Articles

How Does Repository Pattern Work in Magento 2?

repository pattern magento 2

Disclaimer: Magenticians does not necessarily agree with the views expressed in this guest post. They are presented to bring to light all diverse views in the Magento and general ecommerce community.

Magento is a renowned brand for setting up ecommerce websites used by hundreds of merchants across the globe. The developers always pursue higher performance for the end product to allow merchants enjoy a smooth business platform.

Repository pattern ships with Magento 2 for improving the design pattern of eCommerce websites. It has changed the process of fetching data from the end user and saving it in a database file, which has resulted in an easy understanding of the code and medications.

So, let’s dig further into it and understand more about repository pattern work in magento 2.

What is meant by a repository pattern?

Repository pattern is concerned with the design of a platform that separates the code between the business logic and data retrieval. It is responsible for reading and writing the information from a design pattern and storing it in a database, a file or physical memory. It sets the programmers free from losing data due to any problem and make its best use in the business environment.

It’s a design pattern that shares similar features like other patterns which were developed for the repository objects. It was first implemented in Java and C++ programming languages. There was a need to draft the business objects to the machine memory, and it was fulfilled by a repository pattern. In Magento 2, it was incorporated to deal with the two objects. At first, the data model, and secondly, the repository.

For example, you use a product repository to get information from the end users and store them in a file. Let’s say you are developing a registration form for an eCommerce website for fetching customers’ personal details. It will require you to get the data and store in a database.

Will you be able to alter the code for the registration form that has an amalgamation of business logic and database? Surely, it will be messed up. Take another example, such as using Magento Review extension for users of an online store to review different products and submit their feedback. It includes the data model and a repository to perform the entire function. If these two are not separate, the functionality may take more time to load and complete.

Why is the repository pattern added to Magento 2?

Magento 2 was launched to come up with an exciting ecommerce platform that has exemplary standards, performance, and user experience. One of the core reasons of revolutionizing Magneto platform with the latest version was to improve the complete API system. And, repository pattern proved to be an effective tool for dealing with the chaotic situation. Following are some of the needs that compel the Magento developers to separate the data model from the repository.

  • Empowering the APS with REST (Representational State Transfer)
  • Retaining SOAP (Simple Object Access Protocol ) based API for the merchants
  • Keeping the features connected between the API
  • Restructuring the existing code, and
  • Achieve these goals with developers having expertise in Magento 1

How this approach proved beneficial?

Repository pattern is quite beneficial for the developers and the end users as well. The first and most important advantage is the separation of business logic from the data model that stores information. It was a major concern for the developers as for how to differentiate between the two.

With repository pattern, clean code is achieved which relieves the developers and programmers in reading and modifying the code. They are all set to easily find a code written for a specific purpose. Another benefit includes the ease of optimizing the code. The separation of the database from the business logic allows the coders to alter the code after quick understandings. The queries in the database are treated isolated. Hence, making any change to the database will not affect the rest of the codes or other programs that depend on the database.

Developers also find it helpful in getting the code tested. The business part is separate which makes the testing procedure a quick job. The segregation of repository object speed up the testing as a programmer can swap the data with any predetermined set of data, and continue testing without any interruption. And last but not the least, the repository pattern saves the load time that a database takes which is not necessary for to process. Just keep the business part separate, and have speedy operations.

How does it actually work in Magento?

With implementation of repository pattern, the code in Magento 2 is simplified and will look like this.

// Retrieve data from persistent storage
$model = $modelRepository->loadById($id);
// Retrieve data from model
$name = $model->getName();
// Change data on model
$model->setActive(true);
// Save the changes
$modelRepository->save($model);

In the above code, you can easily identify that loading and saving function is achieved through the repository. Whereas, data management is auto, just like the way it used to do in Magneto 1.

Conclusion

The isolation of data retrieval from the business logic seems to be quite beneficial for the Magneto 2 platform. It has facilitated all the developers, programmers, and eCommerce development agencies to customize the code, continue with hassle-free testing, and pursue a well-built end product. In result, merchants are enjoying a selling platform with better speed, functionality, and performance. Hence, bringing them more customers and business. Magneto learners can refer to the open source code and software documentation to continue further research and come up with the ultimate user experience.

Author Bio:

Paul Simmons is a CMS Extensions Developer with 7 years of experience in PHP development at FMEaddons – an eCommerce development company with Top tier extensions and themes for popular shopping cart platforms like Magento, Opencart, Woocommerce, & Joomla.

Subscribe Newsletter

Subscribe to get latest Magento news

40% Off for 4 Months on Magento Hosting + 30 Free Migration