"Can I get a CustomerService with that?" "No." Why do we always gravitate towards the data centric services? I honestly believe its because its just easier to do. Data is always defined, whether its in DDL (CREATE TABLE ( Name char(4));) or in C# (private string _name;) we have solid ways to define data. These names and definitions make it easier for me to work with it. On top of this, it seems to me that the English language is good at describing nouns (really?), but for some reason when it comes ......
I am having a bit of a reflective night, and wanted to share some thoughts about moving towards service based architectures. PhatBoyG asked me "What is changing, now that you are spending more time working on MassTransit, about the way you architect solutions?" At first blush, I thought about messages and windows services, but as I have had more time to think about it, some other thoughts occurred to me. One of the biggest changes that I have begun to see in the way I am putting systems together ......
Since the beginning of my foray into SOA I have heard about composing services to 'write' new services. I have never really understood how this was supposed to work. Although, vague thoughts of Windows Workflow style wizards do come to mind. One of the first books that I have read on the subject 'SOA in practice'(2) even laid out yet another layered architecture (3 layers to boot) these were called basic services, composed services, and process services. Basic services are the basic building blocks ......
So I learned a lesson this week (Well actually a while ago now). Window's services have this neat feature called 'Service Dependencies.' This aspect of windows lets you set certain 'wait for it' dependencies! Awesome, this means if your service needs SQL or MSMQ to be started before it can start working windows will make sure this happens. I admit I felt a bit dumb when I wondered why my services weren't working, but my friends PhatBoyG and Scott V schooled me in some basic Win Service k-nowledge. ......
Dru![wow] Well, Chris and I are driving home from KaizenConf and we are still reeling a bit from all of the conversations that we had. As usual, with this group of committed students and teachers I am left feeling comforted and secured in not only the way I approach software development, but also in the way I continue to seek a better way to approach life. Enough with the platitudes and on to the real topic. What's next for Mass Transit Holy Shinikes! Chris and I were amazed with the number of people ......