Sending an e-mail or SMS using CQRS and domain-driven-design

Question

At this moment we are building a new architecture that is based on the principles of CQRS and domain-driven-design. We are now having some discussions about how we should deal with external communication. To make the question more concrete I use the example of sending a SMS notification when a customer creates a order.

The client creates a NewOrderCommand that is handled by the associated command handler. The handler creates a new Order object in the domain model, that generates a NewcustomerCreatedEvent. The object is saved in the event store and the event is published to all the listeners.

So far so good but now the question. Where should we sent out the SMS notification?

Our first instinct told us we should send it out by using a event listener that listens for the NewCustomerCreatedEvent and sends out the message. The problem with this approach is that the sending of the SMS is also part of our business logic. We are selling hosted services so our clients should be able to see all the SMS messages that are sent on their behalf. Because the sending of the message takes place outside of the domain we are not able to do that.

So we created an SMS domain and now when the event listener receives the NewCustomerCreatedEvent the event handler creates a new command SendSmsMessageCommand that will create a new SMSMessage object in our domain, sends out the SMS notification and creates a SmsSent event that we use to create the view.

At first we were sending the SMS message in the domain model, but we realized that this could give some problems. Let's say that after sending the SMS something happens (an exception is thrown) and the transaction is rolled back. Our domain supports this completely so data wise we are ok, but the SMS message is already sent, so when the command is resent the SMS notification will be sent again.

We were thinking about sending out the SMS on the SmSSent event but that would be a little bit strange, because the event says the message is already sent but is isn't.

The example above brings us to the question how to deal with external communication in the CQRS and domain-driven-design concept? We are not only talking about sending an SMS notification but also about sending an invoice to and external billing system and all other sort of communication to the outside world. Should we do this in the domain because it business logic or should we always do that based on events in our event handlers? And if we do so, is it acceptable to use events that say that the message is sent when it's not actually done yet?

Hope you guys have already dealt with this situation and can give us some advice on this subject.

Answer 1

I would think a domain object for the SMS message is not necessary. You just need to report the SMS's sent to the customer, correct? The SMS messages are not used in any domain logic, correct?

So I would have the handler send an SMS and then publish another event that says an SMS was sent and have an event handler listen for the SMS sent message and materialize that info in a read model so that the customer can view them.