Domain Modeling and Maintainability
A good domain model captures meaningful business invariants. Value objects are useful when a concept has identity-independent rules such as money, email addresses, coordinates, or date ranges.
public final class Money {
private final BigDecimal amount;
private final Currency currency;
public Money(BigDecimal amount, Currency currency) {
this.amount = amount;
this.currency = currency;
}
}
Avoid both extremes: scattering business rules everywhere and turning every simple CRUD operation into an elaborate framework.
Key Takeaways
- Put important invariants near the model that owns them.
- Value objects capture concepts and their rules.
- Architecture should reflect real business complexity rather than ceremony.