Behaviour

Behaviours are classes of which the instances are used as functions.

Why?

When writing code it is best to keep concerns separated and code testable. A behaviour helps with this. It is comparable with a global function which must be instantiated before it can be used. Because it is like a global function it only has one concern: executing one piece of logic, one behaviour. Because it still is a class, it can be injected where needed and/or mocked in testing.

A behaviour itself will never throw an exception. All exceptions/errors are caught and returned in a ExceptionOr<TSuccess> format which is either a Failed or a Success. The Failed contains the exception and the Success contains the return value if any.

Getting started

With input

Behaviour<TIn, TOut>

The standard behaviour receives an input parameter of type TIn and returns a TOut. If no output parameter is required it can be made void. A behaviour returns when called an Future<ExceptionOr<TSuccess>> value. For more details about that look at the Return value.

class CreateCustomer extends Behaviour<CreateCustomerParams, void> {
  @override
  Future<void> action(CreateCustomerParams input, BehaviourTrack? track) {
    // TODO logic to create a customer
    return Future.value();
  }
}

class CreateCustomerParams {
  const CreateCustomerParams({
    required this.name,
    required this.address,
    required this.phoneNumber,
  });

  final String name;
  final String address;
  final String phoneNumber;
}

Without input

BehaviourWithoutInput<TOut>

This behaviour does not receive an input parameter and returns a TOut. If no output parameter is required it can be made void. A behaviour returns when called an ExceptionOr<TSuccess> value. For more details about that look at the Return value.

class GetProfileData extends BehaviourWithoutInput<ProfileData> {
  @override
  Future<ProfileData> action(BehaviourTrack? track) {
    return Future.value(ProfileData(
      name: 'Wim',
      birthday: DateTime(1993, 10, 07),
    ));
  }
}

class ProfileData {
  const ProfileData({
    required this.name,
    required this.birthday,
  });

  final String name;
  final DateTime birthday;
}

Return value

The return value of a behaviour is always an ExceptionOr<TSuccess> value. This is an abstract class with two implementers: Failed<TSuccess> and Success<TSuccess> with each an exception and value property respectively. To determine what the received value is, the when method is provided (and thenWhen for async methods).

Future<void> main() {
  await getProfileData().thenWhen(
    (exception) => log('Exception: $exception'),
    (value) => log('value: $value'),
  );
}

Behaviour monitor

To monitor what the behaviour is doing a BehaviourMonitor exits. This is a factory class which creates a BehaviourTrack. During the call of a behaviour, the different methods of this track are called.

• start when the action is executed
• end when the action has successfully been completed.
• stopWithException when an exception happens.
• stopWithError when anything else is caught.

This monitor can be used to do logging/analytics/...