![]() | ||
In object-oriented programming, the command pattern is a behavioral design pattern in which an object is used to encapsulate all information needed to perform an action or trigger an event at a later time. This information includes the method name, the object that owns the method and values for the method parameters.
Contents
Four terms always associated with the command pattern are command, receiver, invoker and client. A command object knows about receiver and invokes a method of the receiver. Values for parameters of the receiver method are stored in the command. The receiver then does the work. An invoker object knows how to execute a command, and optionally does bookkeeping about the command execution. The invoker does not know anything about a concrete command, it knows only about command interface. Both an invoker object and several command objects are held by a client object. The client decides which commands to execute at which points. To execute a command, it passes the command object to the invoker object.
Using command objects makes it easier to construct general components that need to delegate, sequence or execute method calls at a time of their choosing without the need to know the class of the method or the method parameters. Using an invoker object allows bookkeeping about command executions to be conveniently performed, as well as implementing different modes for commands, which are managed by the invoker object, without the need for the client to be aware of the existence of bookkeeping or modes.
Uses
Command objects are useful for implementing
Action
is a command object. In addition to the ability to perform the desired command, an Action may have an associated icon, keyboard shortcut, tooltip text, and so on. A toolbar button or menu item component may be completely initialized using only the Action object.Terminology
The terminology used to describe command pattern implementations is not consistent and can therefore be confusing. This is the result of ambiguity, the use of synonyms, and implementations that may obscure the original pattern by going well beyond it.
- Ambiguity.
- The term command is ambiguous. For example, move up, move up may refer to a single (move up) command that should be executed twice, or it may refer to two commands, each of which happens to do the same thing (move up). If the former command is added twice to an undo stack, both items on the stack refer to the same command instance. This may be appropriate when a command can always be undone the same way (e.g. move down). Both the Gang of Four and the Java example below use this interpretation of the term command. On the other hand, if the latter commands are added to an undo stack, the stack refers to two separate objects. This may be appropriate when each object on the stack must contain information that allows the command to be undone. For example, to undo a delete selection command, the object may contain a copy of the deleted text so that it can be re-inserted, if the delete selection command must be undone. Note that using a separate object for each invocation of a command is also an example of the chain of responsibility pattern.
- The term execute is also ambiguous. It may refer to running the code identified by the command object's execute method. However, in Microsoft's Windows Presentation Foundation a command is considered to have been executed when the command's execute method has been invoked, but that does not necessarily mean that the application code has run. That occurs only after some further event processing.
- Synonyms and homonyms.
- Client, Source, Invoker: the button, toolbar button, or menu item clicked, the shortcut key pressed by the user.
- Command Object, Routed Command Object, Action Object: a singleton object (e.g. there is only one CopyCommand object), which knows about shortcut keys, button images, command text, etc. related to the command. A source/invoker object calls the Command/Action object's execute/performAction method. The Command/Action object notifies the appropriate source/invoker objects when the availability of a command/action has changed. This allows buttons and menu items to become inactive (grayed out) when a command/action cannot be executed/performed.
- Receiver, Target Object: the object that is about to be copied, pasted, moved, etc. The receiver object owns the method that is called by the command's execute method. The receiver is typically also the target object. For example, if the receiver object is a cursor and the method is called moveUp, then one would expect that the cursor is the target of the moveUp action. On the other hand, if the code is defined by the command object itself, the target object will be a different object entirely.
- Command Object, routed event arguments, event object: the object that is passed from the source to the Command/Action object, to the Target object to the code that does the work. Each button click or shortcut key results in a new command/event object. Some implementations add more information to the command/event object as it is being passed from one object (e.g. CopyCommand) to another (e.g. document section). Other implementations put command/event objects in other event objects (like a box inside a bigger box) as they move along the line, to avoid naming conflicts. (See also chain of responsibility pattern).
- Handler, ExecutedRoutedEventHandler, method, function: the actual code that does the copying, pasting, moving, etc. In some implementations the handler code is part of the command/action object. In other implementations the code is part of the Receiver/Target Object, and in yet other implementations the handler code is kept separate from the other objects.
- Command Manager, Undo Manager, Scheduler, Queue, Dispatcher, Invoker: an object that puts command/event objects on an undo stack or redo stack, or that holds on to command/event objects until other objects are ready to act on them, or that routes the command/event objects to the appropriate receiver/target object or handler code.
- Implementations that go well beyond the original command pattern.
- Microsoft's Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF), introduces routed commands, which combine the command pattern with event processing. As a result, the command object no longer contains a reference to the target object nor a reference to the application code. Instead, invoking the command object's execute command results in a so-called Executed Routed Event that during the event's tunneling or bubbling may encounter a so-called binding object that identifies the target and the application code, which is executed at that point.
Example
Consider a "simple" switch. In this example we configure the Switch with two commands: to turn the light on and to turn the light off.
A benefit of this particular implementation of the command pattern is that the switch can be used with any device, not just a light - the Switch in the following example turns a light on and off, but the Switch's constructor is able to accept any subclasses of Command for its two parameters. For example, you could configure the Switch to start an engine.
C#
The following code is an implementation of Command pattern in C#.
Java 8
Using a functional interface.
Python
The following code is an implementation of Command pattern in Python.
JavaScript
The following code is an implementation of Command pattern in JavaScript.
Coffeescript
The following code is an implementation of Command pattern in Coffeescript