Building event-driven applications using DDD, CQRS and Event Sourcing, with Axon Framework

Welcome to this workshop! You will build a "bike rental" sample application with Axon Framework and Axon Server.

Installation

The following software must be installed in your local environment:

• JDK version 17 (or higher).

• Axon Server, which is available to download as a standalone JAR file or as a Docker Image.

  • To install as a Jar file:

    First, Download Axon Server. In the Axon Server directory, next to AxonServer.jar, create a file called axonserver.properties and add the following lines:

    axoniq.axonserver.devmode.enabled=true
    axoniq.axonserver.standalone=true
    

    Run Axon Server (@ localhost:8024):

    java -jar axonserver.jar
    

  • To run Axon Server using Docker:

    docker run -d --name axonserver -p 8024:8024 -p 8124:8124 -e AXONIQ_AXONSERVER_DEVMODE_ENABLED=true -e AXONIQ_AXONSERVER_STANDALONE=true axoniq/axonserver
    

    You can then start and stop Axon Server respectively by running:

    docker start axonserver
    docker stop axonserver
    

• An IDE such as Jetbrains IDEA is recommended.

Part 1: Building Rental monolith

The workshop consists of a number of exercises to be completed in sequence, thus building the rental app and connecting its process to the payment application, which has already been built.

In this exercise, the command model of the rental boundary context will be implemented.

An event-sourced aggregate Bike (representing the domain entity "bike") accepts and validates incoming commands, publishing corresponding events that are persisted in the Axon Server event store.

Follow the steps outlined below.

Exercise 1 - Creating the Bike aggregate

The (failing) shouldRegisterBike test in BikeTest attempts to send a RegisterBikeCommand to (a newly created) Bike aggregate, expecting a BikeRegisteredEvent to be published as a result.

• Annotate the Bike class as an aggregate via @Aggregate.

• The aggregate needs a unique identifier; use the @AggregateIdentifier annotation on a String member field called bikeId.

• Create a command handling constructor, annotated with CommandHandler, that accepts RegisterBikeCommand; also add a no-arg constructor (required).

• Publish a BikeRegisteredEvent in the command handling constructor via the statically imported apply function.

• Create an event sourcing handler that accepts BikeRegisteredEvent and performs the actual state change; in this case, setting the aggregate's identifier. An event sourcing handler is a method (choose any name) that is annotated with the @EventSourcingHandler annotation.

For more information on implementing aggregates, see here.

Run the test to confirm that you've created the constructor properly.

Implementing all Commands and Events

The remaining unit tests cover the other commands and events related to Bike.

Implement the required Command Handlers and Event Sourcing handlers to make all the tests pass.

Note

Unlike in the first exercise, these handlers should act on an existing aggregate instance, rather than creating a new one. Therefore, create a regular instance method (the ones with a name and return value) instead of a constructor. The best practice is to use void as return type, unless you explicitly expect to return a value from the command's execution.

Note that the RequestBikeCommand expects a return value. This is the "rental reference", which must be a unique value to be able to refer to a specific attempt to rent a bike. This reference will later be used to link this request to the payments. You should return the same value that is also used in the BikeRequestedEvent.

Connecting the Commands to the UI controller

Commands and queries are sent from the RentalController using a CommandGateway and QueryGateway respectively.

Implement the (POST) /requestBike and /returnBike endpoints by sending the corresponding commands; see the generateBikes method for how to use CommandGateway.

Exercise 2 - Projections

Queries are handled by a query model (a.k.a. projections). A projection is updated when events are published, and it implements so-called query handlers that receive and respond to queries (sent via the QueryGateway).

A BikeStatusProjection class exists that needs the following:

• Event handlers for each of the events currently supported; an event handler is annotated with @EventHandler and updates bike statuses in an embedded database.

  Don't confuse @EventHandler with @EventSourcingHandler! The latter only exists on the command-side.

  Define an Event Handler method for each of the events you need to process. Put the event's type as the first parameter. Generally, you won't need other parameters.

  For example::

  @EventHandler
  public void handle(BikeRegisteredEvent event) {
     // event handling logic here
  }
  

  BikeStatusRepository offers methods for persisting (save) and retrieving instances (findById, findAll) of BikeStatus.

