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Leveraging factory pattern for UI components in Flex
Using Factory method for UI components is always a good Idea. This helps adding common look/feel, validation etc. to a set of similar component at centralized place.
For example:
- Text box for price input with custom requirement (as only two decimal places, in a given range, a custom look and feel etc.) can appear on multiple pages
- Standard stuff as email entry boxes can have similar custom requirement
There are two approaches to deal with above
- One argument that most of validation is standard and out of box these day (Email, Date) while css and styling can be leveraged from a shared location, so these can be done “in place”. But greatest flip side I see that any change, say decimal precision from 2 places to 3, color change, background image change etc., will have to be tracked at multiple pages, even if just a reference change (CSS name, Validator name etc).
- Factory approach -I can have a method as
UIElement getATextBoxWith2PlaceDecimal(){ }
This can encapsulate all validation and custom requirements.
I tend to use factory If I see repeatation on lot of pages -it seems to be a cleaner and maintainable approach.