Observable

The Observer pattern (also known as publish/subscribe) provides a simple mechanism for one object to inform a set of interested third-party objects when its state changes.

Mechanism

The notifying class mixes in the Observable module, which provides the methods for managing the associated observer objects.

The observable object must:

• assert that it has #changed

• call #notify_observers

An observer subscribes to updates using Observable#add_observer, which also specifies the method called via notify_observers. The default method for notify_observers is update.

Example

The following example demonstrates this nicely. A Ticker, when run, continually receives the stock Price for its @symbol. A Warner is a general observer of the price, and two warners are demonstrated, a WarnLow and a WarnHigh, which print a warning if the price is below or above their set limits, respectively.

The update callback allows the warners to run without being explicitly called. The system is set up with the Ticker and several observers, and the observers do their duty without the top-level code having to interfere.

Note that the contract between publisher and subscriber (observable and observer) is not declared or enforced. The Ticker publishes a time and a price, and the warners receive that. But if you don’t ensure that your contracts are correct, nothing else can warn you.

require "observer"

class Ticker          ### Periodically fetch a stock price.
  include Observable

  def initialize(symbol)
    @symbol = symbol
  end

  def run
    last_price = nil
    loop do
      price = Price.fetch(@symbol)
      print "Current price: #{price}\n"
      if price != last_price
        changed                 # notify observers
        last_price = price
        notify_observers(Time.now, price)
      end
      sleep 1
    end
  end
end

class Price           ### A mock class to fetch a stock price (60 - 140).
  def self.fetch(symbol)
    60 + rand(80)
  end
end

class Warner          ### An abstract observer of Ticker objects.
  def initialize(ticker, limit)
    @limit = limit
    ticker.add_observer(self)
  end
end

class WarnLow < Warner
  def update(time, price)       # callback for observer
    if price < @limit
      print "--- #{time.to_s}: Price below #@limit: #{price}\n"
    end
  end
end

class WarnHigh < Warner
  def update(time, price)       # callback for observer
    if price > @limit
      print "+++ #{time.to_s}: Price above #@limit: #{price}\n"
    end
  end
end

ticker = Ticker.new("MSFT")
WarnLow.new(ticker, 80)
WarnHigh.new(ticker, 120)
ticker.run

Produces:

Current price: 83
Current price: 75
--- Sun Jun 09 00:10:25 CDT 2002: Price below 80: 75
Current price: 90
Current price: 134
+++ Sun Jun 09 00:10:25 CDT 2002: Price above 120: 134
Current price: 134
Current price: 112
Current price: 79
--- Sun Jun 09 00:10:25 CDT 2002: Price below 80: 79

Usage with procs

The #notify_observers method can also be used with +proc+s by using the :call as func parameter.

The following example illustrates the use of a lambda:

require 'observer'

class Ticker
  include Observable

  def run
    # logic to retrieve the price (here 77.0)
    changed
    notify_observers(77.0)
  end
end

ticker = Ticker.new
warner = ->(price) { puts "New price received: #{price}" }
ticker.add_observer(warner, :call)
ticker.run