S.Ducasse Stéphane Ducasse 1 Decorator

S.Ducasse License: CC-Attribution-ShareAlike

S.Ducasse 3 Decorator Attach additional responsib ilities to an object dynamically. Decorators provide a flexible alternative to subclassing for extending functionality. Aka: Wrapper

S.Ducasse 4 Decorator Intent Attach additional responsib ilities to an object dynamically. Decorators provide a flexible alternative to subclassing for extending functionality. Aka: Wrapper

S.Ducasse 5 Motivation Adding behavior to individual object not entire class scrollbar border

S.Ducasse 6 Inheritance? Does not work well Too much combination border, color, scrollbars, bounds, translation... To static: Clients cannot control when to put a border or not...

S.Ducasse 7 Decorator Enclose the component into another one that adds border...in another one that adds scrollbar... The decorator conforms to the interface of the component it decorates so that its presence is transparent to the component's clients. The decorator forwards requests to the component and may perform additional actions (such as drawing a border) before or after forwarding

S.Ducasse 8 Decorator Solution

S.Ducasse 9 Applicability When responsibilities can be withdrawn When responsibilities can be added transparently When subclassing is not possible (combination explosion)

S.Ducasse 10 Possible Decorator Structure

S.Ducasse 11 Participants Component (VisualComponent) defines the interface for objects that can have responsibilities added to them dynamically. ConcreteComponent (TextView) defines an object to which additional responsibilities can be attached. Decorator maintains a reference to a Component object and defines an interface that conforms to Component's interface. ConcreteDecorator (BorderDecorator, ScrollDecorator) adds responsibilities to the component.

S.Ducasse 12 Collaborations Decorator forwards requests to its Component object. It may optionally perform additional operations before and after forwarding the request.

S.Ducasse 13 About Identity A decorator and its component aren't identical. A decorator acts as a transparent enclosure. But from an object identity point of view, a decorated component is not identical to the component itself. If the decorator is wrapping, then identity of the object may change. Good at construction time, but else should “adapt” the references from the decorated to the decorator.

S.Ducasse 14 Consequences More flexibility than static inheritance. Dynamic addition of properties Avoids feature-laden classes high up in the hierarchy. Lots of little objects.

S.Ducasse 15 Implementation Interface conformance. A decorator object's interface must conform to the interface of the component it decorates. ConcreteDecorator classes must therefore inherit from a common class (at least in C++). Omitting the abstract Decorator class. There's no need to define an abstract Decorator class when you only need to add one responsibility. Keeping Component classes lightweight. Component should specify an interface, decorators are then easier to define

S.Ducasse 16 Wrapping or not? Conforming or not With decorator With strategies

S.Ducasse 17 Strategies? Strategies are a better choice when the Component class is heavyweight, thereby making the Decorator pattern too costly to apply. The Strategy-based approach might require modifying the component to accommodate new extensions. a strategy can have its own specialized interface, a decorator's interface must conform to the component's. A strategy needs only define the interface for rendering a border, which means that the strategy can be lightweight even if the Component class is heavyweight.

S.Ducasse 18 Known Uses VisualWorks Wrapper hierarchy Stream Decorators in VisualWorks: BOSSTransporter is a stream decorator FormattedStream is a stream decorator