Skip to main content

Getting Started with Archer

Welcome to Archer - a lightweight framework for Functional Clean Architecture (FCA) built on top of Arrow.

Coverage Status License Maven Central

What is Archer?​

Archer is designed to reduce the boilerplate typically associated with Clean Architecture while maintaining its core benefits:

  • Abstraction - Clear separation of concerns
  • Reusability - Composable components
  • Scalability - Easy to extend and maintain

The Problem with Traditional Clean Architecture​

Clean Architecture offers great benefits, but it comes with significant tradeoffs:

  • Excessive Boilerplate - Multiple interfaces and implementations for each layer
  • Maintainability Issues - More code to maintain and update

A typical Clean Architecture implementation requires:

  • UseCase interface + implementation
  • Repository interface + implementation
  • Multiple DataSource interfaces + implementations (network, local, etc.)
  • Multiple Mappers for data transformation

Archer's Solution​

Archer provides contractual DataSources and Repositories that eliminate the need for creating all this boilerplate, while still maintaining the architectural benefits. You only need to implement the mapping logic - Archer handles the rest.

Installation​

Add Archer to your project:

build.gradle.kts
dependencies {
    implementation("com.m2f-kt:archer-core:{version}")
}

Replace {version} with the latest version from Maven Central.

Quick Example​

Here's a simple example of using Archer:

// Define a remote data source
val remoteDataSource = getDataSource<Int, String> { param: Int ->
    "$param"
}

// Define a local storage data source
val store: StoreDataSource<Int, String> = InMemoryDataSource()

// Create a repository strategy with caching
val repositoryStrategy = remoteDataSource cacheWith store expiresIn 5.minutes

// Use the repository with different result wrappers
val resultIce = ice {
    repository.get(StoreSync, 0)
}
// resultIce: Ice.Content("0")

val resultEither = either {
    repository.get(StoreSync, 0)
}
// resultEither: Either.Right("0")

val resultNullable = nullable {
    repository.get(StoreSync, 0)
}
// resultNullable: "0"

Result Types​

Archer supports multiple result types through Arrow:

  • Ice (Idle | Content | Error) - Three-state result type
  • Either - Classic functional error handling
  • Nullable - Simple null-based error handling

Next Steps​