Originally posted on my technical blog

Have you ever heard of guard clauses? Steve Smith discusses them in one of his Weekly Dev Tips here.

Today I want to show you a technique that I've been using which is similar to the guard clause pattern but is used in more advanced scenarios. These scenarios include when you have problems due to external dependencies or complex logic that is required in your guard clauses.

With guard clauses, we would take code that has nested conditional logic like this:

if(order != null)
{
    if(order.Items != null)
    {
        this.PlaceOrder(order);
    }
    else {
        throw new ArgumentNullException("Order is null");
    }
}
else {
    throw new ArgumentNullException("Order is null");
}

Then we would invert the conditional logic and try to "fail fast":

if(order?.Items == null)
{
    throw new ArgumentNullException("Order is null");
}

this.PlaceOrder(order);

Notice that right-off-the-bat we will try to make the method fail? That's what I mean by "failing fast".

Next, we might create a reusable method out of this:

public static void IsNullGuard(this object me, string message)
{
    if(me == null)
    {
        throw new ArgumentNullException(message);
    }
}

Finally, we can use this guard clause anywhere we need:

order?.Items.IsNullGuard("Order is null");
this.PlaceOrder(order);

This will keep our code much cleaner, avoid any nested conditions, and be way easier to reason about!

What If You Have Dependency Baggage?

I love this pattern.

But, sometimes you might find yourself trying to build a type of guard clause which has certain external dependencies, like a repository or HttpClient. Perhaps the logic for the actual guard is quite complex too.

Examples might include determining if:

• A user has proper permissions to view a certain resource in your system
• A potential order is capable of being purchased (in a simple retail system)
• An insurance claim is capable of being approved
• etc.

What I like to do in these cases is use what I've been calling "Gate Classes." They're like guard clauses, but they are classes... Go figure.

Think of these as a series of gates which each request in the system has to go through (just like middleware). If any of them fail, the gate is closed and the request cannot proceed any further.

Let me show you what I mean.

Checking If We Can Approve An Insurance Claim

Imagine we are building part of an insurance processing system.

Next, we have to check whether the claim is able to be approved, and if so, approve it.

Here's our use case (Clean Architecture) or, as some might know it, our Command (CQRS):

public class ApproveInsuranceClaimCommand : IUseCase
{
    private readonly IInsuranceClaimRepository _claimRepo;
    private readonly IUserRepository _userRepo;

    public ApproveInsuranceClaimCommand(
        IInsuranceClaimRepository claimRepo, 
        IUserRepository userRepo
    )
    {
        this._claimRepo = claimRepo;
        this._userRepo = userRepo;
    }

    public async Task Handle(Guid claimId, int approvingUserId)
    {
        User user = await this._userRepo.Find(approvingUserId);

        // 1. Figure out if the user has permission to approve this...

        InsuranceClaim claim = await this._claimRepo.Find(claimId);

        // 2. Figure out if the claim is approvable...

        claim.Approve();
        await this._claimRepo.Update(claim);
    }
}

For the logic that will go into the comments I made, what if we required more repositories to make those checks?

Also, what if other use cases in our system needed to make those same checks?

Perhaps we have another use case called ApproveOnHoldInsuranceClaimCommand that will approve an insurance claim that was, for some reason, placed on hold until further documentation was supplied by the customer?

Or, perhaps in other use cases we need to check if users are able to have permission to change a claim?

This will lead to messy code and a lot of copy and pasting!

The Solution From The Outside

Just like the guard clause refactoring pattern, why don't we do the same thing but convert each guard clause into an entirely new class?

The benefits are that we can use dependency injection to inject any dependencies like repositories, HttpClient, etc. that only each gate class will require.

Now, our use case might look like this (keeping in mind that each gate class may do some complex logic inside):

public class ApproveInsuranceClaimCommand : IUseCase
{
    private readonly IInsuranceClaimRepository _claimRepo;
    private readonly CanUserApproveInsuranceClaimGate _canUserApprove;
    private readonly CanInsuranceClaimBeApprovedGate _claimCanBeApproved;

    public ApproveInsuranceClaimCommand(
        IInsuranceClaimRepository claimRepo
        CanUserApproveInsuranceClaimGate canUserApprove, 
        CanInsuranceClaimBeApprovedGate claimCanBeApproved
    )
    {
        this._claimRepo = claimRepo;
        this._canUserApprove = canUserApprove;
        this._claimCanBeApproved = claimCanBeApproved;
    }

    public async Task Handle(Guid claimId, int approvingUserId)
    {
        await this._canUserApprove.Invoke(approvingUserId);
        InsuranceClaim claim = await this._claimRepo.Find(claimId);
        await this._claimCanBeApproved.Invoke(claim);
        claim.Approve();
        await this._claimRepo.Update(claim);
    }
}

Notice that there's no more need for the IUserRepository since it will be handled by the CanUserApproveInsuranceClaimGate gate class (and DI).

Note: Why didn't I make an interface for each gate class? Just for simplicity. But yes, by using interfaces instead of a concrete class you may mock them much easier for testing.

Creating A Gate Class

Let's look at how we might build the CanInsuranceClaimBeApprovedGate gate class:

public class CanInsuranceClaimBeApprovedGate
{
    private readonly IInsuranceClaimAdjusterRepository _adjusterRepo;
    private readonly IInsuranceClaimLegalOfficeRepository _legalRepo;

    public CanInsuranceClaimBeApprovedGate(
        IInsuranceClaimAdjusterRepository adjusterRepo,
        IInsuranceClaimLegalOfficeRepository legalRepo
    )
    {
        this._adjusterRepo = adjusterRepo;
        this._legalRepo = legalRepo;
    }

    public async Task Invoke(InsuranceClaim claim)
    {
        // Do some crazy logic with the data returned from each repository!

        // On failure, throw a general gate type exception that can be handled 
        // by middleware or a global error handler somewhere at the top of your stack.
        throw new GateFailureException("Insurance claim cannot be approved.")
    }
}

Each gate class will either succeed or fail.

On failure, it will throw an exception that will be caught up the stack. In web applications, there is usually some global exception handler or middleware that can convert these into specific HTTP error responses, etc.

If we do need to use this logic in other places, as mentioned above, then we don't need to re-import all the dependencies required for this logic. We can just simply use the gate class as-is and allow the DI mechanism to plug in all the dependencies for us.

Some Caveats

It's worth mentioning, that in some cases your use cases and your gate classes may need to call the same repository method. You don't want to be fetching that data twice (once in your gate class and once in your use case).

In this event, there are ways to fix it.

One is to build a cached repository using the Decorator pattern.

You might rig this up as a scoped dependency (in .NET Core) so the cached data will only be cached for the lifetime of the HTTP request. Or you might just set a timeout on the cache.

Another way is to allow the use case to inject the raw data into the gate class as a dependency.

In any event, this pattern is very helpful in making your code much easier to test, use and maintain!

What Are Your Thoughts?

Have you seen this technique before? Have any thoughts? I would love to hear them!

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You can also find me at my web site www.jamesmichaelhickey.com.

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