Microservice Architecture

Microservice Architecture Glossary

A work-in-progress definition of terms that are not expressed as patterns.

API

A service’s reason for existing. It consists of:

• Zero or more operations
• Zero or more published domain events

Command

A command is an operation that mutates data.

Operation

An endpoint that is invokable by a service’s client. There are two types of operations: commands and queries An operation can be invoked synchronously or asynchronously.

Pattern

A pattern is a “reusable solution to a problem that occurs in particular context”. Read more

Query

A query is an operation that retrieves data.

Service

Each service is an element of the Microservice Architecture that is:

• Highly maintainable and testable
• Loosely coupled with other services
• Independently deployable - it an independently deployable/executable component, such as a WAR file, executable JAR, EAR file, OSGI Bundle, or operating System executable
• Owned by a small, cross-functional team

A service has an API.

Learn more