  BikeStatus contains methods to set relevant fields; you can find and update a particular bike status via

    bikeStatusRepository.findById(someBikeId).ifPresent(
     bikeStatus -> { 
        // update bikeStatus...
     }
    )`
  

• Query handlers are annotated with @QueryHandler(queryName = "someQuery") and use BikeStatusRepository to retrieve and return results (that conform to what is expected in BikeController). Define a Query Handler method for each of the queries you need to provide. Put the query's payload type as the first parameter. Generally, you won't need other parameters.

  For example::

  @QueryHandler(queryName="myQueryName")
  public QueryResponse handle(MyQuery event) {
     // query handling logic here
  }
  

In the RentalController, implement the (GET) /bikes and /bikes/{bikeId} endpoints by sending the corresponding queries:

• GET /bikes:

  queryGateway.query("findAll", null, ResponseTypes.multipleInstancesOf(BikeStatus.class));

• GET /bikes/{bikeId}:

  queryGateway.query("findOne", bikeId, BikeStatus.class);

View

the JavaDoc

for sending queries.

Running the Application with Axon Server

Open your web browser and navigate to localhost:8024 for the Administrator UI.

Start the Bike application; you will see the application connected to Axon Server in the Overview section.

Perform the following tasks and inspect the Search (for events), Commands and Queries sections:

The requests to send are available in the requests.http file. You may have to change the parameter values for each request.

• Register a number of bikes.

• Get all registered bikes.

• Request a specific bike.

• Get the status of the requested bike. It should show that it has been requested.

Close the Bike application; reset the event store in the Settings section and remove the *.db files that have been created by H2 in the project's main directory.

Exercise 3: Connecting the Payment processing

In order to successfully rent a bike, a payment must be made before the bike request is approved. Since this is a transaction that spans both rental and payment contexts, a process (also called saga) must be initiated.

The payment process is implemented in PaymentSaga; it starts and ends upon receiving a BikeRequestedEvent and PaymentConfirmedEvent respectively.

Implement the process as follows:

• Annotate a member function that accepts a BikeRequestedEvent with

    @StartSaga
    @SagaEventHandler(associationId = "bikeId")
  

• In this event handler:

  Store the bike ID as process state (simply a member field, which will be used later).

  Generate a new payment ID (for example using UUID.randomUUID.toString()) and associated it with the process via:

    SagaLifecycle.associatedWith("paymentId", paymentId)
  

  Send a PreparePaymentCommand via the CommandGateway. THe handler for this command is implemented in the Payment Application.

• Annotate a member function that accepts a PaymentConfirmedEvent with

    @EndSaga
    @SagaEventHandler(associationId = "paymentId")
  

  Send a ApproveBikeRequestCommand.

Why can't the @EndSaga event handler be associated with bikeId?

Why didn't we need a "prepare payment" endpoint in PaymentController?

Running the Application with Axon Server

If Axon Server is not currently running, start it again. Make sure to reset the event store.

Start both the RentalApplication and the PaymentApplication

Perform the following tasks and inspect the Search (for events), Commands and Queries sections:

The requests to send are available in the requests.http file. You may have to change the parameter values for each request.

• Register a number of bikes.

• Get all registered bikes.

• Request a specific bike. Note the rental reference.

• Find the payment ID for the rental reference and confirm that payment.

• Verify that the payment has been approved and the bike is now in use.

• Return the bike in a new location

Part 2: Scaling out

Our monolith now consists of 4 different components, all within the same application:

• Command component (the Bike)
• Query Handlers (the BikeStatusProjection and BikeStatusRepository)
• Payment coordination (the PaymentSaga)
• UI Controller (the RentalController)

Let's move each of those classes to their own module. These modules have already been prepared under the /microservices folder in the project.

Move all the classes mentioned above to their respective modules. Note that the package names remain the same. Using the "move" function of IntelliJ allows you to simply choose a different source root in the dropdown in the lower part of the "move" window.

Once moved, start each application:

• RentalCommandApplication
• RentalQueryApplication
• UserInterfaceApplication
• RentalPaymentSagaApplication
• PaymentApplication

Check the Axon Server UI to make sure all applications are started.

Go through the rental process again to validate that everything still works.

Try starting a few extra instances of the microservices. Note that the UserInterfaceApplication binds to port 8080, so you can only start one instance. Check the Commands and Queries screens on the Axon Server UI to see how commands and queries are balanced between nodes.

When you're done

Congratulations! You've implemented the core concepts. But there is a lot more to explore. In these labs, we've only covered the basics of the functional components of Axon Framework. There are a lot of non-functional configuration items hidden in this application.

You can take a look at the Bike Rental Demo application on GitHub fur the full implementation, including deadlines and subscription queries.