };
}

function availableSeats(params) {
    // do stuff
}

package.json

booking_v1.js

Index.js Modules

(Modules in code)

• Strong encapsulation
• Well defined interfaces
• Explicit dependencies

ArchieJs Modules

(Modules in config)

Index.js Modules

• No learning curve
• Cannot plug-in/plug-out modules
  • Hardcoded directories
  • Sync Initialization
  • No lifecycle support
• Cannot break-up into partitioned services
• Difficult to develop tooling on

ArchieJs Modules

• Has a learning curve
• Can plug-in/plug-out modules
  • Uses service names
  • Sync/Async Initialization
  • Modules have lifecycle
• Enhancers allow break-up of monoliths into partitioned services by altering configuration
• Easy to develop tooling on

Key Differences

ArchieJS in 5 Mins​

• One line pitch

• History

• How it works

• Discussion

• Demo

One line pitch

• Archiejs moves the higher level dependencies of business logic outside of the implementation (.js) files into configuration (.json) files . This allows us to create better modular applications.

History

• Derived from a library Archietech.js (2011-12); used in production by C9 (now a part of Amazon).
• Production tested: ArchieJS (2016) is a rewrite & simplification of Archietect.js ; and therefore is production tested to an extent.
• Minimal: It took about 10 days to code the library.

How it works

• ArchieJS uses dependency injection to create the app.
• All modules are listed in an array in dep-tree.js .
• The array is passed to Archiejs APIs.
• In step 1, ArchieJS resolver reads each module's package.json and loads the js files using commonJS (require).
• In step 2, ArchieJs creates a dependency graph based on provides/consumes of each module and initializes modules as per the dependency graph.

Discussion - a quick recap

• Strong Encapsulation

  • No 'import' between modules.

• Well defined interfaces
  • Forces a greater thought to a reusable API design.
• Explicit dependencies
  • Module dependency tree gives a birds-eye view of the project.

Demo - breaking up monolith

with reddis-kue pub/sub

• /deptree.js
• /modules/booking
• /interfaces

https://github.com/archiejs/demo-webapp-ticket-booking

The Monolith

1. mongod

2. redis-server

3. Node app

4. Testcases

Booking logs appear in Monolith

The Booking Service

2. redis-server

4. Web App

1. mongod

3. Booking Service

Testcases

Booking Service

Not covered in the talk...

• Coupling in database - Monoliths to Micro-services
• Advanced Archiejs features like Enhancers
• Future path for Archiejs

Ask Naval Saini

@navalsaini on twitter

Visit ArchieJs

github.com/archiejs