AbstractFactory

Origin:

GoF 95

Reason:

Provide an interface for creating families of related or dependent objects without specifying their concrete classes (aka Kit).

Synopsis:

An interface, the abstract factory, defines abstract methods that return product components. A creator uses a different concrete factory per family of products. Different objects are created by different virtual methods of the concrete factory.

Example:

A graphical toolkit needs to support multiple look-and-feels. Applications cannot hardcode widgets for a particular look-and-feel or they would be too difficult to change for another look-and-feel.

Solution:

AbstractProduct	Interface for a type of product object.	Button, Scrollbar.
ConcreteProduct	Implements AbstractProduct for a specific widget to be created by the corresponding ConcreteFactory.	MotifButton, MofitScrollbar.
AbstractFactory	Interface for operations that create abstract products.	say, WidgetFactory
ConcreteFactory	Implements the operations of AbstractFactory.	say, MotifWidgetFactory.
Client	Uses only methods of AbstractFactory and AbstractProduct.