Is lazy instantiation just another name for proxy pattern? - oop

What is the difference in these? I cannot find such "lazy instantiation" as a pattern here and there, but somehow I feel lazy instantiation is just an another term for the pattern.

No, although you could use lazy instantiation inside a proxy, they are not really related concepts.
Lazy instantiation
getBar() {
if (bar == null)
bar = new Foo();
return bar;
}
Proxy
getBar() {
return realObject.getBar();
}
Proxy with lazy instantiation
getBar() {
if (realObject == null)
realObject = new Foo();
return realObject.getBar();
}

No, lazy initialization is not another term for proxy. You could use proxies to implement lazy initialization, but not all proxies are lazy initialization.

No they are not the same thing. In a nutshell:
Lazy initialization is when you wait until you need something before you create it.
The proxy pattern is when you control access to an underlying object. The proxy pattern might use lazy initialization to create the thing it proxies, but you don't have to.
For example, in my javascript code I have something like
if (!this._pane ) this._pane = ... // create pane lazily
// now use pane
which creates a pane that I am going to show only when I need it. This has the advantage of avoiding the cost of creating the pane until the user reaches it (which they might not even get to.) That's lazy initialization.
The proxy pattern might use lazy initialization, but it is not another term for it.

No, with a proxy you are working with an intermediate thing and really have no idea what it's doing behind the scenes. With lazy init, you are working with the actual object (it just isn't created until first needed).

Related

DDD reusable functionality in an Entity/Aggregate

I have the following desing in DDD
Post Aggregate with
Body: HTML of the post
Banner entity with
Html: HTML of the banner
The Banner entity belongs to Post aggregate, so I want to create a method BodyWithBanners in the Post aggregate.
The point of this method will be to search into the HTML of the Post.Body and insert the HTML of the Banner.
So far, so good.
However I have intention of reuse this functionallity in abstract: "Insert some HTML inside another HTML". So I'm creating a diffent class for doing that: BannerReplacer
Here comes the problem, how should I invoke this new class?
Just create an instance inside the Post.BodyWithBanners method (breaking Dependency Injection)
Passing the BannerReplacer in the constructor of the Post aggregate (This can be a nightmare for creating Post instances)
Passing the BannerReplacer to the BodyWithBanners method (which implies the client using Post must handle the BannerReplacer)
I have chosen for now the first option, but I don't feel really confortable with it, I believe there must be a better way of doing this.
I have chosen for now the first option, but I don't feel really comfortable with it, I believe there must be a better way of doing this.
Much of the time, the first option is fine -- so you should practice being comfortable with it. That mostly means thinking more about what dependency injection is for, and having a clear picture in your mind for whether or not those forces are at play here.
If Banner is an entity, in the domain-driven-design sense, then it is probably something analogous to an in memory state machine. It's got a data structure that it manages, and some functions for changing that data structure, or answering interesting questions about that data structure, but it doesn't have I/O, database, network etc concerns.
That in turn suggests that you can run it the same way in all contexts - you don't need a bunch of substitute implementations to make it testable. You just instantiate one and call its methods.
If it runs the same way in all contexts, then it doesn't need configurable behavior. If you don't need to be able to configure the behavior, then you don't need dependency injection (because all copies of this entity will use (copies of) the same dependencies.
When you do have a configurable behavior, then the analysis is going to need to look at scope. If you need to be able to change that behavior from one invocation to the next, then the caller is going to need to know about it. If the behavior changes less frequently than that, then you can start looking into whether "constructor injection" makes sense.
You know that you intend to use a single BannerReplacer for a given method invocation, so you can immediately start with a method that looks like:
class Banner {
void doTheThing(arg, bannerReplacer) {
/* do the bannerReplacer thing */
}
}
Note that this signature has no dependency at all on the lifetime of the bannerReplacer. More particularly, the BannerReplacer might have a longer lifetime than Banner, or a shorter one. We only care that the lifetime is longer than the doTheThing method.
class Banner {
void doTheThing(arg) {
this.doTheThing(arg, new BannerReplacer())
}
// ...
}
Here, the caller doesn't need to know about BannerReplacer at all; we'll use a new copy of the default implementation every time. Caller's that care which implementation is used can pass in their own.
class Banner {
bannerReplacer = new BannerReplacer()
void doTheThing(arg) {
this.doTheThing(arg, this.bannerReplacer)
}
// ...
}
Same idea as before; we're just using an instance of the BannerReplacer with a longer lifetime.
class Banner {
Banner() {
this(new BannerReplacer())
}
Banner(bannerReplacer) {
this.bannerReplacer = bannerReplacer;
}
void doTheThing(arg) {
this.doTheThing(arg, this.bannerReplacer)
}
// ...
}
Same idea as before, but now we are allowing the "injection" of a default implementation that can outlive the given instance of Banner.
In the long term, the comfort comes from doing the analysis to understand the requirements of the current problem, so that you can choose the appropriate tool.

