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design-patternscompositemediator

Combining Composite and Mediator Pattern

I've seen few attempts of implementing such a combination. But my question is if combining these two Patterns is somehow recommended. As it seems to me that the Mediator, by controlling the behaviour of Conposite components, may disrupt the responsibilities logic of the Composite tree itself. May someone tell me if it is wrong and in case what is the good rationale of combining them?

Solution

  • Ow, we must be creative to think how to merge these two. Let me give it a try ;)

    Considering that (in very brief description):

    • Mediator controls how a set of objects interact;
    • Composite treat objects and compositions of objects (generally recursive approach);

    The combining of both patterns could result in a Menu object.

    For instance, a menu renderer object should mediate the construction of an Android or iPhone menu (in a Xamarin, for example), or a HTML Menu (a bootstrap or JQuery based one)

    So, while mediating method calls to render menu according to platform, it also should compose recursively the menu with each items and its respective childs.

    Hope I could help ;)