Pattern-Oriented Software Architecture: A Pattern Language for Distributed Computing, 4th Volume

Chapter 7. Warehouse Topology

Topology provides the synergetic means of ascertaining the values of any system of experiences. Topology is the science of fundamental pattern and structural relationships of event constellations.

Buckminster Fuller

The second chapter in our pattern story is about a specific domain object in the warehouse management process control system: the warehouse topology. We describe its internal design for the representation and access of physical warehouse storage, the extension and adaptation of this storage structure to warehouse-specific needs, and the integration of the warehouse topology design with the system's baseline architecture.

Warehouse Topology Baseline

Within a warehouse management process control system, the main responsibility of the warehouse topology Domain Object (208) is to provide a representation of the physical warehouse structures to other domain objects, mainly to the warehouse management and material flow control. The system's baseline architecture defines the fundamental structure for the warehouse topology domain object: its partitioning into an Explicit Interface (281) and an Encapsulated Implementation (313), a Half-Object plus Protocol (324) distribution architecture, and an Active Object (365) concurrency model.

Representing Hierarchical Storage

When specifying the encapsulated implementation for the warehouse topology domain object, ...