A key aspect of adopting any new pattern is understanding how it interacts with the surrounding application infrastructure. When using Discriminated Unions, questions arise: How can a Result union be serialized to JSON? How can an OrderState union be persisted using Entity Framework Core? This article explores practical integration strategies with common .NET frameworks.
While basic value objects solve primitive obsession, complex domain requirements need sophisticated modeling techniques. This article explores advanced patterns using Thinktecture.Runtime.Extensions to tackle real-world scenarios: open-ended dates for employment contracts, composite file identifiers across storage systems, recurring anniversaries without year components, and geographical jurisdictions using discriminated unions.
Domain models often involve concepts that exist in multiple distinct states or variations. Traditional approaches using enums and nullable properties can lead to invalid states and scattered logic. This article explores how discriminated unions provide a structured, type-safe way to model domain variants in .NET, aligning perfectly with Domain-Driven Design principles while enforcing invariants at the type level.
Value objects are fundamental building blocks in Domain-Driven Design, serving far more than simple data wrappers. This article explores their strategic importance in bridging technical code and business concepts, enforcing domain rules, and fostering clearer communication with domain experts. Learn how to build robust aggregates, cultivate ubiquitous language, and encapsulate domain-specific behavior using Thinktecture.Runtime.Extensions in .NET applications.
Traditional C# pattern matching with switch statements and if/else chains is error-prone and doesn’t guarantee exhaustive handling of all cases. When you add new types or states, it’s easy to miss updating conditional logic, leading to runtime bugs. The library Thinktecture.Runtime.Extensions solves this with built-in Switch and Map methods for discriminated unions that enforce compile-time exhaustiveness checking.
This article builds upon the introduction of Smart Enums by exploring their powerful capability to encapsulate behavior, a significant limitation of traditional C# enums. We delve into how Thinktecture.Runtime.Extensions enables embedding domain-specific logic directly within Smart Enum definitions. This co-location of data and behavior promotes more cohesive, object-oriented, and maintainable code, moving beyond scattered switch statements and extension methods. Discover techniques to make your enumerations truly “smart” by integrating behavior directly where it belongs.
Representing values that may take on multiple distinct types or states is a common challenge in C#. Traditional approaches—like tuples, generics, or exceptions—often lead to clumsy and error-prone code. Discriminated unions address these issues by enabling clear, type-safe modeling of “one-of” alternatives. This article examines pitfalls of conventional patterns and introduces discriminated unions with the Thinktecture.Runtime.Extensions library, demonstrating how they enhance code safety, prevent invalid states, and improve maintainability—unlocking powerful domain modeling in .NET with minimal boilerplate.
While simple value objects wrap single primitives, many domain concepts involve multiple related properties (e.g., a date range’s start and end). This article introduces Complex Value Objects in .NET, which group these properties into a cohesive unit. This ensures internal consistency, centralizes validation, and encapsulates behavior. Discover how to implement these for clearer, safer code using the library Thinktecture.Runtime.Extensions, which minimizes boilerplate when handling such related data.
Traditional C# enums often fall short when needing to associate data or behavior with constants, or ensure strong type safety. This article explores the “Smart Enum” pattern as a superior alternative. Leveraging the library Thinktecture.Runtime.Extensions and Roslyn Source Generators, developers can easily implement Smart Enums. These provide a robust, flexible, and type-safe way to represent fixed sets of related options, encapsulating both data and behavior directly within the Smart Enum. This results in more maintainable, expressive, and resilient C# code, overcoming the limitations of basic enums.
Overusing primitive types like string or int for domain concepts (“primitive obsession”) causes bugs from missed validation, like invalid emails or negative monetary values. This article explores Value Objects as a .NET solution. Learn how these self-validating, immutable types prevent entire classes of errors, make code more expressive, and reduce developer overhead. We’ll demonstrate creating robust domain models with minimal boilerplate, improving code quality without necessarily adopting full Domain-Driven Design, and see how Roslyn Source Generators make this practical.
