Mediator pattern

In software engineering, the mediator pattern defines an object that encapsulates how a set of objects interact. This pattern is considered to be a behavioral pattern due to the way it can alter the program's running behavior.

Usually a program is made up of a large number of classes. So the logic and computation is distributed among these classes. However, as more classes are developed in a program, especially during maintenance and/or refactoring, the problem of communication between these classes may become more complex. This makes the program harder to read and maintain. Furthermore, it can become difficult to change the program, since any change may affect code in several other classes.

With the mediator pattern, communication between objects is encapsulated with a mediator object. Objects no longer communicate directly with each other, but instead communicate through the mediator. This reduces the dependencies between communicating objects, thereby lowering the coupling.

Definition

The essence of the Mediator Pattern is to "define an object that encapsulates how a set of objects interact". It promotes loose coupling by keeping objects from referring to each other explicitly, and it allows their interaction to be varied independently.^[1] Client classes can use the mediator to send messages to other clients, and can receive messages from other clients via an event on the mediator class.

Participants

Mediator - defines the interface for communication between Colleague objects

ConcreteMediator - implements the Mediator interface and coordinates communication between Colleague objects. It is aware of all the Colleagues and their purpose with regards to inter communication.

ConcreteColleague - communicates with other Colleagues through its Mediator

Example

C#

The Mediator pattern ensures that the components are loosely coupled, such that they don't call each other explicitly; rather they always use a separate Mediator implementation to do those jobs. Here you can see the mediator registers all the Components within it and then calls its method when required.

public interface IComponent
{
    void SetState(object state);
}

public class Component1 : IComponent
{
    public void SetState(object state)
    {
        throw new NotImplementedException();
    }
}

public class Component2 : IComponent
{
    public void SetState(object state)
    {
        throw new NotImplementedException();
    }
}

// Mediates the common tasks
public class Mediator
{
    public IComponent Component1 { get; set; }
    public IComponent Component2 { get; set; }

    public void ChangeState(object state)
    {
        this.Component1.SetState(state);
        this.Component2.SetState(state);
    }
}

A chat room could use the Mediator pattern, or a system where many ‘clients’ each receive a message each time one of the other clients performs an action (for chat rooms, this would be when each person sends a message). In reality using the Mediator pattern for a chat room would only be practical when used with remoting. Using raw sockets wouldn’t allow for the delegate callbacks (people subscribed to the Mediator class’ MessageReceived event).

public delegate void MessageReceivedEventHandler(string message, string from);

public class Mediator
{
    public event MessageReceivedEventHandler MessageReceived;

    public void Send(string message, string from)
    {
        if (MessageReceived != null)
        {
            Console.WriteLine("Sending '{0}' from {1}", message, from);
            MessageReceived(message, from);
        }
    }
}

public class Person
{
    private Mediator _mediator;

    public string Name { get; set; }

    public Person(Mediator mediator, string name)
    {
        Name = name;
        _mediator = mediator;
        _mediator.MessageReceived += new MessageReceivedEventHandler(Receive);
    }

    private void Receive(string message, string from)
    {
        if (from != Name)
            Console.WriteLine("{0} received '{1}' from {2}", Name, message, from);
    }

    public void Send(string message)
    {
        _mediator.Send(message, Name);
    }
}

Java

In the following example a mediator object controls the status of three collaborating buttons: for this it contains three methods (book(), view() and search()) that set the status of the buttons. The methods are called by each button upon activation (via the execute() method in each of them).

Hence here the collaboration pattern is that each participant (here the buttons) communicates to the mediator its activity and the mediator dispatches the expected behavior to the other participants.

import java.awt.Font;
import java.awt.event.ActionEvent;
import java.awt.event.ActionListener;

import javax.swing.JButton;
import javax.swing.JFrame;
import javax.swing.JLabel;
import javax.swing.JPanel;

//Colleague interface
interface Command {
    void execute();
}

//Abstract Mediator
interface Mediator {
    void book();
    void view();
    void search();
    void registerView(BtnView v);
    void registerSearch(BtnSearch s);
    void registerBook(BtnBook b);
    void registerDisplay(LblDisplay d);
}

//Concrete mediator
class ParticipantMediator implements Mediator {

    BtnView btnView;
    BtnSearch btnSearch;
    BtnBook btnBook;
    LblDisplay show;

    //....
    public void registerView(BtnView v) {
        btnView = v;
    }

    public void registerSearch(BtnSearch s) {
        btnSearch = s;
    }

    public void registerBook(BtnBook b) {
        btnBook = b;
    }

    public void registerDisplay(LblDisplay d) {
        show = d;
    }

    public void book() {
        btnBook.setEnabled(false);
        btnView.setEnabled(true);
        btnSearch.setEnabled(true);
        show.setText("booking...");
    }

    public void view() {
        btnView.setEnabled(false);
        btnSearch.setEnabled(true);
        btnBook.setEnabled(true);
        show.setText("viewing...");
    }

    public void search() {
        btnSearch.setEnabled(false);
        btnView.setEnabled(true);
        btnBook.setEnabled(true);
        show.setText("searching...");
    }
    
}

//A concrete colleague
class BtnView extends JButton implements Command {

    Mediator med;

    BtnView(ActionListener al, Mediator m) {
        super("View");
        addActionListener(al);
        med = m;
        med.registerView(this);
    }

    public void execute() {
        med.view();
    }
    
}

//A concrete colleague
class BtnSearch extends JButton implements Command {

    Mediator med;

    BtnSearch(ActionListener al, Mediator m) {
        super("Search");
        addActionListener(al);
        med = m;
        med.registerSearch(this);
    }

    public void execute() {
        med.search();
    }
    
}

//A concrete colleague
class BtnBook extends JButton implements Command {

    Mediator med;

    BtnBook(ActionListener al, Mediator m) {
        super("Book");
        addActionListener(al);
        med = m;
        med.registerBook(this);
    }

    public void execute() {
        med.book();
    }

}

class LblDisplay extends JLabel {

    Mediator med;

    LblDisplay(Mediator m) {
        super("Just start...");
        med = m;
        med.registerDisplay(this);
        setFont(new Font("Arial", Font.BOLD, 24));
    }

}

class MediatorDemo extends JFrame implements ActionListener {

    Mediator med = new ParticipantMediator();

    MediatorDemo() {
        JPanel p = new JPanel();
        p.add(new BtnView(this, med));
        p.add(new BtnBook(this, med));
        p.add(new BtnSearch(this, med));
        getContentPane().add(new LblDisplay(med), "North");
        getContentPane().add(p, "South");
        setSize(400, 200);
        setVisible(true);
    }

    public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent ae) {
        Command comd = (Command) ae.getSource();
        comd.execute();
    }

    public static void main(String[] args) {
        new MediatorDemo();
    }

}

References

^ Gang Of Four

External links

[1] Gang Of Four

[1]