service

A service defines an interface or API.

A service can be used to describe a programming language interface, REST API, Open API, Serverless functions etc. As a modeller, you purely focus on the API abstractions, not implementation details.

In addition to describing what methods are available on the API, an ALFA service declaration also captures how to create or instantiate the service. In the declaration below, the OrderService can be created by passing in an authToken attribute.

service OrderService( authToken : uuid ) {
    placeOrder( ord : Order ) : try< ConfirmedOrder >
    getOrder( Id : uuid ) : Order
    getOrders() : list< Order >
}

service UserMetrics {
    loginEvents() : stream< LoginEvent >
    purge( category : string ) : future< EventCompletion >
}

Unlike some languages, there are no Exceptions thrown from ALFA service functions. Error or exceptional conditions can be modelled using either< Result, Error > or try<Result>. The benefit is that Error conditions are made part of the result, and encourage them to be handled appropriately.