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goobserver-pattern

Observer pattern in Go language


This problem is pretty common: an object should notify all its subscribers when some event occurs. In C++ we may use boost::signals or something else. But how to do this in Go language? It would be nice to see some working code example where a couple of objects are subscribed to a publisher and process notifications.

Thanks


Solution

  • This is actually pretty simple in Go. Use channels. This is the kind of thing they're made for.

    type Publish struct {
        listeners []chan *Msg
    }
    
    type Subscriber struct {
        Channel chan *Msg
    }
    
    func (p *Publisher) Sub(c chan *Msg) {
        p.appendListener(c)
    }
    
    func (p *Publisher) Pub(m *Msg) {
        for _, c := range p.listeners {
            c <- Msg
        }
    }
    
    func (s *Subscriber) ListenOnChannel() {
        for {
            data := <-s.Channel
            //Process data
        }
    }
    
    func main() {
        for _, v := range subscribers {
            p.Sub(v.Channel)
            go v.ListenOnChannel()
        }
        //Some kind of wait here
    }
    

    Obviously this isn't exactly a working code sample. But it's close.