Intent
Provide an interface for creating families of related or dependent objects without specifying their concrete classes.-Design Patterns, GoFStructure
From dofactory.com:Questions
- How does the Abstract Factory pattern support the principle of implementing to an interface, not a class?
- What are some typical product families that are encountered in an enterprise application?How often are they exchanged?
- If products are often added or removed, what is the impact, given this pattern?
- Is there ever overlap between product families? How could you support this, given the pattern?
- What happens if one product family has a slightly different set of products?
Examples – Which are Abstract Factories?
- Core J2EE Design Patterns – Abstract DAO Factory
References
- Principles, Patterns, and Practices: The Factory Pattern, Robert C. Martin (Java.net, March 2005) Abstract Factory Design Pattern (DoFactory.com)