This question may appear to have been answered before but I have been unable to find exactly what I need. Here is my situation:
// Base class
interface IAnimal {};
public abstract class Animal : IAnimal{}
// Derived classes
interface IDog {}
public class Dog : Animal, IDog { }
interface ICat { }
public class Cat : Animal, ICat { }
interface ITiger { }
public class Tiger : Animal, ITiger { }
interface ILion { }
public class Lion : Animal, ILion { }
// Collection Classes
interface IPets { }
public class Pets
{
IDog dog = new Dog();
ICat cat = new Cat();
}
interface ICircus { }
public class Circus
{
ITiger tiger = new Tiger();
ILion lion = new Lion();
}
I would like to create the collections at run time in an generic Event class by reading in a list animals from xml that would make up the collection. What would be the correct way to accomplish this?
Thanks in advance.
This is kind of an answer to my own question. Maybe this will help others.
I chose a very generic example to illustrate my situation because I have uses for this in many places in Windows Forms, XNA and Silverlight that are all very different.
When I used the Activator, I found out that it assumes the executing assembly. My method is in a library so I had to load a different assembly. Next I had to make sure that I had the right namespace. My base class is in a library and the derived classes are in another namespace so this will require refactoring to properly create the list.
Another problem I found was that the Activator assumes a constructor with no parameters. In my test case all my derived classes are XNA game components with a parameter of type Game.
Have to do some refactoring to test out the interfaces and how the game objects are to interact.
Will be back to this list when I have something further.
Does this sort of example help? (It's from some of my code I happened to have handy.) The key point here is the use of reflection in Activator.CreateInstance(...).
public static List<dynamic> LoadChildEntities(XElement entityElt)
{
var children = new List<dynamic>();
foreach(XElement childElt in entityElt.Elements("entity"))
{
// Look up the C# type of the child entity.
string childTypename = "MyNamespace." + Convert.ToString(childElt.Attribute("type").Value);
Type childType = Type.GetType(childTypename);
if(childType != null)
{
// Construct the child entity and add it to the list.
children.Add(Activator.CreateInstance(childType, childElt));
}
else
{
throw new InvalidOperationException("No such class: " + childTypename);
}
}
return children;
}
If you want a list of IAnimal instead, it wouldn't be too tricky to change.
Related
I came across a lot of code in our company codebase with the following structure
class Base
{
public Base (var a, var b)
{
base_a = a;
base_b = b;
}
var base_a;
var base_b;
}
class Derived:Base
{
publc Derived (var a,b,c,d): base (a,d)
{
der_c = c;
der_d = d;
}
var der_c;
var der_d;
var der_e;
}
class Ref
{
Base _ref;
public Ref( var a,b,c,d)
{
_ref = new Derived (a,b,c,d)
}
public void method( )
{
_ref.der_e = 444; // won't compile
}
}
What is the correct way to initialize der_e ? What is the advantages of having a reference of base class and using an object derived class for _ref ? Just the fact that using a base class reference can hold multiple derived class objects ? If that's the case, should all the member variables of derived class be initialized during construction itself (like this: _ref = new Derived (a,b,c,d) ). What if I want to initialize _ref.der_e later in a method ? I know I can do this (var cast_ref = _ref as Derived; cast_ref.der_e = 444) but this look doesn't seem to the best practice. What is the idea of having such a structure and what is the correct of initializing a member of a derived class object after it has been constructed ?
Those are too many questions in a single post.
What is the correct way to initialize der_e ?
For initializing der_e you will have to have Reference of Derived class as it knows about the der_e property and not Base class.
What is the advantages of having a reference of base class and using
an object derived class for _ref ?
Yes that's called Polymorphism which is the essence of Object Oriented Programming. It allows us to hold various concrete implementations without knowing about the actual implementation.
If that's the case, should all the member variables of derived class
be initialized during construction itself (like this: _ref = new
Derived (a,b,c,d) )
There is no such rule. It depends on your scenario. If the values are not meant to be changed after the creation of the object and the values are known before hand during construction of the object then they should be initialized during construction.
Again if there are various scenarios like sometimes values are known and sometimes not then there can be Overloaded Constructors, which take different arguments.
What if I want to initialize _ref.der_e later in a method ?
That is perfectly fine, it depends on what you are trying to achieve. The question is not a concrete one but an abstract one in which it is difficult to comment on what you are trying to achieve.
I know I can do this (var cast_ref = _ref as Derived; cast_ref.der_e =
444) but this look doesn't seem to the best practice.
