#observerpattern

The Observer pattern defines a one-to-many dependency between objects so that whenever an object changes its state, all its dependents are notified and updated automatically.

The main object is called the "Subject" and its dependents are called the "Observers". Usually, the Subject notifies the Observers by calling one of their methods. Let's make a quick example with PHP.

First, we define an Observer interface that will contain the update method.

interface ObserverInterface { public function update($subject); }

Now, we do the same thing for the Subject, so every object that will implement this interface will be able to attach, detach or notify their Observers.

interface SubjectInterface { public function attach($observer); public function detach($observer); public function notify(); }

Then we write a concrete implementation of the Subject interface.

class User implements SubjectInterface { private $name; private $observers = array(); public function __construct($name) { $this->name = $name; } public function getName() { return $this->name; } public function attach($observer) { $this->observers[] = $observer; } public function detach($observer) { $key = array_search($observer, $this->observers, true); if ($key) { unset($this->observers[$key]); } } public function initUser() { $this->notify(); } public function notify() { foreach ($this->observers as $value) { $value->update($this); } } }

And now we implement the Observer interface.

class UserObserver implements ObserverInterface { private $userCount = 0; public function __construct() { } public function update($user) { if (!empty($user)) { echo "User " . $user->getName() . " was initiated. "; $this->userCount++; } } public function getUserCount() { return $this->userCount; } }

Let's try what we made!