Wrapping a Third-Party Dependency
While high-fidelity fakes can save a lot of trouble, they can still leave your logic coupled to a third-party API. This coupling has a few downsides:
- Your code will be exposed to the complexities of a (potentially) large API.
- Changes to the dependency’s interface will ripple throughout your system.
- Testing is difficult, since you can’t easily and safely replace the third-party code with a double.
To avoid these pitfalls, you can wrap the dependency—that is, write your own layer that delegates to it internally. Using a wrapper (also known as a gateway or adapter when you’re wrapping an API) gives you a couple of key advantages:
- You can create a small, simple interface tailored exactly to your needs.
- You can safely ...
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