I am sharing some Java code which is similar to C# as I am from Java background
//This class knows about Base and nothing about the Derived class
class UserOfBase{
Base ref;
//Constructor of UserOfBase gets passed an instance of Base
public UserOfBase(Base bInstance){
this.ref = bInstance;
}
//Now this class should not cast it into Derived class as that would not be a polymorphic behavior. In that case you have got your design wrong.
public void someMethod(){
Derived derivedRef = (Derived)ref; //This should not happen here
}
}
I am sharing some references which would help you with this, as I think the answer can be very long to explain.
Factory Pattern
Dependency Injection
Head First Design Patterns
Posts on SO regarding polymorphism
You can create a constructor in your derived class and map the objects or create an extension method like this:
public static class Extensions
{
public static void FillPropertiesFromBaseClass<T1, T2>(this T2 drivedClass, T1 baseClass) where T2 : T1
{
//Get the list of properties available in base class
System.Reflection.PropertyInfo[] properties = typeof(T1).GetProperties();
properties.ToList().ForEach(property =>
{
//Check whether that property is present in derived class
System.Reflection.PropertyInfo isPresent = drivedClass.GetType().GetProperty(property.Name);
if (isPresent != null && property.CanWrite)
{
//If present get the value and map it
object value = baseClass.GetType().GetProperty(property.Name).GetValue(baseClass, null);
drivedClass.GetType().GetProperty(property.Name).SetValue(drivedClass, value, null);
}
});
}
}
for example when you have to class like this:
public class Fruit {
public float Sugar { get; set; }
public int Size { get; set; }
}
public class Apple : Fruit {
public int NumberOfWorms { get; set; }
}
you can initialize derived class by this code:
//constructor
public Apple(Fruit fruit)
{
this.FillPropertiesFromBaseClass(fruit);
}
I have a class that I've defined, and I have a number of child classes derived from it. The parent class has an enum (let's call it 'Barf'). Each descendant ALSO has an enum with the same name but not the same values. What I'm trying to figure out how to do is write a method in the ancestor class that gets the version of Barf for the actual class of the instantiated object. So if I create an instance of Ancestor, I'd like to have this method process the entries for Ancestor.Barf . If I create an instance of one of the child classes of Ancestor, I'd like to have the method process Childx.Barf values.
Obviously this is going to be a Reflection solution, but my reflection skills are pretty sparse. Any help?
Just for the fun of it, here is a possible approach:
public class Ancestor {
public enum Caffeine {
Tea,
Coffee
}
public void ProcessValues() {
var type = GetType();
var nestedEnums = from t in type.GetNestedTypes()
where t.IsEnum
select t;
var nestedEnum = nestedEnums.Single();
foreach(var val in Enum.GetValues(nestedEnum)) {
Console.WriteLine("Drinking {0}", val);
}
}
}
public class Descendant : Ancestor {
public new enum Caffeine {
Jolt,
RedBull
}
}
// The following prints:
// Drinking Jolt
// Drinking RedBull
Ancestor x = new Descendant();
x.ProcessValues();
Of course, you could achieve the same thing using polymorphism:
public class Ancestor {
public enum Caffeine {
Tea,
Coffee
}
protected virtual Type GetNestedEnum() {
return typeof(Ancestor.Caffeine);
}
public void ProcessValues() {
var nestedEnum = GetNestedEnum();
foreach(var val in Enum.GetValues(nestedEnum)) {
Console.WriteLine("Drinking {0}", val);
}
}
}
public class Descendant : Ancestor {
public new enum Caffeine {
Jolt,
RedBull
}
protected override Type GetNestedEnum() {
return typeof(Descendant.Caffeine);
}
}
As Justin Morgan has pointed out however, having the need for such a construct may be an indication of an underlying design issue in your code.
I have an aggregate that includes the entities A, AbstractElement, X, Y and Z. The root entity is A that also has a list of AbstractElement. Entities X,Y and Z inherit from AbstractElement. I need the possibility to add instances of X, Y and Z to an instance of A. One approach is to use one method for each type, i.e. addX, addY and addZ. These methods would take as arguments the values required to create instances of X, Y and Z. But, each time I add a new type that inherits from AbstractElement, I need to modify the entity A, so I think it's not the best solution.
Another approach is to use an abstract add method addAbstractElement for adding AbstractElement instances. But, in this case, the method would take as argument an instance of AbstractElement. Because this method would be called by entities located outside of the aggregate, following DDD rules/recommandations, are these external entities authorized to create instances of AbstractElement? I read in the Eric Evans book that external entities are not authorized to hold references of entities of an aggregate other than the root?
What is the best practice for this kind of problem?
