Mediator
Mediator Design Pattern in Python
What is it?
Mediator is an object which attempts to make two or more decoupled objects interact. The mediator handles the communication between different classes (or objects of the same class), which allows for zero (or little) dependency among them. The resultant decoupled code is easy to maintain. The Mediator Design Pattern is a Behavioral Pattern as it provides an industry-wide accepted method to handle communication between objects.
Why the need for it: Problem Statement
More often than not, a software solution is made up of numerous classes. During maintenance, while adding new classes, communication between classes may become intricate and make the code hard to read and even harder to maintain. In the Mediator Pattern, the mediator object is in charge of the communication, not allowing the objects to interact directly. This helps in lowering the inter-dependency, and easier to maintain code.
Terminology
- Mediator: An object which encapsulates communication between other objects. These objects interact with each other via the mediator.
How to implement it
A popular example to demonstrate the Mediator Pattern is Chat messaging. Users send each other messages with the chat room as the mediator.
class ChatRoom(object):
'''Mediator class.'''
def displayMessage(self, user, message):
print("[{} says]: {}".format(user, message))
class User(object):
'''A class whose instances want to interact with each other.'''
def __init__(self, name):
self.name = name
self.chatRoom = ChatRoom()
def sendMessage(self, message):
self.chatRoom.displayMessage(self, message)
def __str__(self):
return self.name
molly = User('Molly')
mark = User('Mark')
ethan = User('Ethan')
molly.sendMessage("Hi Team! Meeting at 3 PM today.")
mark.sendMessage("Roger that!")
ethan.sendMessage("Alright.")
### OUTPUT ###
[Molly says]: Hi Team! Meeting at 3 PM today.
[Mark says]: Roger that!
[Ethan says]: Alright.
The above example is fairly primitive, but it suffices to illustrate the pattern. You can extend the code to portray a much more practical implementation.
- Creational Patterns
- Factory
- Abstract Factory
- Prototype
- Singleton
- Builder
- Architectural Pattern
- Model View Controller (MVC)
See also:
- Python 101
- Object Oriented Python
- 50+ Handy Standard Library Modules
- 60+ Handy Third Library Modules
- 50+ Tips & Tricks for Python Developers
- 50+ Know-How(s) Every Pythonista Must Know