Service Design Specification - Object Design for category
clonesahibinden-categorylocation-service documentation
Document Overview
This document outlines the object design for the
category model in our application. It includes details
about the model’s attributes, relationships, and any specific
validation or business logic that applies.
category Data Object
Object Overview
Description: Represents a listing category; supports up to three levels of nesting for hierarchical browsing and filtering. Self-referencing parent-child relationship. Slug is unique for public URL routing. Sort order is unique within parent for ordered display.
This object represents a core data structure within the service and
acts as the blueprint for database interaction, API generation, and
business logic enforcement. It is defined using the
ObjectSettings pattern, which governs its behavior,
access control, caching strategy, and integration points with other
systems such as Stripe and Redis.
Core Configuration
-
Soft Delete: Enabled — Determines whether records
are marked inactive (
isActive = false) instead of being physically deleted. - Public Access: accessPublic — If enabled, anonymous users may access this object’s data depending on API-level rules.
Redis Entity Caching
This data object is configured for Redis entity caching, which improves data retrieval performance by storing frequently accessed data in Redis. Each time a new instance is created, updated or deleted, the cache is updated accordingly. Any get requests by id will first check the cache before querying the database. If you want to use the cache by other select criteria, you can configure any data property as a Redis cluster.
-
Smart Caching is activated: A data object instance will only be cached when it is accessed for the first time. TTL (time-to-live) is dynamically calculated based on access frequency, which is useful for large datasets with volatile usage patterns. Each data instance has 15 minutes of TTL and in each access, the TTL is extended by 15 minutes. If the data is not accessed for 15 minutes, it will be removed from the cache.
-
Cache Criteria:
{isActive:true}
This object is only cached if this criteria is met.
The criteria is checked during all operations, including read
operations. If your criteria is all about the data properties, you can
use the checkCriteriaOnlyInCreateAndUpdates option to
improve performance.
Composite Indexes
- slugUniqueIndex: [slug] This composite index is defined to optimize query performance for complex queries involving multiple fields.
The index also defines a conflict resolution strategy for duplicate key violations.
When a new record would violate this composite index, the following action will be taken:
On Duplicate: throwError
An error will be thrown, preventing the insertion of conflicting data.
- parentSortOrderUnique: [parentCategoryId, sortOrder] This composite index is defined to optimize query performance for complex queries involving multiple fields.
The index also defines a conflict resolution strategy for duplicate key violations.
When a new record would violate this composite index, the following action will be taken:
On Duplicate: throwError
An error will be thrown, preventing the insertion of conflicting data.
Properties Schema
| Property | Type | Required | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
description |
Text | No | Optional extended description for category (for admin display or frontend info). |
icon |
String | No | Icon identifier (string or URL to a static asset) for this category. |
name |
String | Yes | Category name, e.g. 'Automobiles', 'Electronics'. |
parentCategoryId |
ID | No | References parent category for hierarchy. Top-level (root) categories have null. |
slug |
String | Yes | SEO-friendly unique slug for URL and search. Lowercase, hyphens only. |
sortOrder |
Integer | Yes | Order for listing within siblings. Unique per parent. |
- Required properties are mandatory for creating objects and must be provided in the request body if no default value is set.
Default Values
Default values are automatically assigned to properties when a new object is created, if no value is provided in the request body. Since default values are applied on db level, they should be literal values, not expressions.If you want to use expressions, you can use transposed parameters in any business API to set default values dynamically.
- name: ‘default’
- slug: ‘default’
- sortOrder: 0
Auto Update Properties
description icon name
parentCategoryId slug sortOrder
An update crud API created with the option
Auto Params enabled will automatically update these
properties with the provided values in the request body. If you want
to update any property in your own business logic not by user input,
you can set the Allow Auto Update option to false. These
properties will be added to the update API’s body parameters and can
be updated by the user if any value is provided in the request body.
Elastic Search Indexing
description icon name
parentCategoryId slug sortOrder
Properties that are indexed in Elastic Search will be searchable via the Elastic Search API. While all properties are stored in the elastic search index of the data object, only those marked for Elastic Search indexing will be available for search queries.
Database Indexing
name parentCategoryId slug
sortOrder
Properties that are indexed in the database will be optimized for query performance, allowing for faster data retrieval. Make a property indexed in the database if you want to use it frequently in query filters or sorting.
Unique Properties
slug
Unique properties are enforced to have distinct values across all
instances of the data object, preventing duplicate entries. Note that
a unique property is automatically indexed in the database so you will
not need to set the Indexed in DB option.
Cache Select Properties
parentCategoryId slug
Cache select properties are used to collect data from Redis entity cache with a different key than the data object id. This allows you to cache data that is not directly related to the data object id, but a frequently used filter.
Secondary Key Properties
slug
Secondary key properties are used to create an additional indexed identifiers for the data object, allowing for alternative access patterns. Different than normal indexed properties, secondary keys will act as primary keys and Mindbricks will provide automatic secondary key db utility functions to access the data object by the secondary key.
Relation Properties
parentCategoryId
Mindbricks supports relations between data objects, allowing you to define how objects are linked together. You can define relations in the data object properties, which will be used to create foreign key constraints in the database. For complex joins operations, Mindbricks supportsa BFF pattern, where you can view dynamic and static views based on Elastic Search Indexes. Use db level relations for simple one-to-one or one-to-many relationships, and use BFF views for complex joins that require multiple data objects to be joined together.
-
parentCategoryId: ID Relation to
category.id
The target object is a parent object, meaning that the relation is a one-to-many relationship from target to this object.
On Delete: Set Null Required: No
Filter Properties
name parentCategoryId slug
Filter properties are used to define parameters that can be used in query filters, allowing for dynamic data retrieval based on user input or predefined criteria. These properties are automatically mapped as API parameters in the listing API’s that have “Auto Params” enabled.
-
name: String has a filter named
name -
parentCategoryId: ID has a filter named
parentCategoryId -
slug: String has a filter named
slug