Memento

The memento pattern is a software design pattern that provides the ability to restore an object to its previous state (undo via rollback).

The memento pattern is used by two objects: the originator and a caretaker . The originator is some object that has an internal state. The caretaker is going to do something to the originator, but wants to be able to undo the change. The caretaker first asks the originator for a memento object. Then it does whatever operation (or sequence of operations) it was going to do. To roll back to the state before the operations, it returns the memento object to the originator. The memento object itself is an opaque object (one which the caretaker can not, or should not, change). When using this pattern, care should be taken if the originator may change other objects or resources - the memento pattern operates on a single object.

Classic examples of the memento pattern include the seed of a pseudorandom number generator and the state in a finite state machine .

 

UML class diagram

 

participants

    The classes and/or objects participating in this pattern are:

• Memento   (Memento)
  • stores internal state of the Originator object. The memento may store as much or as little of the originator's internal state as necessary at its originator's discretion.
  • protect against access by objects of other than the originator. Mementos have effectively two interfaces. Caretaker sees a narrow interface to the Memento -- it can only pass the memento to the other objects. Originator, in contrast, sees a wide interface, one that lets it access all the data necessary to restore itself to its previous state. Ideally, only the originator that produces the memento would be permitted to access the memento's internal state.
• Originator   (SalesProspect)
  • creates a memento containing a snapshot of its current internal state.
  • uses the memento to restore its internal state
• Caretaker   (Caretaker)
  • is responsible for the memento's safekeeping
  • never operates on or examines the contents of a memento.

Example

class Originator {

 

    private String state;

    /* lots of memory consumptive private data that is not necessary to define the

     * state and should thus not be saved. Hence the small memento object. */

 

    public void set(String state) {

        System.out.println("Originator: Setting state to " + state);

        this.state = state;

    }

 

    public Object saveToMemento() {

        System.out.println("Originator: Saving to Memento.");

        return new Memento(state);

    }

 

    public void restoreFromMemento(Object m) {

        if (m instanceof Memento) {

            Memento memento = (Memento) m;

            state = memento.getSavedState();

            System.out.println("Originator: State after restoring from Memento: " + state);

        }

    }

 

    private static class Memento {

 

        private String state;

 

        public Memento(String stateToSave) {

            state = stateToSave;

        }

 

        public String getSavedState() {

            return state;

        }

 

    }

 

}

 

import java.util.*;

 

class Caretaker {

 

    private List<Object> savedStates = new ArrayList<Object>();

 

    public void addMemento(Object m) {

        savedStates.add(m);

    }

 

    public Object getMemento(int index) {

        return savedStates.get(index);

    }

 

}

 

class MementoExample {

 

    public static void main(String[] args) {

 

        Caretaker caretaker = new Caretaker();

 

        Originator originator = new Originator();

        originator.set("State1");

        originator.set("State2");

        caretaker.addMemento(originator.saveToMemento());

        originator.set("State3");

        caretaker.addMemento(originator.saveToMemento());

        originator.set("State4");

 

        originator.restoreFromMemento(caretaker.getMemento(1));

 

    }

 

}

The output is:

Originator: Setting state to State1

Originator: Setting state to State2

Originator: Saving to Memento.

Originator: Setting state to State3

Originator: Saving to Memento.

Originator: Setting state to State4

Originator: State after restoring from Memento: State3