Architecture

The most important thing this image should make clear is that Aimeos needs a host application where it can be integrated. Contrary to other e-commerce systems, Aimeos is first of all no stand-alone software. Instead, it can be used with any PHP framework or existing application where it can be integrated as native package.

Aimeos layer model

For details about the structure of the Aimeos database, please have a look at the SVG file of the ERM diagram for the Aimeos database layout.

Administration endpoints#

These are the endpoints editors and developers will interact with over HTTP.

JQAdm interface#

Standard Aimeos admin interface for managing all data that is required or generated in Aimeos.

Code: ai-admin-jqadm extension

JsonAdm API#

JSON REST API for retrieving and managing add shop data from remote or from the JQAdm interface.

Code: ai-admin-jsonadm extension

GraphQL API#

GraphQL API for retrieving and managing add shop data from remote or from the JQAdm interface.

Code: ai-admin-graphql extension

Client endpoints#

These are the endpoints customers and developers will interact with over HTTP.

HTML client#

Standard HTML frontend including product and account views, checkout process and creating e-mails.

Code: ai-client-html extension

JsonApi client#

Full featured JSON REST API for creating custom frontends or enhancing the HTML client by dynamic features.

Code: ai-client-jsonapi extension

Controllers#

These aren't MVC controllers but business logic controllers instead. That means, they know what is to do if a product should be put into the basket for example.

Frontend controllers#

Business logic for everything the different client implementions need. They offer an easy to use interface to retrieve categories, products, services, etc. and manage the basket resp. create the order if requested.

Code: ai-controller-frontend extension

The domain controllers are:

attribute : Search an retrieve available (product) attributes
basket : Manage one or more baskets
catalog : Retrieve catalog tree or tree parts
customer : Get and save own data of each customer
locale : Fetch available language/currency combinations
order : Create order and retrieve existing ones for each customer
product : Search and filter products
review : Add and fetch customer reviews
service : For getting delivery and payment options
site : Retrive sites or tree of sites
stock : Retrieve the current stock levels for the products
subscription : Manage recurring product subscriptions
supplier : Retrieve and filter available suppliers

Job controllers#

All task that need to be executed in an asynchronically because they should be decoupled from the fontend for speed or error resilience.

Code: ai-controller-jobs extension

Jobs care about:

Administrative cleanup tasks
Data import and export
Product index management
Mass media scaling
Updating order status from exernal sources
Subscription handling
Sending e-mails

Data access#

The second layer offers access to the data stored in relational database systems, NoSQL databases or provided by external (HTTP) APIs. It doesn't matter where the data is stored, the data access layer provides the same PHP API and semantics to the layers above regardless of the source. The implementation is located in the Aimeos core or in extensions.

Aimeos is build on the principles of the domain driven design (DDD) and each data domain is self-contained. Within the access layer, separate domains care about specific data, e.g. the product domain manages only the product data while the order domain only cares about order data. There are currently 16 domains available that can be replaced by own implementations for different data sources.

Code: Aimeos core

Admin related domains:

cache : Key/value cache for storing e.g. HTML blocks
job : Job queue
log : Access to log data

Shop domains:

attribute : Attributes that can be attached to products, services, media, etc.
catalog : Categories and product references
coupon : Coupon configuration and code for rebate systems
customer : Access to customer related data
index : Product index for fast searching and filtering
locale : Site, language and currency related data
media : Images, documents and files referenced by other domains
order : Complete order related data
plugin : Basket plugin setup and configuration
price : Prices referenced by other domains
product : Base product data
review : Product reviews
rule : Dynamic price rules
service : Delivery and payment provider implementations
stock : Product stock levels
subscription : Recurring subscriptions
supplier : Product supplier related data
tag : Tags for all items with a list table
text : All kind of texts referenced by other domains

Due to the strict separation it's possible to store each data in a separate domain database.

Adapters#

The bottom layer in the Aimeos stack contains the adapters to integrate the e-commerce components into the host application or to provide common interfaces for implementations. They exist in the "Aimeos\Base" namespace located in the Aimeos base or in extensions if they offer specific integrations.

Code: Aimeos base

Adapters for integration into the host application:

Cache : Use the caching infrastructure
Config : Configure Aimeos using the application
Logger : Logging messages to a shared facility
Mail : Sending e-mails if available
Password : Password handling adapter
Session : Shared user sessions
View : Template engine

Interfaces where often no host implementation exists or it's not reasonable:

DB : Database abstraction layer (DBAL and PDO available)
Criteria : Query builder for searching and filtering
Filesystem : Local and cloud based file access (FlySystem extension available)
MQueue : Offload resource intensive tasks (extension for RabbitMQ, Beanstask and Stomp available)
Process : Parallel processing of tasks
Translation : Translation handling (Gettext extension available)