Code Excursion

Factory Method Pattern

Defines an interface for creating an object, but lets subclasses decide which class to instantiate. Factory method lets a class defer instantiation to subclasses.
Head First Design Patterns

This design pattern will come in handy when we want a character generator that will not only build SuperHeroes but Fantasy Heroes as well. We define an interface and build different hero creators from this interface. These hero creators will then build heroes. All the files can be downloaded.

Finally we can build these classes and objects in Ruby as seen in the following code. One difference between the code and the class diagram is that Ruby doesn’t need to define the abstract classes. Nor does it need to define separate creators for the Fantasy and Super Heros such as Java would have to do.

Factory-Method-Pattern.rb

class TechHero
  def describe
    puts 'I have a suit of wondrous technology!'
  end
end


class MutantHero
  def describe
    puts 'I genetic legacy of wonder!'
  end
end


class FighterHero
  def describe
    puts 'I am an unparalleled warrior!'
  end
end

class ThiefHero
  def describe
    puts 'I an a sneak of no mean skill!'
  end
end


class HeroCreator
  def createHero(hero_type)
    @heroClass = self.class.const_get("#{hero_type}Hero")
		@hero = @heroClass.new()
		@hero
  end
end

creator = HeroCreator.new()

hero = creator.createHero('Tech')
hero.describe

hero = creator.createHero('Mutant')
hero.describe()

hero = creator.createHero('Fighter')
hero.describe()

hero = creator.createHero('Thief')
hero.describe()