Observer

Observer Design Pattern

The Observer Design Pattern is a behavioral design pattern that allows an object (known as a subject) to notify other objects (known as observers) automatically of any state changes. This pattern is useful when we want to decouple the subject and observer classes, so that changes to one class do not affect the other.

Implementation

To implement the Observer Design Pattern, we need to create an interface for the observers to implement. This interface should have a method that the subject can call to notify the observer of any state changes. We also need to create a subject class that maintains a list of observers and has methods to add and remove observers from the list. Finally, we need to modify the subject class so that it calls the observer's notification method whenever its state changes.

Note

This is just one way to implement this. Can be dome in other easier ways.

Here is an example implementation of the Observer Design Pattern in Java:

Simplification

public interface Observer {
    void update();
}

public class Subject {
    private List<Observer> observers = new ArrayList<>();
    private int state;

    public int getState() {
        return state;
    }

    public void setState(int state) {
        this.state = state;
        notifyAllObservers();
    }

    public void attach(Observer observer) {
        observers.add(observer);
    }

    public void notifyAllObservers() {
        for (Observer observer : observers) {
            observer.update();
        }
    }
}

Expanded Pseudocode

// The base publisher class includes subscription management
// code and notification methods.
class EventManager is
    private field listeners: hash map of event types and listeners

    method subscribe(eventType, listener) is
        listeners.add(eventType, listener)

    method unsubscribe(eventType, listener) is
        listeners.remove(eventType, listener)

    method notify(eventType, data) is
        foreach (listener in listeners.of(eventType)) do
            listener.update(data)

// The concrete publisher contains real business logic that's
// interesting for some subscribers. We could derive this class
// from the base publisher, but that isn't always possible in
// real life because the concrete publisher might already be a
// subclass. In this case, you can patch the subscription logic
// in with composition, as we did here.
class Editor is
    public field events: EventManager
    private field file: File

    constructor Editor() is
        events = new EventManager()

    // Methods of business logic can notify subscribers about
    // changes.
    method openFile(path) is
        this.file = new File(path)
        events.notify("open", file.name)

    method saveFile() is
        file.write()
        events.notify("save", file.name)

    // ...


// Here's the subscriber interface. If your programming language
// supports functional types, you can replace the whole
// subscriber hierarchy with a set of functions.
interface EventListener is
    method update(filename)

// Concrete subscribers react to updates issued by the publisher
// they are attached to.
class LoggingListener implements EventListener is
    private field log: File
    private field message: string

    constructor LoggingListener(log_filename, message) is
        this.log = new File(log_filename)
        this.message = message

    method update(filename) is
        log.write(replace('%s',filename,message))

class EmailAlertsListener implements EventListener is
    private field email: string
    private field message: string

    constructor EmailAlertsListener(email, message) is
        this.email = email
        this.message = message

    method update(filename) is
        system.email(email, replace('%s',filename,message))


// An application can configure publishers and subscribers at
// runtime.
class Application is
    method config() is
        editor = new Editor()

        logger = new LoggingListener(
            "/path/to/log.txt",
            "Someone has opened the file: %s")
        editor.events.subscribe("open", logger)

        emailAlerts = new EmailAlertsListener(
            "admin@example.com",
            "Someone has changed the file: %s")
        editor.events.subscribe("save", emailAlerts)

Pseudocode implementation

public class EventManager {
    Map<String, List<EventListener>> listeners = new HashMap<>();

    public EventManager(String... operations) {
        for (String operation : operations) {
            this.listeners.put(operation, new ArrayList<>());
        }
    }

    public void subscribe(String eventType, EventListener listener) {
        List<EventListener> users = listeners.get(eventType);
        users.add(listener);
    }

    public void unsubscribe(String eventType, EventListener listener) {
        List<EventListener> users = listeners.get(eventType);
        users.remove(listener);
    }

    public void notify(String eventType, File file) {
        List<EventListener> users = listeners.get(eventType);
        for (EventListener listener : users) {
            listener.update(eventType, file);
        }
    }
}

public class Editor {
    public EventManager events;
    private File file;

    public Editor() {
        this.events = new EventManager("open", "save");
    }

    public void openFile(String filePath) {
        this.file = new File(filePath);
        events.notify("open", file);
    }

    public void saveFile() throws Exception {
        if (this.file != null) {
            events.notify("save", file);
        } else {
            throw new Exception("Please open a file first.");
        }
    }
}

public interface EventListener {
    void update(String eventType, File file);
}

public class EmailNotificationListener implements EventListener {
    private String email;

    public EmailNotificationListener(String email) {
        this.email = email;
    }

    @Override
    public void update(String eventType, File file) {
        System.out.println("Email to " + email + ": Someone has performed " + eventType + " operation with the following file: " + file.getName());
    }
}

public class LogOpenListener implements EventListener {
    private File log;

    public LogOpenListener(String fileName) {
        this.log = new File(fileName);
    }

    @Override
    public void update(String eventType, File file) {
        System.out.println("Save to log " + log + ": Someone has performed " + eventType + " operation with the following file: " + file.getName());
    }
}

public class Demo {
    public static void main(String[] args) {
        Editor editor = new Editor();
        editor.events.subscribe("open", new LogOpenListener("/path/to/log/file.txt"));
        editor.events.subscribe("save", new EmailNotificationListener("admin@example.com"));

        try {
            editor.openFile("test.txt");
            editor.saveFile();
        } catch (Exception e) {
            e.printStackTrace();
        }
    }
}

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