delegate_behaviour

Elixir macros to define modules that delegate to concrete implementations of behaviours. Useful to separate "logic to select specific implementation of behaviour" and "caller of behaviour interface" (similar to dependency injection).

• Hex package information

Installation

• Add :delegate_behaviour as a mix dependency.
• $ mix deps.get

Usage example

Suppose you have a behaviour and two modules that implement the behaviour.

iex> defmodule B do
...>   use Behaviour
...>   @callback f(integer) :: integer
...> end
iex> defmodule Impl1 do
...>   @behaviour B
...>   def f(i), do: i + 1
...> end
iex> defmodule Impl2 do
...>   @behaviour B
...>   def f(i), do: i + 2
...> end

Now you can easily define a module that implements the behaviour B by delegating all behaviour functions to the module Impl1 or Impl2. There are two variants of delegations:

• Choosing target implementation at compile-time

    iex> defmodule C do
    ...>   require DelegateBehaviour
    ...>   DelegateBehaviour.compile_time(B) do
    ...>     # Put code block to choose the target module;
    ...>     # do whatever you like to determine which module you delegate to,
    ...>     # e.g. environment variable, application config, config file, etc.
    ...>     # The code block is evaluated at compile time.
    ...>     case System.get_env("SOME_ENV_VAR") do
    ...>       "Impl1" -> Impl1
    ...>       _       -> Impl2
    ...>     end
    ...>   end
    ...> end
    iex> C.f(0)
    2

  If the target module that you want to delegate to is fixed and no do-end block is needed, you can simply write DelegateBehaviour.compile_time(B, Impl).

• Choosing target implementation at runtime

    iex> defmodule R do
    ...>   require DelegateBehaviour
    ...>   DelegateBehaviour.runtime(B) do
    ...>     # Put code block to choose the target module;
    ...>     # do whatever you like to determine which module you delegate to,
    ...>     # e.g. environment variable, application config, config file, etc.
    ...>     # The code block is evaluated at each invocation of the behaviour functions.
    ...>     case System.get_env("SOME_ENV_VAR") do
    ...>       "Impl1" -> Impl1
    ...>       _       -> Impl2
    ...>     end
    ...>   end
    ...> end
    iex> R.f(0)
    2

All behaviour interface functions are generated as delegations, together with their type specifications.