Backend System Naming Patterns
These are the naming patterns to adhere to within the backend system. They help us keep exports consistent across packages and make it easier to understand the usage and intent of exports.
As a rule, all names should be camel case, with the exceptions of plugin and module IDs, which should be kebab case.
Plugins
| Description | Pattern | Examples |
|---|---|---|
| export | <camelId>Plugin | catalogPlugin, userSettingsPlugin |
| ID | '<kebab-id>' | 'catalog', 'user-settings' |
Example:
export const userSettingsPlugin = createBackendPlugin({
pluginId: 'user-settings',
...
})
Modules
| Description | Pattern | Examples |
|---|---|---|
| export | <pluginId>Module<ModuleId> | catalogModuleGithubEntityProvider |
| ID | '<module-id>' | 'github-entity-provider' |
Example:
export const catalogModuleGithubEntityProvider = createBackendModule({
pluginId: 'catalog',
moduleId: 'github-entity-provider',
...
})
Extensions
| Description | Pattern | Examples |
|---|---|---|
| Interface | <PluginId><Name>ExtensionPoint | CatalogProcessingExtensionPoint |
| Reference | <pluginId><Name>ExtensionPoint | catalogProcessingExtensionPoint |
| ID | '<pluginId>.<name>' | 'catalog.processing', 'foo.barBaz' |
Example:
export interface CatalogProcessingExtensionPoint {
...
}
export const catalogProcessingExtensionPoint = createExtensionPoint<CatalogProcessingExtensionPoint>({
id: 'catalog.processing',
...
})
Services
| Description | Pattern | Examples |
|---|---|---|
| Interface | <Name>Service | LoggerService, DatabaseService |
| Reference | <name>ServiceRef | loggerServiceRef, databaseServiceRef |
| ID | <pluginId>.<name> | 'core.rootHttpRouter', 'catalog.catalogClient' |
| Factory | <name>ServiceFactory | loggerServiceFactory, databaseServiceFactory |
Example:
export interface CatalogClientService {
...
}
export const catalogClientServiceRef = createServiceRef<CatalogClientService>({
id: 'catalog.catalogClient',
...
})
export const catalogClientServiceFactory = createServiceFactory({
service: catalogClientServiceRef,
...
})
An exception to the above service reference naming pattern has been made for all of the core services in the core API. The @backstage/backend-plugin-api makes all core service references available via a single coreServices collection. Likewise, the @backstage/backend-test-utils exports all mock service implementations via a single mockServices collection. This means that the table above is slightly misleading, since loggerServiceRef and databaseServiceRef are instead available as coreServices.logger and coreService.database. We recommend that plugins avoid this patterns unless they have a very large number of services that they need to export.
While it is often preferred to prefix root scoped services with Root, it is not required. For example, RootHttpRouterService and RootLifecycleService follow this pattern, but ConfigService doesn't and it is a root scoped service.