Book Image

Python Architecture Patterns

By : Jaime Buelta
Book Image

Python Architecture Patterns

By: Jaime Buelta

Overview of this book

Developing large-scale systems that continuously grow in scale and complexity requires a thorough understanding of how software projects should be implemented. Software developers, architects, and technical management teams rely on high-level software design patterns such as microservices architecture, event-driven architecture, and the strategic patterns prescribed by domain-driven design (DDD) to make their work easier. This book covers these proven architecture design patterns with a forward-looking approach to help Python developers manage application complexity—and get the most value out of their test suites. Starting with the initial stages of design, you will learn about the main blocks and mental flow to use at the start of a project. The book covers various architectural patterns like microservices, web services, and event-driven structures and how to choose the one best suited to your project. Establishing a foundation of required concepts, you will progress into development, debugging, and testing to produce high-quality code that is ready for deployment. You will learn about ongoing operations on how to continue the task after the system is deployed to end users, as the software development lifecycle is never finished. By the end of this Python book, you will have developed "architectural thinking": a different way of approaching software design, including making changes to ongoing systems.
Table of Contents (23 chapters)
2
Part I: Design
6
Part II: Architectural Patterns
12
Part III: Implementation
15
Part IV: Ongoing operations
21
Other Books You May Enjoy
22
Index

Database migrations

An unavoidable fact of development is that software systems are always changing. While the pace of changes in the database is typically not as fast as other areas, there are still changes and they need to be treated carefully.

Data changes are roughly categorized into two different kinds:

  • Format or schema changes: New elements, like fields or tables, to be added or removed; or changes in the format of some fields.
  • Data changes: Requiring changing the data itself, without modifying the format. For example, normalizing an address field including the zip code, or making a string field uppercase.

Backward compatibility

The basic principle related to changes in the database is backward compatibility. This means that any single change in the database needs to work without any change in the code.

This allows you to make changes without interrupting the service. If the changes in the database require a change in the code...