A repository encapsulates the data access so the consumer on longer has to know about the underlying data structure
Why this Design is Problematic
- The controller is tightly coupled with the data access layer
- it is difficult to write a test for the controller without side effects
- Hard to extend entities with domain specific behavior
Benefits of the Repository Pattern
- The consumer(controller) is now separated (decoupled) from the data access
- Easy to write a test without side-effects
- In production, we use the Repository Pattern to communicate with the Data layer. In Test, we replace the Repository with a faked local Data store. This can be done using Strategy Pattern.
- Modify and extend entities before they are passed on to the consumer
- A sharable abstraction resulting in less duplication of code
- Improved maintainability
