Introduction » Glossary

This document explains the basic terms used in ROM.

Relation

An object that represents data in your system, implements each and yields tuples.

Repository

An object that uses relations to interact with a datastore. A repository is a class that is used to define a clear API between your database and your application.

Mapper

An object that receives a relation and maps it to another representation. Anything that responds to call can be a mapper in ROM.

Command

An object that executes a datastore-specific operation to create, update, or delete tuples in a relation. Commands execute operations using the relation interface, which is datastore-specific; however, on the surface, they simply respond to call.

Every adapter can provide custom command types.

Tuple

An element in a relation. It's typically represented by a hash object.

Datastore

A persistence backend, typically a database but also a flat file with data like CSV or YAML.

Gateway

An object that encapsulates access to a specific persistence backend. For example the SQL gateway provides access to database tables via its datasets

Dataset

A raw source of data with an interface specific for a given datastore. Relations use datasets to fetch data from persistence backends, like databases. Dataset's interface is not directly exposed to the application layer; however, it is available as a private interface of relations.

Adapter

An adapter is a library providing infrastructure for ROM to support specific persistence backends. An adapter ships with its own Gateway, Dataset, Relation and Command classes.

Patterns

ROM is implemented using a couple of fundamental patterns that make it flexible and extendible.

Callable Functional Objects

Relation, mapper, and command objects are callable and work as functions, they receive input and return output with no run-time side-effects. Furthermore, all objects don't have a mutable state, and it's safe to memoize them and rely on consistent behavior.

Data Pipeline

Relations, mappers and commands can be composed into a data pipeline, which is a simple idea that one object returns a relation and passes it to another. All objects respond to call and accept a relation and implement common >> operator, which is used to construct the pipeline.

Graph

A nested object with a root and its nodes. ROM allows you to build relation and command graphs for working with nested structures and associations.

CQRS

A way of organizing your application so that reading data is separated from changing data. In ROM it is easily achievable by using relations and commands.