Magento has a modular code structure, which means that it is divided into smaller units called modules. Each module has its own specific functionality and can be enabled or disabled independently of the rest of the system.
The main design pattern used in Magento is the Model-View-Controller (MVC) pattern. This pattern separates the application logic into three interconnected components: the model, which represents the data and business logic; the view, which displays the data to the user; and the controller, which handles the communication between the model and the view.
The Model component in Magento corresponds to data models and business logic. These are classes that represent the data objects in the system, such as products, orders, customers, etc., and provide methods for performing operations on these objects, such as retrieving data, saving data, and validating data. The data models in Magento use an Object-Relational Mapping (ORM) system, which allows them to interact with the database using object-oriented programming concepts.
The View component in Magento corresponds to the templates and layouts used to display the data to the user. Magento uses the concept of layouts and blocks to control the structure and layout of the pages in the store. Layouts define the overall structure of a page, such as the position of the header, footer, and content areas, while blocks are used to display specific pieces of content, such as the product list or the shopping cart.
The Controller component in Magento corresponds to the classes that handle the communication between the models and the views. Controllers are responsible for processing the request, creating the necessary models, and calling the appropriate template files to generate the response. Controllers also handle any actions that need to be performed on the data, such as saving a new product or processing an order.
Magento also uses other design patterns such as
- Factory pattern: This pattern is used to create instances of classes, it’s particularly useful when creating classes with complex or dynamic dependencies.
- Singleton pattern: This pattern is used to ensure that a class only has one instance, it’s commonly used for classes that need to be instantiated multiple times throughout the application.
- Observer pattern: This pattern is used to allow classes to subscribe and listen for events in the system, making it easy to add new functionality without modifying existing code.
- Service layer pattern: This pattern is used to separate business logic from persistence logic, it’s commonly used to provide an interface for accessing data from the database.
Overall, Magento’s code structure and design patterns are designed to be highly modular and extensible, which makes it easy to customize and extend the platform to suit the needs of specific projects.