JavaScript Design Patterns - Structural - Decorator

#programming #javascript #beginners

Decorator is a structural design pattern that allows us to attach new behaviors to objects by placing them inside special wrapper objects containing them.

In the example below, we use a decorator to extend behavior in Facebook Notifications.

class Notification {
  constructor(kind) {
    this.kind = kind || "Generic";
  }

  getInfo() {
    return `I'm a ${this.kind} Notification`;
  }
}

class FacebookNotification extends Notification {
  constructor() {
    super("Facebook");
  }

  setNotification(msg) {
    this.message = msg;
  }

  getInfo() {
    return `${super.getInfo()} with the message: ${this.message}`;
  }
}

class SMSNotification extends Notification {
  constructor() {
    super("SMS");
  }

  getInfo() {
    return super.getInfo();
  }
}

export { FacebookNotification, SMSNotification };

👉 Use this pattern when adding extensions to an object in runtime without affecting other objects.

I hope you found it helpful. Thanks for reading. 🙏

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Top comments (6)

Eckehard • May 3

What's the difference to inheritance?

John Watts • Jun 12

You can use the same decorator to provide the same functionality to multiple classes if they implement a common interface without having to extend all of those classes for what might be a niche use case.

Eckehard • Jun 12

If you need the same functionality in multiple classes it´s a sign your hierarchy needs some update. You should implement common functions in a parent class, not again and again in the childs using decorators.

That´s OOP bottom-up!