FlowMart Service-Level Architecture

This document provides a detailed view of the individual services within FlowMart’s e-commerce platform, their responsibilities, and how they interact.

Service Architecture Overview

The following diagram illustrates the services that make up our platform and how they communicate:

Service Component Details

API Gateway

• Description: Entry point for all client requests, handles routing, authentication, and load balancing
• Technologies: AWS API Gateway, Kong, or Nginx
• Key Responsibilities:
  • Route requests to appropriate services
  • Handle authentication and authorization
  • API rate limiting and throttling
  • Request validation
  • Response caching

Orders Service

• Description: Manages the entire lifecycle of customer orders
• Technologies: Node.js, Express, MongoDB
• Key Responsibilities:
  • Create and manage orders
  • Process order amendments and cancellations
  • Coordinate with other services for order fulfillment
  • Maintain order history and status
• Key Events:
  • Publishes: OrderConfirmed, OrderCancelled, OrderAmended
  • Consumes: InventoryAdjusted, PaymentProcessed, UserSubscriptionCancelled

Inventory Service

• Description: Tracks and manages product inventory across warehouses
• Technologies: Java, Spring Boot, PostgreSQL
• Key Responsibilities:
  • Maintain accurate inventory levels
  • Process inventory adjustments
  • Monitor stock levels and trigger alerts
  • Support inventory queries
• Key Events:
  • Publishes: InventoryAdjusted, OutOfStock
  • Consumes: OrderConfirmed, OrderCancelled, OrderAmended

Payment Service

• Description: Handles all payment processing and financial transactions
• Technologies: Node.js, Express, PostgreSQL
• Key Responsibilities:
  • Process customer payments
  • Manage refunds and chargebacks
  • Integrate with payment gateways
  • Track payment status
• Key Events:
  • Publishes: PaymentProcessed
  • Consumes: PaymentInitiated, UserSubscriptionStarted, InventoryAdjusted

Shipping Service

• Description: Manages logistics and shipment of orders
• Technologies: Python, Flask, MongoDB
• Key Responsibilities:
  • Create and track shipments
  • Integrate with logistics providers
  • Process returns and exchanges
  • Calculate shipping costs
• Key Events:
  • Publishes: ShipmentCreated, ShipmentDispatched, ShipmentInTransit, ShipmentDelivered, DeliveryFailed, ReturnInitiated
  • Consumes: OrderConfirmed, PaymentProcessed

Notification Service

• Description: Delivers notifications to customers through various channels
• Technologies: Node.js, Express, Redis
• Key Responsibilities:
  • Send transactional emails
  • Deliver SMS notifications
  • Push mobile app notifications
  • Store notification history
• Key Events:
  • Consumes: InventoryAdjusted, OutOfStock, PaymentProcessed

Subscription Service

• Description: Manages recurring subscriptions and memberships
• Technologies: Java, Spring Boot, MySQL
• Key Responsibilities:
  • Handle subscription lifecycle
  • Process recurring billing
  • Manage subscription plans and tiers
  • Track subscription status
• Key Events:
  • Publishes: UserSubscriptionStarted, UserSubscriptionCancelled
  • Consumes: PaymentProcessed

Event Bus / Message Broker

• Description: Central messaging system that enables asynchronous communication between services
• Technologies: Apache Kafka, RabbitMQ, or AWS SNS/SQS
• Key Responsibilities:
  • Reliable event delivery
  • Support for event persistence
  • Message routing
  • Scalable message throughput

Service Interaction Patterns

Synchronous Communication

Services communicate directly with each other through REST APIs for operations that require immediate responses.

Asynchronous Communication

Services communicate through events published to the event bus, allowing for loose coupling.

Infrastructure Considerations

• All services are containerized using Docker and orchestrated with Kubernetes
• Services are deployed across multiple availability zones for high availability
• Auto-scaling is configured based on CPU and memory metrics
• Database replication and backups are implemented for data durability
• Centralized logging and monitoring using Prometheus and Grafana

Next Steps

For more information about data flows within the system, refer to:

• Data Flow Architecture