Scenario: Audio Clip

1. Scenario: Audio Clip • Imagine that your application played an audio clip • Based on user action, a different audio clip may begin playing • You want only one audio clip to play at a time

2. Goal: You want to control all references to the AudioClip, and reference at one time only one AudioClip – In sum, you’ll want to manage the AudioClip. (I borrowed this example from Patterns in Java)

3. How would you design this? • Not implement the functionality, or • Create a class with only static methods, or • Create a global variable to reference the clip, or • Create only one instance of the object that plays the clip; reference only that object to play/stop/etc.

4. Problems with Static Functions/Global Var • Data not protected from errant behavior; can be changed by any other part of application • Decrease your chances of writing modular code (refactor or enhance) • Objects no longer hold state and behavior

5. Creational Patterns Singleton Singleton Pattern Definition: Job of the Singleton is to enforce the existence of a maximum of one object of the same type at any given time. It does this by providing a global point of access to the object. Singleton belongs to the family of Creational design patterns, those patterns that govern the instantiation process.

6. GofF UML Diagram This is the unique instance of the Class that shouldn’t have multiple instantiations This Singleton class controls access to the object, with the static Instance returning a reference to the unique Instance of the class

7. Scenario: MessageLogManager Imagine that you want all messages, warnings, etc., displayed to the user to also be written to a log file. You don’t want to create multiple LogWriters, nor do you want to get into the trouble of trying to write to the log file two different messages at the same time.

8. LogManager UML Diagram The method getInstance is static and public. You call the getInstance() method that returns one MessageLogManager . This class manages the writing to the log. Note that the constructor is private.

9. Implementations • C++ is implemented with examples in the Design Patterns Book (Maze Example) • Java example is the LogManager singleton diagrammed above.

10. Java Implementation public class MessageLogManager { private static MessageLogManager instance = new MessageLogManager(); //this could be a Message object; for simplicity, it is a string here private String message = "log message"; /*Constructor; must be declared -- if it isn't, a public constructor is automatically created! */ private MessageLogManager() { } public static MessageLogManager getInstance() { return instance; } public void printMessage() { System.out.println(message); } }

11. Java Test import MessageLogManager; class TestSingleton { public static void main(String[] args) { MessageLogManager mlm = MessageLogManager.getInstance(); System.out.println(mlm); mlm.printMessage(); System.out.println(mlm); } }

12. Ugly, but validating results MessageLogManager@256a7c log message MessageLogManager@256a7c

13. Possible Pitfalls • Depending on your implementation, your Singleton class – and all of its data – might be freed or garbage collected. If you cannot ensure a live reference to your Singleton class, you will need to force one. • The beauty of the Singleton pattern is NOT because the class is defined as a static object, but because the method or function is static, and the constructor is private. GofF: “A client that tries to instantiate Singleton directly will get an error at compile-time. This ensures that only one instance can ever get created.” • Subclassing: Place the getInstance() method in your subclass, and not in the parent class (parent class could be an interface?). Registry of Singletons (beyond the scope of this presenter). • Multiple threads will also need to be carefully examined so a. one instance is created, and b. thread synchronization stays simple.