Object-Oriented Software Engineering

Practical Software Development using UML and Java

Chapter6:
Using Design Patterns

6.1 Introduction to Patterns

Therecurringaspectsofdesignsarecalleddesignpatterns.
Apatternistheoutlineofareusablesolutiontoageneralproblem
encounteredinaparticularcontext
Many of them have been systematically documented for all
softwaredeveloperstouse
Agoodpatternshould
Beasgeneralaspossible
Containasolutionthathasbeenproventoeffectivelysolvethe
problemintheindicatedcontext.
Studyingpatternsisaneffectivewaytolearnfromtheexperienceof
others

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Pattern description
Context:
Thegeneralsituationinwhichthepatternapplies
Problem:
Ashortsentenceortworaisingthemaindifficulty.
Forces:
Theissuesorconcernstoconsiderwhensolvingtheproblem
Solution:
Therecommendedwaytosolvetheprobleminthegivencontext.
tobalancetheforces

Antipatterns:(Optional)
Solutionsthatareinferiorordonotworkinthiscontext.
Relatedpatterns:(Optional)
Patternsthataresimilartothispattern.
References:
Whodevelopedorinspiredthepattern.

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Chapter6:Usingdesignpattern

6.2 The Abstraction-Occurrence Pattern

Context:
Often in a domain model you find a set of related objects
(occurrences).
Themembersofsuchasetsharecommoninformation
butalsodifferfromeachotherinimportantways.

Problem:
Whatisthebestwaytorepresentsuchsetsofoccurrencesina
classdiagram?
Forces:
Youwanttorepresentthemembersofeachsetofoccurrences
withoutduplicatingthecommoninformation

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Abstraction-Occurrence
Solution:

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Abstraction-Occurrence
Antipatterns:

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Abstraction-Occurrence
Squarevariant

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6.3 The General Hierarchy Pattern

Context:
Objects in a hierarchy can have one or more objects above
them(superiors),
andoneormoreobjectsbelowthem(subordinates).

Someobjectscannothaveanysubordinates
Problem:
How do you represent a hierarchy of objects, in which some
objectscannothavesubordinates?
Forces:
Youwantaflexiblewayofrepresentingthehierarchy
thatpreventscertainobjectsfromhavingsubordinates

Alltheobjectshavemanycommonpropertiesandoperations

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General Hierarchy
Solution:

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General Hierarchy
Solution:

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General Hierarchy
Antipattern:

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6.4 The Player-Role Pattern

Context:
A role is a particular set of properties associated
withanobjectinaparticularcontext.
An object may play different roles in different
contexts.
Problem:
How do you best model players and roles so that a
playercanchangerolesorpossessmultipleroles?

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Player-Role
Forces:
Itisdesirabletoimproveencapsulationbycapturingthe
informationassociatedwitheachseparateroleinaclass.
Youwanttoavoidmultipleinheritance.
Youcannotallowaninstancetochangeclass
Solution:

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Player-Role
Example1:

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Player-Role
Example2:

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Player-Role
Antipatterns:
Merge all the properties and behaviours into a single
PlayerclassandnothaveRoleclassesatall.
CreaterolesassubclassesofthePlayerclass.

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6.5 The Singleton Pattern

Context:
Itisverycommontofindclassesforwhichonlyone
instanceshouldexist(singleton)
Problem:
Howdoyouensurethatitisneverpossibletocreate
morethanoneinstanceofasingletonclass?
Forces:
Theuseofapublicconstructorcannotguaranteethat
nomorethanoneinstancewillbecreated.
Thesingletoninstancemustalsobeaccessibletoall
classesthatrequireit
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Singleton
Solution:

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6.6 The Observer Pattern

Context:
Whenanassociationiscreatedbetweentwoclasses,
thecodefortheclassesbecomesinseparable.
Ifyouwanttoreuseoneclass,thenyoualsohaveto
reusetheother.
Problem:
Howdoyoureducetheinterconnectionbetween
classes,especiallybetweenclassesthatbelongto
differentmodulesorsubsystems?
Forces:
Youwanttomaximizetheflexibilityofthesystem
tothegreatestextentpossible
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Observer
Solution:

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Observer
Antipatterns:
Connect an observer directly to an observable so that
theybothhavereferencestoeachother.
Maketheobserverssubclassesoftheobservable.

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6.7 The Delegation Pattern

Context:
Youaredesigningamethodinaclass
Yourealizethatanotherclasshasamethodwhich
providestherequiredservice
Inheritanceisnotappropriate
E.g.becausetheisaruledoesnotapply

Problem:
Howcanyoumosteffectivelymakeuseofamethod
thatalreadyexistsintheotherclass?
Forces:
Youwanttominimizedevelopmentcostbyreusing
methods
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Delegation
Solution:

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Delegation
Example:

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Delegation
Antipatterns
Overusegeneralizationandinheritthemethodthatisto
bereused
InsteadofcreatingasinglemethodintheDelegator
thatdoesnothingotherthancallamethodinthe
Delegate
considerhavingmanydifferentmethodsinthe
Delegatorcallthedelegatesmethod
Accessnonneighboringclasses

returnspecificFlight.regularFlight.flightNumber();
returngetRegularFlight().flightNumber();

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Chapter6:Usingdesignpattern

6.8 The Adapter Pattern

Context:
Youarebuildinganinheritancehierarchyandwantto
incorporateitintoanexistingclass.
Thereusedclassisalsooftenalreadypartofitsowninheritance
hierarchy.
Problem:
How to obtain the power of polymorphism when reusing a
classwhosemethods
havethesamefunction
butnotthesamesignature

astheothermethodsinthehierarchy?
Forces:
You do not have access to multiple inheritance or you do not
wanttouseit.

