API

OpenMRS is intentionally built with multiple layers in mind. One of the layers is a java API that can be used in other projects just as easily as it can be inside of OpenMRS.

(TODO: Link to javadocs)
(TODO: overview of openmrs database access via objects)

Context Singleton

Services are accessed in a static way from the org.openmrs.api.context.Context object:

UserService userService = Context.getUserService();
User bobObject = userService.findUser("bob");

The Context object has two primarily goals. Access to the OpenMRS services and access to the currently logged in user.

Programming to Interfaces

All of our services are interfaces. The default implementation of these services are named *ServiceImpl.java. The implementations can be found in the impl directory of the package.

In order to create a new implementation of a service (for whatever unknown reason that would be in the future), we would only need to change the file specified in Spring's /metadata/api/spring/application-context.xml file.

Authentication and Authorization

Users are authenticated against the Context in a static way.

Context.authenticate("bob", "password");

The current user's information is stored on the current thread. For the webapp, we have a special problem. Every request to the server is potentially on a new thread. Our custom filter wraps every request. It stores the user's UserContext on the user's session. Before each request the userContext is taken off the session and placed on the thread. After the entire request is complete, the userContext is removed from the thread (and placed back on the session).

Authorization is done through annotations on the interface:

@Transactional
public interface UserService
...
@Authorized({"View Users"})
void List<User> getUsers(Integer userId);
...

Sessions and Transactions

Spring manages our transactions.

All calls within a session are considered to be on one transaction. If an error is encountered all calls are rolled back and an error is returned.

Within the webapp, a session is determined by Spring's OpenSessionInViewFilter. Every request is wrapped with an open session and close session. This is identical to how we were operating under the old api. The only difference now is that that session is now one single transaction.

Outside the webapp, a session should be wrapped with calls to Context.openSession() and Context.closeSession().

To wrap a service within a transaction we use annotations on the interface:

@Transactional
public Interface BensNewService {
 ...

and/or

...
@Transactional(readOnly=true)
public List<BensObject> getBensObjects();
...