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Best Practices in Coding Microservices
Microservices are a structural strategy for designing and building cloud applications. Every individual application is developed as a collection of services. Every individual service operates and carries out its operations and communicates over Application Programming Interfaces (APIs). The microservices are produced around business requirements and capacities, that are autonomously deployable with an automated deployment process. Furthermore, microservices can be developed using different programming languages.
In this article, we discuss the best practices that we need to follow when coding microservices to achieve efficient microservices without unnecessary complexities.
1. Select the best suitable language to code.
Different programming languages can be used to develop microservices in the same application. In other words, the language in which the microservice is developed does not affect the functionality of the application. Java, Python, Golang, C++, and Node JS are the most popular languages used in implementing microservices.
In this section, let us investigate the programming languages that support microservices development thoroughly.
1. Java
Java is one of the excellent programming languages to code microservices due to its readable annotation syntax. This is extremely useful when implementing composite and complex systems. Spring Boot, Dropwizard, Restlet, and Spark are some popular frameworks of Java for microservice development.
2. Golang
Golang is a great language to develop microservices due to its concurrency and API support. The concurrency of Golang will help you to enhance the productivity of the service. For that reason, Golang can be used to implement complex applications and also to improve existing software applications. GoMicro and Gi Kit are the frameworks of Golang that support microservice development.
3. Python
Prototyping in Python is quicker and simple when compared to other languages. It allows us to use its strong substitutes while ensuring compatibility with old languages like ASP and PHP. Flask, Falcom, Bottle, Nameko, CherryPy are some popular frameworks of Python for microservice development.
4. Node JS
Input and output operations of microservices developed with Node JS are extremely fast due to the V8 runtime of Node JS. Node JS microservices are developed either using CPU-bound or IO-bound code. Furthermore, Node JS increases productivity, performance and lowers costs.
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2. Reduce the number of lines of code through partitioning the Microservice code base
All the microservices of a certain application must follow a suited structure to include their codes. The microservice codebase can be partitioned according to the requirement of the microservice and the task in which the application expects from it. In general, a microservice codebase can be partitioned into three main parts. They are,
1. Route and Operation Management partition
This can be used to include the lines of code used to define the inputs and the operations performed to output the response from the defined route.
2. Connectivity Management partition
This can be used to include the lines of codes to define the other services the microservice is connected to and other connections such as database connections.
3. Utility Server Partition
This can be used to include the lines of codes to define general functionalities such as validations, logging management, etc.
How can partitioning the Microservice code base reduce the number of lines of code?
The most straightforward answer for this question is “through reusability.” By petitioning the microservice code base, you will get separate components.
For example, consider a scenario where two functions of a microservice require the output of the same database query. In this case, you will have to code the two functions in the Route and Operation Management partition. When it comes to the coding of the query and to get it, you will be using the Connectivity Management partition.
But, you only have to write the “fetching data from the query” code only once in the Connectivity Management partition. Then you can link the two functions in the Route and Operation Management partition to the same “fetching data from the query” code in the Connectivity Management partition.
This is how we can reduce the number of lines of code. But as mentioned above, the number of partitions can be increased depending on the necessities and the needs of the microservice.
Frequently Asked Questions
A Microservice is the breaking up of traditionally tightly coupled application components into small specialized services that communicate through HTTPS REST and HTTPS API interfaces.
Since Microservices are small specialized services, they can be quickly and efficiently rearranged to accommodate future capabilities unknown at the present time.
Microservices are independent and modular which allows for significant flexibility in communications patterns and often prevent cascading failure.
DevOps is the combination of development and operations into a single function of software development and infrastructure management. The main priority of DevOps is the reduction of barriers to speed of delivery.
DevSecOps empowers everyone in the development process using a security focused tool set to address timely security decisions at speed and scale of each development stage. The main priority of DevSecOps is risk reduction through DevOps security accountability and governance.
Security automation in DevSecOps increases speed of code releases while reducing the risk using static application security testing (SAST), dynamic application security testing (DAST), and code dependency checking.
High business value is realized from quick and efficient response to market opportunities and challenges, optimization for innovation, and reduction of technical debt all lead to superior competitive advantage.
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3. Add logs
Logging is the most basic support for solving the operational difficulties and obstacles in your software application. In addition, it helps us to get to know about what’s happening in the codebase. In some cases, some of the lines of code may not execute or some of the operations may not perform as expected due to the breaks happening in the application. Logs are the main and the most powerful solution to understand the issue causing the interruptions.
Moreover, the logs will assist you in handling the complexity and communicate your code to other developers. Hence the logs increase the development speed and assist in debugging the software as well.
4. Other best practices in coding microservices
1. Comment wherever it is necessary and document important information
This will help other developers to know what is included in the code and what’s the purpose behind it.
2. Test your code and handle the errors
It is mandatory to test the code in a microservice once you complete an individual section in the service. This will assist you in figuring out the errors and bugs. Once the errors are fixed, it is required to test the code again to make sure that the code is error and bug-free.
3. Make the codebase consistent
It’s essential to develop the functionalities of the service in a similar way other functions are developed. For example, if you are creating modules to define a set of route operations, make sure that you define them in a similar way. This will lower the complexity and make it simple for other developers.
4. Do not hard code
It is mandatory to maintain an environment file or a config map to store the definite values. If these values are hardcoded in the codebase, and you will have to make changes in the codebase if you want to change the value. But this can be avoided using an environment file or a config map.
5. Use descriptive names for functions and variables
For example, if you want to assign values of the port and database name, you can use the variable names as “port” and “database”. Avoid using generating names such as “var1” and “var2”.
Following the above practices will help you to code microservices easily and efficiently. It is mandatory to keep using these practices as each microservice owns a data model and handles its own data. A break or discontinuation of one microservice will not affect all the functionalities of the application. But not using the best coding practices will result in complexities and slow the entire application. Contact us for additional support in the best practices in coding microservices.
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