In any Unix based OS the command line reigns supreme. Commmands are predictable, and return zero for success and non-zero for failures.

Rules

The same principles can be applied to programming with some minor rule alterations.

  • Class name must be in a similar format to VerbNoun (ex. CreateResource).
  • Instance must have an #execute method. It can accept arguments.
  • The only instance method that should be accessed is the #execute method.
  • The return type for #execute must be a Boolean.

Example

A basic command object will look like the following:

class CreateUser
  attr_reader :user

  # @param [Hash] params
  def initialize(params={})
    @user = User.new(params)
  end

  # @return [Boolean]
  def execute
    user.persisted? ? false : user.save
  end
end

Inside of the controller it would be applied like this:

class RegistrationsController < ApplicationController
  # ...

  def create
    command = CreateUser.new(user_params)

    if command.execute
      sign_in(command.user)
      redirect_to welcome_path
    else
      @user = command.user
      render action: 'new'
    end
  end

  # ...
end

These rules are fairly simple to follow. The command object is not supposed to be complex. It is supposed to break other complex tasks down into digestable, easy to maintain, and an easy to test format. If the command starts to become complex, consider extracting code into services or refactoring the command.

if all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail - Abraham Maslow

Remember not everything looks like a nail, so apply this design pattern with care and understand why others may opt for this in their application and why it may or may not be a good fit for your application.

Resources