Factory

What is?

• With this pattern, we provide an interface for creating objects in a superclass

---

Problems

• To insert new feature, we need to make a pretty nasty code and repeat the code

---

Steps

• Make all products follow the same interface
• Override in subclasses the methods

---

When to use

• When we don’t know beforehand the exact types and dependencies of the objects your code should work with.
• When you want to provide users of your library or framework with a way to extend its internal components.
• When you want to save time reusing resources instead rebuilding them each time.

Example (Typescript)

/**
 * The Creator class declares the factory method that is supposed to return an
 * object of a Product class. The Creator's subclasses usually provide the
 * implementation of this method.
 */
abstract class Creator {
    /**
     * Note that the Creator may also provide some default implementation of the
     * factory method.
     */
    public abstract factoryMethod(): Product;

    /**
     * Also note that, despite its name, the Creator's primary responsibility is
     * not creating products. Usually, it contains some core business logic that
     * relies on Product objects, returned by the factory method. Subclasses can
     * indirectly change that business logic by overriding the factory method
     * and returning a different type of product from it.
     */
    public someOperation(): string {
        // Call the factory method to create a Product object.
        const product = this.factoryMethod();
        // Now, use the product.
        return `Creator: The same creator's code has just worked with ${product.operation()}`;
    }
}

/**
 * Concrete Creators override the factory method in order to change the
 * resulting product's type.
 */
class ConcreteCreator1 extends Creator {
    /**
     * Note that the signature of the method still uses the abstract product
     * type, even though the concrete product is actually returned from the
     * method. This way the Creator can stay independent of concrete product
     * classes.
     */
    public factoryMethod(): Product {
        return new ConcreteProduct1();
    }
}

class ConcreteCreator2 extends Creator {
    public factoryMethod(): Product {
        return new ConcreteProduct2();
    }
}

/**
 * The Product interface declares the operations that all concrete products must
 * implement.
 */
interface Product {
    operation(): string;
}

/**
 * Concrete Products provide various implementations of the Product interface.
 */
class ConcreteProduct1 implements Product {
    public operation(): string {
        return '{Result of the ConcreteProduct1}';
    }
}

class ConcreteProduct2 implements Product {
    public operation(): string {
        return '{Result of the ConcreteProduct2}';
    }
}

/**
 * The client code works with an instance of a concrete creator, albeit through
 * its base interface. As long as the client keeps working with the creator via
 * the base interface, you can pass it any creator's subclass.
 */
function clientCodeFactory(creator: Creator) {
    // ...
    console.log('Client: I\'m not aware of the creator\'s class, but it still works.');
    console.log(creator.someOperation());
    // ...
}

/**
 * The Application picks a creator's type depending on the configuration or
 * environment.
 */
console.log('App: Launched with the ConcreteCreator1.');
clientCodeFactory(new ConcreteCreator1());
console.log('');

console.log('App: Launched with the ConcreteCreator2.');
clientCodeFactory(new ConcreteCreator2());