ferne/ARCHITECTURE.md

Architecture

This document describes the high-level architecture of Ferne, along with some specifics related to how we use Elixir and Phoenix conventions.

Bird's Eye View

Ferne is a standard Phoenix application that uses a PostgreSQL database as a data store. It's deployed to Fly using a Dockerfile. Some dynamic parts of the frontend are implemented using Phoenix LiveView, some more complex ones use Preact.

Conventions

Elixir

Elixir is linted with mix format and credo.

Phoenix

(Note: Some of this stuff is in the process of being refactored.)

We don't use context modules. Most of the model-related business logic that has to do with data CRUD actions is located in the model module. Specifically, the following:

• Schema
• Changesets
• Query blocks (e.g. functionname(query \\ __MODULE__) :: query)
• Other CRUD actions (inserts, updates, deletes, etc)

Functions should be in that order. Changeset functions end with _changeset, query functions either are the schema field itself or something like by_{attribute}, and CRUD functions are get_{whatever}, insert_{whatever}, and so on.

Model modules inherit from a shared Schema module that provides some common functionality (sorting, pagination and so forth).

JS

We use esbuild for building. Preact is used, as stated before, with hooks and functional components. Linting is done via Prettier.