DDD: can a Repository return entities inside an aggregate?

Question

I have a City aggregate, having a list of PointOfInterest entities. This latter entity lies logically inside the City aggregate for reasons that won't be explained here. No entity holds a link to PointOfInterest, apart from the aggregate root, City.

However, we have a web page for PointOfInterest, browsable from the City page, that (mainly for SEO reasons) only has the PointOfInterest id in its URL.

Thus, from the controller, it would be handy to query the CityRepository for a PointOfInterest directly, such as CityRepository.findPointOfInterestById().

The other option would be to query CityRepository.findCityByPointOfInterestId(), then City.findPointOfInterestById(), which looks a bit cumbersome in this case.

Is there anything wrong with the first approach?

Answer 1

Since PointOfInterest is part of the City aggregate, you have to accept that all references to PointOfInterests must be obtained by traversal of a City. It doesn't seem appropriate for CityRepository to expose GetPoI() methods because it would allow an outside object to get a direct reference to a PoI, defeating the whole purpose of an aggregate. Besides, it doesn't really seem like a natural responsibility of a CityRepository to deal with PoIs.

As Wouter points out, your feeling the need to do convoluted things like this might be a sign that the current design is not quite appropriate. If PointOfInterest turns out to be one of the major entities in your application and if the user can access it right from the start of his navigation without necessarily going through a City first, why not consider giving PoI its own aggregate ? As for the PoI / PoIType relationship, it seems more logical for a PoI to have a PoIType than the other way around.