Chapter 9
Watching Videos

We’ve accomplished quite a bit. We’ve built some basic web application features in a short time. We used Plug to build pipelines of functions that let us build organized, DRY code. We used Ecto to deal with our relational database in a functional way, favoring explicitness over hidden behaviors. We also organized our code into contexts to provide the domain API for other layers of our application to use. Phoenix wired it all together into a streamlined workflow, with live reloading, HTML support, and more.

Everything we’ve done so far highlights how well Phoenix encourages beautiful and maintainable applications. Those improvements bring a slightly different look to traditional web development, but nothing you’ve seen up to now is drastically different from what you already knew.

Now you’re ready to see what makes Phoenix shine. This chapter starts with preparing some common ground by adding a page to watch videos. Then you’ll look into Ecto custom types, which allow you to integrate your own requirements into queries, changesets, and structs. Along the way, we’ll continue to expand our business logic within the Multimedia context, adding new application features one at a time. At the close of this chapter you’ll customize URLs by tapping into the extensible power behind Elixir’s protocols.

Tighten your seat belts. This ride will be unforgettable.