Thanks
From Evan's book, page 139:
"if you needed to add elements inside a preexisting AGGREGATE, you might create a FACTORY METHOD on the root of the AGGREGATE"
Meaning, you should create a factory method on the root (A) which will get the AbstractElement's details. This method will create the AbstractElement (X/Y/Z) according to some decision parameter and will add it to its internal collection of AbstractElements. In the end this method return the id of the new element.
Best Regards,
Itzik Saban
A few comments. As the previous answerer said, it's a good practice to use a factory method. If you can avoid it, never create objects out of the blue. Usually, it's a pretty big smell and a missed chance to make more sense out of your domain.
I wrote a small example to illustrate this. Video is in this case the aggregate root. Inside the boundaries of the aggregate are the video object and its associated comments. Comments can be anonymous or can have been written by a known user (to simplify the example, I represented the user by a username but obviously, in a real application, you would have something like a UserId).
Here is the code:
public class Video {
private List<Comment> comments;
void addComment(final Comment.Builder builder) {
this.comments.add(builder.forVideo(this).build());
// ...
}
}
abstract public class Comment {
private String username;
private Video video;
public static public class Builder {
public Builder anonymous() {
this.username = null;
return this;
}
public Builder fromUser(final String username) {
this.username = username;
return this;
}
public Builder withMessage(final String message) {
this.message = message;
return this;
}
public Builder forVideo(final Video video) {
this.video = video;
return this;
}
public Comment build() {
if (username == null) {
return new AnonymousComment(message);
} else {
return new UserComment(username, message);
}
}
}
}
public class AnonymousComment extends Comment {
// ...
}
static public class UserComment extends Comment {
// ...
}
One thing to ponder on also is that aggregate boundaries contain objects and not classes. As such, it's highly possible that certain classes (mostly value objects but it can be the case of entities also) be represented in many aggregates.
I've a base presenter class:
public abstract class PresenterBase<T> where T : IView
{
//Some code
}
A concrete presenter class that implements this base:
public class RegistrationPresenter : PresenterBase<IRegistration>
{
//Some Code
}
A concrete presenter factory to return the instance of presenter which depends on a specific interface contract:
public class ProductPresenterFactory : PresenterFactoryBase
{
// Some code
public override PresenterBase<IView> GetPresenter(IView view, string name = "")
{
if (view == null && string.IsNullOrEmpty(name))
throw new ArgumentNullException();
return presenter;
}
}
I need to implement the GetPresenter method. The user will put the interface contract, for example of type IRegistration in the above case. This method should figure out the class that implements PresenterBase<IRegistration> and return an instance.
I did not write this with a compiler; I might have made a few mistakes.
You'll first need to get the type of the presenterbase, then we'll scour the assemble for the implementation, then call it's constructor. I'll make some assumptions as written in the code.
var genericType = typeof (PresenterBase<>).MakeGenericType(new[] { view.GetType() });
var allTypes = GetType().Assembly.GetTypes(); // I assume the class is in the same assembly.
var typeToImplement = allTypes.Single(t => t.IsSubclassOf(genericType)); // I assume there is only one implementation for the given type
var constructorToCall = typeToImplement.GetConstructors().First(); // I assume there is one constructor
var presenter = constructorToCall.Invoke(new object[0]); // I assume there is no parameter
I'm struggling with implementing a factory object. Here's the context :
I've in a project a custom store. In order to read/write records, I've written this code in a POCO model/separated repository:
public class Id { /* skip for clarity*/} // My custom ID representation
public interface IId
{
Id Id { get; set; }
}
public interface IGenericRepository<T> where T : IId
{
T Get(Id objectID);
void Save(T #object);
}
public interface IContext
{
TRepository GetRepository<T, TRepository>()
where TRepository : IGenericRepository<T>
where T:IId;
IGenericRepository<T> GetRepository<T>()
where T:IId;
}
My IContext interface defines two kind of repositories.
The former is for standard objects with only get/save methods, the later allows me to define specifics methods for specific kind of objects. For example :
public interface IWebServiceLogRepository : IGenericRepository<WebServiceLog>
{
ICollection<WebServiceLog> GetOpenLogs(Id objectID);
}
And it the consuming code I can do one of this :
MyContext.GetRepository<Customer>().Get(myID); --> standard get
MyContext.GetRepository<WebServiceLog, IWebServiceLogRepository>().GetOpenLogs(myID); --> specific operation
Because most of objects repository are limited to get and save operations, I've written a generic repository :
public class BaseRepository<T> : IGenericRepository<T>
where T : IId, new()
{
public virtual T Get(Id objectID){ /* provider specific */ }
public void Save(T #object) { /* provider specific */ }
}
and, for custom ones, I simply inherits the base repository :
internal class WebServiceLogRepository: BaseRepository<WebServiceLog>, IWebServiceLogRepository
{
public ICollection<WebServiceLog> GetByOpenLogsByRecordID(Id objectID)
{
/* provider specific */
}
}
Everything above is ok (at least I think it's ok). I'm now struggling to implement the MyContext class. I'm using MEF in my project for other purposes. But because MEF doesn't support (yet) generic exports, I did not find a way to reach my goal.
