Paon

An Observer Pattern Component in TypeScript/JavaScript.

• No dependencies.
• No inheritance is required.
• Observable is just a component inside an object.
• Observers are just functions.

Installation

npm install paon

To compile the TypeScript source to JavaScript, you would need to install the TypeScript compiler:

npm install -g typescript

To generate the minified JavaScript version when building, you would need to install uglifyjs:

npm install -g uglifyjs

Build

Resulting files are created in the dist/ folder.

Complete build (compilation and minification):

npm run build

Simple compilation (no minification):

npm run compile

Usage

All constants, interfaces, classes and functions are accessible inside the Paon namespace.

Simple example

Here is a simple example where we add an observable component inside a class Subject:

/// <reference path="paon.d.ts" />

class Subject {
	private name: string;
	observable: Paon.Observable; // Observer Pattern component

	constructor(name: string) {
		this.name = name;
		this.observable = new Paon.Observable(); // Instanciation/Initialization
	}

	changeName(name: string): string {
		this.name = name;
		this.observable.notifyObservers("nameChanged"); // A message is sent to observers
		return this.name;
	}
}

function onNameChanged() {
	alert("Name has changed");
}

let subject = new Subject("Penelope");

subject.observable.addObserver("nameChanged", onNameChanged); // Function onNameChanged() subscribes to subject's messages "nameChanged"

subject.changeName("Melissa");
// An alert popup appears: "Name has changed"

Above, in the class Subject, the method changeName() will send a "nameChanged" message to the instance's observers. After the instanciation of Subject, the function onNameChanged() subscribes to subject's messages "nameChanged". Therefore, when changeName() is called, an alert popup appears.

As we can see, with such a pattern, no inheritance with extends or implements is required. Just simple composition.

Example with extra data

We can send extra data to observers as we can see below:

/// <reference path="paon.d.ts" />

class Subject {
	private name: string;
	observable: Paon.Observable; // Observer Pattern component

	constructor(name: string) {
		this.name = name;
		this.observable = new Paon.Observable(); // Instanciation/Initialization
	}

	changeName(name: string): string {
		this.name = name;
		this.observable.notifyObservers("nameChanged", { data: name }); // A message with extra data is sent to observers
		return this.name;
	}
}

function onNameChanged(msg: { data: string }) {
	alert("Name has changed into " + msg.data);
}

let subject = new Subject("Penelope");

subject.observable.addObserver("nameChanged", onNameChanged); // Function onNameChanged() subscribes to subject's messages "nameChanged"

subject.changeName("Melissa");
// An alert popup appears: "Name has changed into Melissa"

The parameter msg in function onNameChanged() contains the extra data we have sent via method changeName(). Here, this is an object with a property data, but this could be anything.

Module Importation

This library can also be imported as a module with the import statement:

import Paon from "./paon"; // Declaration file .d.ts location

class Subject {
	private name: string;
	observable: Paon.Observable; // Observer Pattern component

	constructor(name: string) {
		this.name = name;
		this.observable = new Paon.Observable(); // Instanciation/Initialization
	}

	changeName(name: string): string {
		this.name = name;
		this.observable.notifyObservers("nameChanged", { data: name }); // A message with extra data is sent to observers
		return this.name;
	}
}

function onNameChanged(msg: { data: string }) {
	alert("Name has changed into " + msg.data);
}

let subject = new Subject("Penelope");

subject.observable.addObserver("nameChanged", onNameChanged); // Function onNameChanged() subscribes to subject's messages "nameChanged"

subject.changeName("Melissa");
// An alert popup appears: "Name has changed into Melissa"

Only the import statement differs from previous examples. Otherwise, the code is the same.

API Documentation

Add an observer to a type of message (similar to the DOM function addEventListener()):

Paon.Observable.addObserver(type: string, observer: Observer): Observer;

Remove an observer from a type of message (similar to the DOM function removeEventListener()):

Paon.Observable.removeObserver(type: string, observer: Observer): void;

Remove all observers from a type of message:

Paon.Observable.removeObserversType(type: string): void;

Send a message to observers (similar to the DOM function dispatchEvent()):

Paon.Observable.notifyObservers(type: string, msg?: any): void;

Contributors

yahiko

Licence

MIT