Network storage design pattern

Let's say I have a few controllers. Each controller can at some point create new objects which will need to be stored on the server. For example I can have a RecipeCreationViewController which manages a form. When this form is submitted, a new Recipe object is created and needs to be saved on the server.
What's the best way to design the classes to minimize complexity and coupling while keeping the code as clean and readable as possible?
Singleton
Normally I would create a singleton NetworkAdapter that each controller can access directly in order to save objects.
Example:
[[[NetworkAdapter] sharedAdapter] saveObject:myRecipe];
But I've realized that having classes call singletons on their own makes for coupled code which is hard to debug since the access to the singleton is hidden in the implementation and not obvious from the interface.
Direct Reference
The alternative is to have each controller hold a reference to the NetworkAdapter and have this be passed in by the class that creates the controller.
For example:
[self.networkAdapter saveObject:myRecipe];
Delegation
The other approach that came to mind is delegation. The NetworkAdapter can implement a "RemoteStorageDelegate" protocol and each controller can have a remoteStorageDelegate which it can call methods like saveObject: on. The advantage being that the controllers don't know about the details of a NetworkAdapter, only that the object that implements the protocol knows how to save objects.
For example:
[self.remoteStorageDelegate saveObject:myRecipe];
Direct in Model
Yet another approach would be to have the model handle saving to the network directly. I'm not sure if this is a good idea though.
For example:
[myRecipe save];
What do you think of these? Are there any other patterns that make more sense for this?
I would also stick with Dependency Injection in your case. If you want to read about that you will easily find good articles in the web, e.g. on Wikipedia. There are also links to DI frameworks in Objective C.
Basically, you can use DI if you have two or more components, which must interact but shouldn't know each other directly in code. I'll elaborate your example a bit, but in C#/Java style because I don't know Objective C syntax. Let's say you have
class NetworkAdapter implements NetworkAdapterInterface {
void save(object o) { ... }
}
with the interface
interface NetworkAdapterInterface {
void save(object o);
}
Now you want to call that adapter in a controller like
class Controller {
NetworkAdapterInterface networkAdapter;
Controller() {
}
void setAdapter(NetworkAdapterInterface adapter) {
this.networkAdapter = adapter;
}
void work() {
this.networkAdapter.save(new object());
}
}
Calling the Setter is where now the magic of DI can happen (called Setter Injection; there is also e.g. Constructor Injection). That means that you haven't a single code line where you call the Setter yourself, but let it do the DI framework. Very loose coupled!
Now how does it work? Typically with a common DI framework you can define the actual mappings between components in a central code place or in a XML file. Image you have
<DI>
<component="NetworkAdapterInterface" class="NetworkAdapter" lifecycle="singleton" />
</DI>
This could tell the DI framework to automatically inject a NetworkAdapter in every Setter for NetworkAdapterInterface it finds in your code. In order to do this, it will create the proper object for you first. If it builds a new object for every injection, or only one object for all injections (Singleton), or e.g. one object per Unit of Work (if you use such a pattern), can be configured for each type.
As a sidenote: If you are unit testing your code, you can also use the DI framework to define completely other bindings, suitable for your test szenario. Easy way to inject some mocks!

httpconnection with singleton java

I want to implement singleton for httpconnection....
I have a servlet as a server and client side I use android. I have to use the connection many times. Currently, each time I am doing a new connection, but that is not the right way.. So I want to implement singleton for the httpconnection so I can use that instance in each android class.....
so help me.. what type of code i write..
Show some code from what you have, and I can help you more...
Off the cuff, I would say make the httpconnection object a member variable of the class, and any time you're making a new one, reference the member variable instead.
While binding a singleton with a live HTTPUrlConnection instance is good from a reusable practice, but you should also consider how often a call will be made to the server. If your Android application[s] make a lot of connections and need fast response, then there's no point creating a chokehold on such a resource. But if that's not the case, you can simply have an instance variable, and initialise it within the constructor of your particular class. Something like -
public SomeClass {
HTTTPUrlConnection conn = new HTTPUrlConnection(...);
SomeClass instance = new SomeClass();
private SomeClass() {}
public static getInstance() {
return instance;
}
}
Some might contend why initialise the instances inline and not within the getInstance method, but i believe this is best in terms of thread safety. Just Google on Singletons are not good from thread-safety perspective.

