Is this not a factory pattern?

Question

I am arguing a bit with my teacher about if this is a factory pattern or not. can i get some of your guys input?

public class UrlFactory {
    private static boolean testMode;
    private static long testDate;

    public static URLConnection fetchConnection(String url) 
                                              throws IOException
    {
        URL address = new URL(url);

        if(testMode)
            return new MockURLConnection(address, testDate);
        return address.openConnection();
    }

    public static void SetTestMode(long testDate)
    {
        UrlFactory.testMode = true;
        UrlFactory.testDate = testDate;
    }

    public static void UnSetTestMode()
    {
        UrlFactory.testMode = false;
    }
}

Answer 1

It looks structurally similar to a factory, but I would say it misses the point of the factory pattern. Ideally, a factory is instantiable and overrideable (e.g. has a virtual method for creation). I would recommend a design where UrlFactory is a non-static class with a virtual fetchConnection method. You can then have a derived class MockUrlFactory which overrides fetchConnection to return a MockURLConnection.

Example:

public class UrlFactory {
    public URLConnection fetchConnection(String url)
        throws IOException {
        URL address = new URL(url);
        return address.openConnection();
    }
}

public class MockUrlFactory extends UrlFactory {
    private long testDate;

    public MockUrlFactory(long testDate) {
        this.testDate = testDate;
    }

    public URLConnection fetchConnection(String url)
        throws IOException {
        URL address = new URL(url);
        return new MockURLConnection(address, testDate);
    }
}