Last Friday, I received a message from a dear friend and colleague, Pedro Hernandez. He asked me if I had the latest compiled version of the XPO import framework we created in our office. As it turned out, I did not have it readily available and had to search extensively for it.

While conducting this search across my computers, repositories, and virtual machines, I was inspired to create another import framework — yes, another piece of code to maintain.

Most of the time, my research projects begin in the same manner, typically after a conversation with my close friend Jose Javier Columbie. As always, he would say something like this: “Jose, do you think this can be possible? Why don’t you give it a try? If we succeed, that will be el batazo (like hitting a home run).”

In this specific case, that conversation didn’t happen. However, I could hear his words echoing in my mind.

Furthermore, I want this project to be community-driven, not just a technical experiment I have to maintain alone. I truly believe in the power of a community.

First Step

So, let’s begin. I’ll start with my favorite part: naming the project. I spent all weekend pondering this, attempting to condense the concept and associate it with a literary term or a Latin word (these are my preferred methods for naming a project).

Let’s define what the ultimate goal is. In an import process, the aim is to take information from a source ‘A’, translate or transform the information, and then store it in a target ‘B’.

Growing up, I was an avid reader – and I mean, I read a lot. (Now, I’ve switched to audiobooks.) Therefore, after defining what this project is about, naming it became incredibly easy.

noun

noun: alchemy

  1. the medieval forerunner of chemistry, concerned with the transmutation of matter, in particular with attempts to convert base metals into gold or find a universal elixir.

“occult sciences, such as alchemy and astrology”

Origin

late Middle English: via Old French and medieval Latin from Arabic al-kīmiyā’, from al ‘the’ + kīmiyā’ (from Greek khēmiakhēmeia ‘art of transmuting metals’).

The alchemy Framework

Alchemy is a framework created for DotNet, designed to import data from a data source to a data target. These sources and targets can be anything from a text file, CSV file, a database, ORMs, and so on.

The framework consists of a set of contracts, interfaces, and base classes. When implemented, these allow you to import and transform data between various sources and targets.

The requirement in a few words

As stated in the framework’s description, the requirement is only to define the contracts that represent the sources and targets, as well as a job configuration that describes how the information flows from one source to a target. The concrete implementations are not important at this point and should be discussed individually for each case.

The design patterns.

For this project, we will use the SOLID design principles and dependency injection. This will enable us to easily replace small functionalities, allowing us to mix and match different implementations depending on the data source and data target.