My context class is looking like by now :
[Export(typeof(IContext))]
public class UpdateContext : IContext
{
private System.Collections.Generic.Dictionary<Type, object> m_Implementations;
public UpdateContext()
{
m_Implementations = new System.Collections.Generic.Dictionary<Type, object>();
}
public TRepository GetRepository<T, TRepository>()
where T : IId
where TRepository : IGenericRepository<T>
{
var tType = typeof(T);
if (!m_Implementations.ContainsKey(tType))
{
/* this code is neither working nor elegant for me */
var resultType = AppDomain.CurrentDomain.GetAssemblies().SelectMany(
(a) => a.GetTypes()
).Where((t)=>t.GetInterfaces().Contains(typeof(TRepository))).Single();
var result = (TRepository)resultType.InvokeMember("new", System.Reflection.BindingFlags.CreateInstance, null, null, new object[] { this });
m_Implementations.Add(tType, result);
}
return (TRepository)m_Implementations[tType];
}
public IGenericRepository<T> GetRepository<T>() where T : IId
{
return GetRepository<T, IGenericRepository<T>>();
}
}
I'd appreciate a bit of help to unpuzzle my mind with this quite common scenario
Not sure if I've understood you correctly, but I think you're perhaps over complicating things. To begin with, make sure you've designed your code independent of any factory or Dependency Injection framework or composition framework.
For starters lets look at what you want your calling code to look like, this is what you said:
MyContext.GetRepository<Customer>().Get(myID); --> standard get
MyContext.GetRepository<WebServiceLog, IWebServiceLogRepository>().GetOpenLogs(myID);
You don't have to agree with my naming choices below, but it indicates what I undertand from your code, you can tell me if I'm wrong. Now, I feel like the calling would be simpler like this:
RepositoryFactory.New<IRepository<Customer>>().Get(myId);
RepositoryFactory.New<IWebServiceLogRepository>().GetOpenLogs(myId);
Line 1:
Because the type here is IRepository it's clear what the return type is, and what the T type is for the base IRepository.
Line 2:
The return type here from the factory is IWebServiceLogRepository. Here you don'y need to specify the entity type, your interface logically already implements IRepository. There's no need to specify this again.
So your interface for these would look like this:
public interface IRepository<T>
{
T Get(object Id);
T Save(T object);
}
public interface IWebServiceLogRepository: IRepository<WebServiceLog>
{
List<WebServiceLog> GetOpenLogs(object Id);
}
Now I think the implementations and factory code for this would be simpler as the factory only has to know about a single type. On line 1 the type is IRepository, and in line 2, IWebServiceLogRepository.
Try that, and try rewriting your code to simply find classes that implement those types and instantiating them.
Lastly, in terms of MEF, you could carry on using that, but Castle Windsor would really make things much simpler for you, as it lets you concentrate on your architecture and code design, and its very very simple to use. You only ever reference Castle in your app startup code. The rest of your code is simply designed using the Dependency Injection pattern, which is framework agnostic.
If some of this isn't clear, let me know if you'd like me to update this answer with the implementation code of your repositories too.
UPDATE
and here's the code which resolves the implementations. You were making it a bit harder for yourself by not using the Activator class.
If you use Activator and use only one Generic parameter as I've done in the method below, you should be ok. Note the code's a bit rough but you get the idea:
public static T GetThing<T>()
{
List<Type> assemblyTypes = AppDomain.CurrentDomain.GetAssemblies()
.SelectMany(s => s.GetTypes()).ToList();
Type interfaceType = typeof(T);
if(interfaceType.IsGenericType)
{
var gens = interfaceType.GetGenericArguments();
List<Type> narrowed = assemblyTypes.Where(p => p.IsGenericType && !p.IsInterface).ToList();
var implementations = new List<Type>();
narrowed.ForEach(t=>
{
try
{
var imp = t.MakeGenericType(gens);
if(interfaceType.IsAssignableFrom(imp))
{
implementations.Add(imp);
}
}catch
{
}
});
return (T)Activator.CreateInstance(implementations.First());
}
else
{
List<Type> implementations = assemblyTypes.Where(p => interfaceType.IsAssignableFrom(p) && !p.IsInterface).ToList();
return (T)Activator.CreateInstance(implementations.First());
}
}