"Fluent interfaces" that maintain order in the invokation chain

Is there an elegant/convinient way (without creating many "empty" classes or at least they should be not annoying) to have fluent interfcaes that maintain order on compilation level.
Fluent interfaces:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fluent_interface
with an idea to permit this compilation
var fluentConfig = new ConfigurationFluent().SetColor("blue")
.SetHeight(1)
.SetLength(2)
.SetDepth(3);
and decline this
var fluentConfig = new ConfigurationFluent().SetLength(2)
.SetColor("blue")
.SetHeight(1)
.SetDepth(3);
Each step in the chain needs to return an interface or class that only includes the methods that are valid to use after the current step. In other words, if SetColor must come first, ConfigurationFluent should only have a SetColor method. SetColor would then return an object that only has a SetHeight method, and so forth.
In reality, the return values could all be the same instance of ConfigurationFluent but cast to different interfaces explicitly implemented by that class.
I've got a set of three ways of doing this in C++ using essentially a compile time FSM to validate the actions. You can find the code on github.
The short answer is no, there is no elegant or convenient way to enforce an order of constructing a class that properly impelemnts the "Fluent Interface" as you've linked.
The longer answer starts with playing devil's advocate. If I had dependent properties (i.e. properties that required other properties to be set first), then I could implement them something like this:
method SetLength(int millimeters)
if color is null throw new ValidationException
length = millimeters
return this
end
(NOTE: the above does not map to any real language, it is just psuedocode)
So now I have exceptions to worry about. If I don't obey the rules, the fluent object will throw an exception. Now let's say I have a declaration like yours:
var config = new Fluent().SetLength(2).SetHeight(1).SetDepth(3).SetColor("blue");
When I catch the ValidationException because length depends on the color being set first, how am I as the user supposed to know what the correct order is? Even if I had each SetX method on a different line, the stacktrace will just give me the line where the config variable was declared in most languages. Furthermore, how am I supposed to keep the rules of this object straight in my head compared to other objects? It is a cocophony of conflicting ideals.
Such precedence checks violate the spirit of the "Fluent Interface" approach. That approach was designed for conveniently configure complex objects. You take the convenience out when you attempt to enforce order.
To properly and elegantly implement the fluent interface there are a couple of guidelines that are best observed to make consumers of your class thank you:
Provide meaningful default values: minimizes need to change values, and minimizes chances of creating an invalid object.
Do not perform configuration validation until explicitly asked to do so. That event can be when we use the configuration to create a new fully configured object, or when the consumer explicitly calls a Validate() method.
In any exceptions thrown, make sure the error message is clear and points out any inconsistencies.
maybe the compiler could check that methods are called in the same order as they are defined.
this could be a new feature for compilers.
Or maybe by means of annotations, something like:
class ConfigurationFluent {
#Called-before SetHeight
SetColor(..) {}
#Called-After SetColor
SetHeight(..) {}
#Called-After SetHeight
SetLength(..){ }
#Called-After SetLength
SetDepth(..) {}
}
You can implement a state machine of valid sequence of operations and on each method call the state machine and verify if the sequence of operation is allowed or throw an exception if not.
I will not suggest this approach for Configurations though, it can get very messy and not readable

Message passing between objects - How to refer to the target object?

The most basic task in an object oriented environment is executing a method on an object. To do this, you have to have a reference to the object on which you are invoking the method. Is the proper way to establish this reference to pass the object as a parameter to the constructor (or initializer method) of the calling object?
If object foo calls into object bar, is it correct to say (in pseudo-code):
bar = new barClass()
foo = new fooClass(bar)
What happens if you need to pass messages back and forth? Do you need a method for registering the target object?
foo = new fooClass()
bar = new barClass()
foo.register(bar)
bar.register(foo)
Is there a pattern that addresses this?
Dependency injection frameworks like Spring and Guice provide a solution to cyclical dependencies in Java by using proxies which can resolve the receiver of a message the first time it is required. This isn't a generally applicable OO pattern, however.
Generally dependency injection is the way to go. If you're just talking about two objects communicating then pass an instance of one in as a paramter to the other, as in your first example. Passing in the constructor ensure the reference is always valid. Otherwise you'd have to test to ensure register had been called. Also you'd need to make sure calling register more than once wouldn't have adverse effects.
What if you want a controlling object, to which other objects register for events. It would then be suitable to use a Register method ( which may add to a delegate).
See Observer Pattern
Well, depending on the level of messaging, you could implement a messaging service. Objects listen for messages, or register as a MessageListener on some MessageProvider.
You end up with cyclical dependencies if two objects have references to each other, which I would consider bad in most cases.
One of your object types could be a factory for the other. When Foo poops out a new Bar, the connection has already been made:
foo = new Foo();
bar = Foo.Poop();
function Foo::Poop()
{
bar = new Bar(this);
myChildren.Add(bar);
return bar;
}
bar.SayHiToParent();
foo.SayHiToChildren();
I think that it highly depends on what the exact relation is between the two objects.