Design Patterns Part IV

(TIC++V2:C10)

Yingcai Xiao 10/01/08

Design Patterns (What?)

The original paper by the gang of four http://www.cse.msu.edu/~cse870/Materials/Patter ns/Docs/orig-patterns-paper.pdf Design Patterns are devices that allow designers to share knowledge about their design. Design patterns identify, name, and abstract common themes in object-oriented design. idea reuse vs. code reuse.

Characteristics of a Design Pattern

smart: elegant solutions that would not occur to a novice immediately generic: independent of specific system characteristics well-proven: identified from successful real, object-oriented systems simple: involve only a handful of classes

More Characteristics
reusable: reuse at the design level, generic, well-documented object-oriented: uses classes, objects, generalization, and polymorphism

Constructing a Design Pattern

name problem description: when pattern is to be used and which problem it attempts to solve solution: classes and objects, their structure, and dynamic collaboration consequences: results and trade-offs of applying the pattern

Types of Patterns (Purpose)

Categorize patterns by what they do. creational: deal with the process of object creation structural: deal with the composition of classes or objects behavioral: describe ways in which classes or objects interact and allocate responsibilities

Types of Patterns (Scope)

Scope specifies whether a pattern applies primarily to classes or to objects. Class scope:: deals with relationship between classes, established through inheritance. (static) Object scope: deals with object relationship, established through inclusion and usage. (dynamic)

Design Pattern Space

Example: Proxy Pattern

Proxy: provides a surrogate to hide the real object behind. Applications: 1. remote proxy: to represent a remote object locally for easy and efficient coding (e.g. Java RMI and .NET Remoting) 2. protection proxy: to control the access to the real object (e.g. a proxy server hides the real server behind the firewall) 3. virtual proxy: to defer the expansive actions creating the real object. 4. smart reference: replacement for bare pointer that performs additional actions when an object is accessed

Example: Virtual Proxy

from the original paper by the gang of four using OMT Notation (object diagram)
Referes to

Referes to (virtual representation)

Class Diagram of the Virtual Image Proxy

General Structure of a Proxy

Class Diagram

Object Diagram

Components of a Proxy
Proxy:
maintains a reference to let proxy access the real subject provides an interface identical to Subjects so a proxy can be substituted for the real subject controls access to the real subject; may be responsible for creating and deleting it

More Participants
Subject:
defines the common interface for RealSubject and Proxy so a Proxy can be used anywhere a RealSubject is expected

RealSubject:
defines the real object that the proxy represents

Collaborations
Proxy forwards request to RealSubject when appropriate, depending on the kind of proxy

Sequence Diagram

Collaboration Diagram

Consequences
proxy pattern introduces a level of indirection when accessing an object
a remote proxy can hide the fact that an object resides in a different address space a virtual proxy can perform optimizations such as creating an object on demand protection proxies and smart references allow additional tasks when an object is referenced

Implementation
A proxy can exploit the following features: Java: use interface and implementation. C++: use virtual functions and overloading the member access operators. Smalltalk: use doesNotUnderstand, which supports automatic forwarding of requests Proxy doesnt have to know the type of the real object (upcasted to Object in Java)

Sample Code in Java

public class Proxy implements Subject { RealSubject refersTo; public void Request ( ) { if (refersTo = = null) refersTo = new RealSubject ( ); refersTo.Request ( ); } }

Known Uses
Stubs in Java RMI. Proxy server in networking NEXTSTEP uses proxies as local representatives for objects that may be distributed Proxies in Smalltalk to access remote objects

Related Patterns
adapter: provides a different interface to the object it adapts; proxy provides the same interface as its subject decorator: adds one or more responsibilities to an object; proxy controls access to an object a protection proxy might be implemented exactly like a decorator

Proxy Example in C++

class ProxyBase { public: virtual void f() = 0; virtual void g() = 0; virtual void h() = 0; virtual ~ProxyBase() {} }; class Implementation : public ProxyBase { public: void f() { cout << "Implementation.f()" << endl; } void g() { cout << "Implementation.g()" << endl; } void h() { cout << "Implementation.h()" << endl; } };

Proxy Example in C++

class Proxy : public ProxyBase { ProxyBase* implementation; public: Proxy() { implementation = new Implementation(); } ~Proxy() { delete implementation; } // Forward calls to the implementation: void f() { implementation->f(); } void g() { implementation->g(); } void h() { implementation->h(); } }; int main() { Proxy p; p.f(); p.g(); p.h(); } ///:~