Lab 3: Observer Pattern

Objectives

During this lab session:

Students will write and test Ruby code that implements the Observer design pattern.

This activity helps students develop the following skills, values and attitudes: ability to analyze and synthesize, capacity for identifying and solving problems, and efficient use of computer systems.

Activity Description

The lab activities can be developed individually or in pairs.

The lab report must be developed individually.

Create a folder called observer. Inside this folder, create two files called: weather.rb and test_weather.rb.

Both Ruby source files must start with a comment containing the lab's title, date, and the authors' personal information. For example:
```
# Lab 3: Observer Pattern
# Date: 31-Aug-2011
# Authors:
# 456654  Anthony Stark 
# 1160611 Thursday Rubinstein
```
You are required to build a weather data monitoring system using the Observer pattern (this example was taken from [FREEMAN] pp. 37-60). In the weather.rb source file, define four classes:
- WeatherData: This is the subject of our Observer pattern implementation. Include as a mixin the Observable module and add to it a set_measurements method, which takes three parameters: temperature, humidity, and pressure. This method must notify all its observing objects that a change has occurred. This means that the update method for every observer must be indirectly called with the three previously mentioned parameters. Check chapter 5 of [OLSEN] and the observer.rb documentation for more details on the Observable module.
- CurrentConditionsDisplay: An observer that displays to the standard output the current weather conditions.
- StatisticsDisplay: An observer that displays to the standard output weather statistics (average, maximum and minimum temperatures so far).
- ForecastDisplay: An observer that displays to the standard output a weather forecast. If the current pressure is higher than the previous pressure, it predicts an improvement on the weather. If the current pressure is lower than the previous pressure, it predicts a cooler, rainy weather. Otherwise, it predicts that the weather will stay the same.
Check the unit tests in the following step to see the expected display formats for each of the observers.

Make sure the code that you write behaves exactly as expected by the following unit tests.

# File: test_weather.rb

require 'test/unit'
require 'stringio'
require 'weather'

class WeatherTest < Test::Unit::TestCase
  
  def setup
    @out = StringIO.new
    @old_stdout = $stdout
    $stdout = @out
    @weather_data = WeatherData.new 
  end

  def teardown
    $stdout = @old_stdout
  end
  
  def do_set_measurements
    @weather_data.set_measurements(80.0, 65.0, 30.4)
    @weather_data.set_measurements(82.0, 70.0, 29.2)
    @weather_data.set_measurements(78.0, 90.0, 29.2)
  end

  def test_current_conditions_display
    current_display = CurrentConditionsDisplay.new
    @weather_data.add_observer(current_display)
    do_set_measurements    
    assert_equal "Current conditions: 80.0F degrees and 65.0% humidity\n"  \
                 "Current conditions: 82.0F degrees and 70.0% humidity\n"  \
                 "Current conditions: 78.0F degrees and 90.0% humidity\n", \
                 @out.string
  end

  def test_statistics_display
    statistics_display = StatisticsDisplay.new
    @weather_data.add_observer(statistics_display)
    do_set_measurements
    assert_equal "Avg/Max/Min temperature = 80.0/80.0/80.0\n"  \
                 "Avg/Max/Min temperature = 81.0/82.0/80.0\n"  \
                 "Avg/Max/Min temperature = 80.0/82.0/78.0\n", \
                 @out.string
  end
  
  def test_forecast_display
    forecast_display = ForecastDisplay.new
    @weather_data.add_observer(forecast_display)
    do_set_measurements
    assert_equal "Forecast: Improving weather on the way!\n"       \
                 "Forecast: Watch out for cooler, rainy weather\n" \
                 "Forecast: More of the same\n",                   \
                 @out.string
  end
  
  def test_all_together    
    current_display = CurrentConditionsDisplay.new
    statistics_display = StatisticsDisplay.new
    forecast_display = ForecastDisplay.new    
    @weather_data.add_observer(current_display)
    @weather_data.add_observer(statistics_display)
    @weather_data.add_observer(forecast_display)    
    do_set_measurements
    assert_equal "Current conditions: 80.0F degrees and 65.0% humidity\n" \
                 "Avg/Max/Min temperature = 80.0/80.0/80.0\n"             \
                 "Forecast: Improving weather on the way!\n"              \
                 "Current conditions: 82.0F degrees and 70.0% humidity\n" \
                 "Avg/Max/Min temperature = 81.0/82.0/80.0\n"             \
                 "Forecast: Watch out for cooler, rainy weather\n"        \
                 "Current conditions: 78.0F degrees and 90.0% humidity\n" \
                 "Avg/Max/Min temperature = 80.0/82.0/78.0\n"             \
                 "Forecast: More of the same\n",                          \
                 @out.string    
  end    
end

Deliverables

To hand in your individual lab work, follow these instructions.

Write your lab report in English according to the specified guidelines. Name your AsciiDoc source file lab3_report_A0MMMMMMM.txt, where A0MMMMMMM is your student ID. From your AsciiDoc source, generate the corresponding HTML file. That file should be called lab3_report_A0MMMMMMM.html. Place these two files in the observer directory.
Create a tarball file with the full contents of the observer directory. Call this file observer.tgz. From a terminal, you can use the following command to create this file (make sure to run it at the same level where the observer folder resides):
```
tar czf observer.tgz observer
```
Using the Online Assignment Delivery System (SETA), deliver the tarball file.

Due date is Tuesday, September 6.

Evaluation

This activity will be evaluated using the following criteria:

50%	Implementation of functional requirements.
50%	Lab report.
DA	The program and/or report was plagiarized.

Software Design and Architecture

Lab 3: Observer Pattern

Objectives

Activity Description

Deliverables

Evaluation