Kotlin Design Patterns: Proxy Explained

Michal Ankiersztajn on 2024-03-15

STRUCTURAL DESIGN PATTERNS

Kotlin Design Patterns: Proxy Explained

Purpose of the pattern

Proxy is a wrapper for an object that is used behind the scenes. This means that it can provide additional logic for that object. Both the proxy and the object implement the same interface. It’s mostly used when additional access control is required.

Implementation

1. Create Subject interface , which will be used by the clients.
2. Create RealSubject class , which implements Subject and is the default implementation.
3. Create Proxy class , which implements Subject and has a RealSubject value in it.

What do we get from that?

• Managing RealSubject lifecycle without polluting clients' code with it.
• Proxy can work even if the RealSubject is unavailable or throws an error.
• You’re able to introduce multiple Proxy classes without having to change anything at all since the client doesn’t know whether it’s using Proxy or RealSubject thus complying with the Open/Closed principle.
• Extension of RealSubject functionality. For example, you could add caching that is controlled for that specific RealSubject .

Your task is to create a Chat App. You’re provided with an API that gets and sends messages to do this. However, the chat needs to be secure. This means you’ll have to encode and decode the messages.

Let’s start by defining ChatService interface:

interface ChatService {
    fun sendMessage(message: String)

    fun getMessage(): String
}

Now, we need to implement DefaultChatService :

class DefaultChatService : ChatService {
    override fun sendMessage(message: String) {
        // Send message
    }

    override fun getMessage(): String {
        // Get message
    }
}

Finally, for a layer of additional security, we create ChatServiceSecureProxy :

class ChatServiceSecureProxy(private val encoder: Encoder) : ChatService {
    private val chatService: ChatService = DefaultChatService()

    override fun sendMessage(message: String) {
        chatService.sendMessage(encoder.encode(message))
    }

    override fun getMessage(): String {
        val message = chatService.getMessage()
        return encoder.decode(message)
    }
}

Now, the encoding and decoding are encapsulated in a special class. If some of the messages needn’t to be secure, we’re still able to use the DefaultChatService because both of them implement the ChatService .

The pattern is similar to the Decorator, but the intents are different. Proxy manages the lifecycle on its own. While in Decorator, the client controls the composition of the objects and lifecycles.

Thanks for reading! Please clap if you learned something and follow me for more :)

More design patterns

Design Patterns In Kotlin List of creational, structural and behavioral design patterns implemented in Kotlinmedium.com

Based on the book:

“Wzorce projektowe : elementy oprogramowania obiektowego wielokrotnego użytku” — Erich Gamma Autor; Janusz Jabłonowski (Translator); Grady Booch (Introduction author); Richard Helm (Author); Ralph Johnson (Author); John M Vlissides (Author)