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Adapter
Solution:

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Adapter
Example:

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6.9 The Faade Pattern

Context:
Often,anapplicationcontainsseveralcomplexpackages.
Aprogrammerworkingwithsuchpackageshastomanipulate
manydifferentclasses
Problem:
Howdoyousimplifytheviewthatprogrammershaveofa
complexpackage?
Forces:
It is hard for a programmer to understand and use an entire
subsystem
If several different application classes call methods of the
complexpackage,thenanymodificationsmadetothepackage
willnecessitateacompletereviewofalltheseclasses.

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Faade
Solution:

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6.10 The Immutable Pattern

Context:
Animmutableobjectisanobjectthathasastatethatnever
changesaftercreation
Problem:
Howdoyoucreateaclasswhoseinstancesareimmutable?
Forces:
Theremustbenoloopholesthatwouldallowillegal
modificationofanimmutableobject
Solution:
Ensure that the constructor of the immutable class is the only
placewherethevaluesofinstancevariablesaresetormodified.
Instance methods which access properties must not have side
effects.
Ifamethodthatwouldotherwisemodifyaninstancevariableis
required,thenithastoreturnanewinstanceoftheclass.

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6.11 The Read-only Interface Pattern

Context:
Yousometimeswantcertainprivilegedclassestobeableto
modifyattributesofobjectsthatareotherwiseimmutable
Problem:
Howdoyoucreateasituationwheresomeclassesseeaclassas
readonlywhereasothersareabletomakemodifications?
Forces:
Restrictingaccessbyusingthepublic,protectedand
privatekeywordsisnotadequatelyselective.
Makingaccesspublicmakesitpublicforbothreadingand
writing

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Read-only Interface
Solution:

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Read-only Interface
Example:

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Read-only Interface
Antipatterns:
MakethereadonlyclassasubclassoftheMutableclass
Overrideallmethodsthatmodifyproperties
suchthattheythrowanexception

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6.12 The Proxy Pattern

Context:
Often,itistimeconsumingandcomplicatedtocreateinstances
ofaclass(heavyweightclasses).
There is a time delay and a complex mechanism involved in
creatingtheobjectinmemory
Problem:
Howtoreducetheneedtocreateinstancesofaheavyweight
class?
Forces:
Wewantalltheobjectsinadomainmodeltobeavailablefor
programstousewhentheyexecuteasystemsvarious
responsibilities.
Itisalsoimportantformanyobjectstopersistfromruntorun
ofthesameprogram

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Proxy
Solution:

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Proxy
Examples:

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6.13 The Factory Pattern

Context:
Areusableframeworkneedstocreateobjecs;howevertheclass
ofthecreatedobjectsdependsontheapplication.
Problem:
Howdoyouenableaprogrammertoaddnewapplication
specificclassintoasystembuiltonsuchaframework?
Forces:
Wewanttohavetheframeworkcreateandworkwith
applicationspecificclassesthattheframeworkdoesnotyet
knowabout.
Solution:
The framework delegates the creation of applicationspecific
classestoaspecializedclass,theFactory.
TheFactoryisagenericinterfacedefinedintheframework.
The factory interface declares a method whose purpose is to
createsomesubclassofagenericclass.

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The Factory Pattern

Solution

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The Factory Pattern

Example

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6.14 Detailed Example: enhancing OCSF

with some design patterns

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The Observable layer of OCSF (continued)

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Using the observable layer

1.CreateaclassthatimplementstheObserverinterface.
2.RegisteritasanobserveroftheObservable:
public MessageHandler(Observable client)
{
client.addObserver(this);
...
}

3.Definetheupdate methodinthenewclass:
public void update(Observable obs, Object message)
{
if (message instanceOf SomeClass)
{
// process the message
}
}

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6.15 Difficulties and Risks When Creating

Class Diagrams
Patternsarenotapanacea:
Wheneveryouseeanindicationthatapatternshould
beapplied,youmightbetemptedtoblindlyapplythe
pattern.
Thiscanleadtounwisedesigndecisions.
Resolution:
Alwaysunderstandindepththeforcesthatneedto
bebalanced,andwhenotherpatternsbetterbalance
theforces.
Makesureyoujustifyeachdesigndecisioncarefully.

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Difficulties and Risks When Creating Class

Diagrams
Developingpatternsishard
Writingagoodpatterntakesconsiderablework.
Apoorpatterncanbehardtoapplycorrectly
Resolution:
Donotwritepatternsforotherstouseuntilyou
haveconsiderableexperiencebothinsoftware
designandintheuseofpatterns.
Takeanindepthcourseonpatterns.
Iterativelyrefineyourpatterns,andhavethempeer
reviewedateachiteration.

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Chapter6:Usingdesignpattern