Observer

The observer pattern (a subset of the asynchronous publish/subscribe pattern) is a software design pattern in which an object, called the subject, maintains a list of its dependents, called observers, and notifies them automatically of any state changes, usually by calling one of their methods. It is mainly used to implement distributed event handling systems.

 

definition

Define a one-to-many dependency between objects so that when one object changes state, all its dependents are notified and updated automatically.

UML class diagram

 

participants

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

• Subject   (Stock)
  • knows its observers. Any number of Observer objects may observe a subject
  • provides an interface for attaching and detaching Observer objects.
• ConcreteSubject   (IBM)
  • stores state of interest to ConcreteObserver
  • sends a notification to its observers when its state changes
• Observer   (IInvestor)
  • defines an updating interface for objects that should be notified of changes in a subject.
• ConcreteObserver   (Investor)
  • maintains a reference to a ConcreteSubject object
  • stores state that should stay consistent with the subject's
  • implements the Observer updating interface to keep its state consistent with the subject's

Examples

public interface IObserver {

	void update(String state);

}

public class Observer1 implements IObserver {

	private String state;

	public String getState() {

		return state;

	}

 

	public void setState(String state) {

		this.state = state;

	}

 

	public void update(String state) {

		setState(state);

		System.out.println("Observer1 has received update signal with new state: " + getState());

	}

}

 

public class Observer2 implements IObserver {

	private String state;

	public String getState() {

		return state;

	}

 

	public void setState(String state) {

		this.state = state;

	}

 

	public void update(String state) {

		setState(state);

		System.out.println("Observer2 has received update signal with new state: " + getState());

	}

}

public class LogSubject {

	private List<IObserver> observerList = new 

	ArrayList<IObserver>();

	private String state;

 

	public String getState() {

		return state;

	}

 

	public void attach(IObserver observer) {

		observerList.add(observer);

	}

 

	public void detach(IObserver observer) {

		observerList.remove(observer);

	}

 

	public void setState(String state) {

		this.state = state;

		stateChanged();

	}

 

	private void stateChanged() {

		for (IObserver item: observerList) {

			item.update(getState());

		}

	}

}

public class Client {

	public static void main(String[] args) {

		LogSubject subject = new LogSubject();

		IObserver ob = new Observer();

		IObserver ob1 = new Observer1();

		IObserver ob2 = new Observer2();

		subject.attach(ob);

		subject.attach(ob1);

		subject.attach(ob2);

		subject.setState("state1");

		subject.setState("state2");

		subject.detach(ob1);

		subject.setState("state3");

	}

}