OO programming issue - State Design Pattern - oop

Question

I have spent the last day trying to work out which pattern best fits my specific scenario and I have been tossing up between the State Pattern & Strategy pattern. When I read examples on the Internet it makes perfect sense... but it's another skill trying to actually apply it to your own problem. I will describe my scenario and the problem I am facing and hopefully someone can point me in the right direction.
Problem: I have a base object that has different synchronization states: i.e. Latest, Old, Never Published, Unpublished etc. Now depending on what state the object is in the behaviour is different, for example you cannot get the latest version for a base object that has never been published. At this point it seems the State design pattern is best suited... so I have implemented it and now each state has methods such as CanGetLatestVersion, GetLatestVersion, CanPublish, Publish etc.
It all seems good at this point. But lets say you have 10 different child objects that derive from the base class... my solution is broken because when the "publish" method is executed for each state it needs properties in the child object to actually carry out the operation but each state only has a reference to the base object. I have just spent some time creating a sample project illustrating my problem in C#.
public class BaseDocument
{
private IDocumentState _documentState;
public BaseDocument(IDocumentState documentState)
{
_documentState = documentState;
}
public bool CanGetLatestVersion()
{
return _documentState.CanGetLatestVersion(this);
}
public void GetLatestVersion()
{
if(CanGetLatestVersion())
_documentState.CanGetLatestVersion(this);
}
public bool CanPublish()
{
return _documentState.CanPublish(this);
}
public void Publish()
{
if (CanPublish())
_documentState.Publish(this);
}
internal void Change(IDocumentState documentState)
{
_documentState = documentState;
}
}
public class DocumentSubtype1 : BaseDocument
{
public string NeedThisData { get; set; }
}
public class DocumentSubtype2 : BaseDocument
{
public string NeedThisData1 { get; set; }
public string NeedThisData2 { get; set; }
}
public interface IDocumentState
{
bool CanGetLatestVersion(BaseDocument baseDocument);
void GetLatestVersion(BaseDocument baseDocument);
bool CanPublish(BaseDocument baseDocument);
bool Publish(BaseDocument baseDocument);
SynchronizationStatus Status { get; set; }
}
public class LatestState : IDocumentState
{
public bool CanGetLatestVersion(BaseDocument baseDocument)
{
return false;
}
public void GetLatestVersion(BaseDocument baseDocument)
{
throw new Exception();
}
public bool CanPublish(BaseDocument baseDocument)
{
return true;
}
public bool Publish(BaseDocument baseDocument)
{
//ISSUE HERE... I need to access the properties in the the DocumentSubtype1 or DocumentSubType2 class.
}
public SynchronizationStatus Status
{
get
{
return SynchronizationStatus.LatestState;
}
}
}
public enum SynchronizationStatus
{
NeverPublishedState,
LatestState,
OldState,
UnpublishedChangesState,
NoSynchronizationState
}
I then thought about implementing the state for each child object... which would work but I would need to create 50 classes i.e. (10 children x 5 different states) and that just seems absolute crazy... hence why I am here !
Any help would be greatly appreciated. If it is confusing please let me know so I can clarify!
Cheers

Answer 1

Let's rethink this, entirely.
1) You have a local 'Handle', to some data which you don't really own. (Some of it is stored, or published, elsewhere).
2) Maybe the Handle, is what we called the 'State' before -- a simple common API, without the implementation details.
3) Rather than 'CanPublish', 'GetLatestVersion' delegating from the BaseDocument to State -- it sounds like the Handle should delegate, to the specific DocumentStorage implementation.
4) When representing external States or Storage Locations, use of a separate object is ideal for encapsulating the New/Existent/Deletion state & identifier, in that storage location.
5) I'm not sure if 'Versions' is part of 'Published Location'; or if they're two independent storage locations. Our handle needs a 'Storage State' representation for each independent location, which it will store to/from.
For example:
Handle
- has 1 LocalCopy with states (LOADED, NOT_LOADED)
- has 1 PublicationLocation with Remote URL and states (NEW, EXIST, UPDATE, DELETE)
Handle.getVersions() then delegates to PublicationLocation.
Handle.getCurrent() loads a LocalCopy (cached), from PublicationLocation.
Handle.setCurrent() sets a LocalCopy and sets Publication state to UPDATE.
(or executes the update immediately, whichever.)
Remote Storage Locations/ Transports can be subtyped for different methods of accessing, or LocalCopy/ Document can be subtyped for different types of content.
THIS, I AM PRETTY SURE, IS THE MORE CORRECT SOLUTION.
[Previously] Keep 'State' somewhat separate from your 'Document' object (let's call it Document, since we need to call it something -- and you didn't specify.)
Build your heirarchy from BaseDocument down, have a BaseDocument.State member, and create the State objects with a reference to their Document instance -- so they have access to & can work with the details.
Essentially:
BaseDocument <--friend--> State
Document subtypes inherit from BaseDocument.
protected methods & members in Document heirarchy, enable State to do whatever it needs to.
Hope this helps.

Answer 2

Many design patterns can be used to this kind of architecture problem. It is unfortunate that you do not give the example of how you do the publish. However, I will state some of the good designs:
Put the additional parameters to the base document and make it
nullable. If not used in a document, then it is null. Otherwise, it
has value. You won't need inheritance here.
Do not put the Publish method to the DocumentState, put in the
BaseDocument instead. Logically, the Publish method must be part
of BaseDocument instead of the DocumentState.
Let other service class to handle the Publishing (publisher
service). You can achieve it by using abstract factory pattern. This
way, you need to create 1:1 document : publisher object. It may be
much, but you has a freedom to modify each document's publisher.
public interface IPublisher<T> where T : BaseDocument
{
bool Publish(T document);
}
public interface IPublisherFactory
{
bool Publish(BaseDocument document);
}
public class PublisherFactory : IPublisherFactory
{
public PublisherFactory(
IPublisher<BaseDocument> basePublisher
, IPublisher<SubDocument1> sub1Publisher)
{
this.sub1Publisher = sub1Publisher;
this.basePublisher = basePublisher;
}
IPublisher<BaseDocument> basePublisher;
IPublisher<SubDocument1> sub1Publisher;
public bool Publish(BaseDocument document)
{
if(document is SubDocument1)
{
return sub1Publisher.Publish((SubDocument1)document);
}
else if (document is BaseDocument)
{
return basePublisher.Publish(document);
}
return false;
}
}
public class LatestState : IDocumentState
{
public LatestState(IPublisherFactory factory)
{
this.factory = factory;
}
IPublisherFactory factory;
public bool Publish(BaseDocument baseDocument)
{
factory.Publish(baseDocument);
}
}
Use Composition over inheritance. You design each interface to each state, then compose it in the document. In summary, you can has 5 CanGetLatestVersion and other composition class, but 10 publisher composition class.
More advancedly and based on the repository you use, maybe you can use Visitor pattern. This way, you can has a freedom to modify each publishing methods. It is similiar to my point 3, except it being declared in one class. For example:
public class BaseDocument
{
}
public class SubDocument1 : BaseDocument
{
}
public class DocumentPublisher
{
public void Publish(BaseDocument document)
{
}
public void Publish(SubDocument1 document)
{
// do the prerequisite
Publish((BaseDocument)document);
// do the postrequisite
}
}
There may be other designs available but it is dependent to how you access your repository.