Business Logic Patterns

Implement business logic with ActiveInteraction and AASM state machines - the structured alternatives to service objects.

When to Use This Skill

• Creating business operations with typed inputs
• Implementing state machines for workflows
• Refactoring service objects to interactions
• Managing complex state transitions
• Composing business operations

Core Principle: Interactions Over Service Objects

Use ActiveInteraction instead of service objects.

Service Objects	ActiveInteraction
No standard interface	Consistent .run / .run!
Manual type checking	Built-in type declarations
Manual validation	Standard Rails validations
Hard to compose	Native composition
Verbose boilerplate	Clean, self-documenting

Setup

# Gemfile
gem "active_interaction", "~> 5.3"
gem "aasm", "~> 5.5"

ActiveInteraction Basics

Simple Interaction

# app/interactions/users/create.rb
module Users
  class Create < ActiveInteraction::Base
    # Typed inputs
    string :email
    string :name
    string :password, default: nil

    # Validations
    validates :email, presence: true, format: { with: URI::MailTo::EMAIL_REGEXP }
    validates :name, presence: true

    # Main logic
    def execute
      user = User.create!(
        email: email,
        name: name,
        password: password || SecureRandom.alphanumeric(32)
      )

      UserMailer.welcome(user).deliver_later
      user  # Return value becomes outcome.result
    end
  end
end

Running Interactions

# In controller
def create
  outcome = Users::Create.run(
    email: params[:email],
    name: params[:name]
  )

  if outcome.valid?
    redirect_to outcome.result, notice: "User created"
  else
    @errors = outcome.errors
    render :new, status: :unprocessable_entity
  end
end

# With bang method (raises on error)
user = Users::Create.run!(email: "user@example.com", name: "John")

Input Types

class MyInteraction < ActiveInteraction::Base
  # Primitives
  string :name
  integer :age
  float :price
  boolean :active
  symbol :status

  # Date/Time
  date :birthday
  time :created_at
  date_time :scheduled_at

  # Complex types
  array :tags
  hash :metadata

  # Model instances
  object :user, class: User

  # Typed arrays
  array :emails, default: [] do
    string
  end

  # Optional with default
  string :optional_field, default: nil
  integer :count, default: 0
end

Composing Interactions

module Users
  class Register < ActiveInteraction::Base
    string :email, :name, :password

    def execute
      # Compose calls another interaction
      user = compose(Users::Create,
        email: email,
        name: name,
        password: password
      )

      # Errors automatically merged if nested fails
      compose(Users::SendWelcomeEmail, user: user)
      user
    end
  end
end

State Machines (AASM)

Basic State Machine

class Order < ApplicationRecord
  include AASM

  aasm column: :status do
    state :pending, initial: true
    state :paid
    state :processing
    state :shipped
    state :cancelled

    event :pay do
      transitions from: :pending, to: :paid

      after do
        OrderMailer.payment_received(self).deliver_later
      end
    end

    event :process do
      transitions from: :paid, to: :processing
    end

    event :ship do
      transitions from: :processing, to: :shipped
    end

    event :cancel do
      transitions from: [:pending, :paid], to: :cancelled

      before do
        refund_payment if paid?
      end
    end
  end
end

Usage

order = Order.create!
order.pending?      # => true
order.may_pay?      # => true
order.pay!          # Transition + callbacks
order.paid?         # => true

order.may_ship?     # => false (must process first)
order.aasm.events   # => [:process, :cancel]

# Scopes created automatically
Order.pending
Order.paid.where(user: current_user)

Guards

event :pay do
  transitions from: :pending, to: :paid, guard: :payment_valid?
end

def payment_valid?
  payment_method.present? && total > 0
end

# Usage
order.pay!  # Raises AASM::InvalidTransition if guard fails
order.pay   # Returns false (no exception)

Controller Pattern

class ArticlesController < ApplicationController
  def create
    outcome = Articles::Create.run(
      title: params[:article][:title],
      body: params[:article][:body],
      author: current_user
    )

    if outcome.valid?
      redirect_to article_path(outcome.result), notice: "Article created"
    else
      @article = Article.new(article_params)
      @article.errors.merge!(outcome.errors)
      render :new, status: :unprocessable_entity
    end
  end
end

Testing

Testing Interactions

RSpec.describe Users::Create do
  let(:valid_params) { { email: "user@example.com", name: "John" } }

  it "creates user with valid inputs" do
    expect { described_class.run(valid_params) }
      .to change(User, :count).by(1)
  end

  it "returns valid outcome" do
    outcome = described_class.run(valid_params)
    expect(outcome).to be_valid
    expect(outcome.result).to be_a(User)
  end

  it "validates email format" do
    outcome = described_class.run(valid_params.merge(email: "invalid"))
    expect(outcome).not_to be_valid
    expect(outcome.errors[:email]).to be_present
  end
end

Testing State Machines

RSpec.describe Order do
  let(:order) { create(:order) }

  it "starts in pending state" do
    expect(order).to be_pending
  end

  describe "pay event" do
    it "transitions to paid" do
      expect { order.pay! }
        .to change(order, :status).from("pending").to("paid")
    end
  end

  describe "ship event" do
    context "when pending" do
      it "raises error" do
        expect { order.ship! }.to raise_error(AASM::InvalidTransition)
      end
    end
  end
end

Detailed References

For advanced patterns:

• references/active-interaction.md - Composition, error handling, custom types
• references/aasm-patterns.md - Callbacks, multiple state machines, persistence

Related Skills

• event-sourcing-coder - For recording domain events and dispatching to inbox handlers. Use when AASM state transitions should trigger notifications, webhooks, or audit trails.