Facade in Java

Facade is a structural design pattern that provides a simplified (but limited) interface to a complex system of classes, library or framework.

While Facade decreases the overall complexity of the application, it also helps to move unwanted dependencies to one place.

Learn more about Facade

Complexity:

Popularity:

Usage examples: The Facade pattern is commonly used in apps written in Java. It’s especially handy when working with complex libraries and APIs.

Here are some Facade examples in core Java libs:

javax.faces.context.FacesContext uses LifeCycle, ViewHandler, NavigationHandler classes under the hood, but most clients aren’t aware of that.
javax.faces.context.ExternalContext uses ServletContext, HttpSession, HttpServletRequest, HttpServletResponse and others inside.

Identification: Facade can be recognized in a class that has a simple interface, but delegates most of the work to other classes. Usually, facades manage the full life cycle of objects they use.

Simple interface for a complex video conversion library

In this example, the Facade simplifies communication with a complex video conversion framework.

The Facade provides a single class with a single method that handles all the complexity of configuring the right classes of the framework and retrieving the result in a correct format.

some_complex_media_library: Complex video conversion library

some_complex_media_library/VideoFile.java

package refactoring_guru.facade.example.some_complex_media_library;

public class VideoFile {
    private String name;
    private String codecType;

    public VideoFile(String name) {
        this.name = name;
        this.codecType = name.substring(name.indexOf(".") + 1);
    }

    public String getCodecType() {
        return codecType;
    }

    public String getName() {
        return name;
    }
}

some_complex_media_library/Codec.java

package refactoring_guru.facade.example.some_complex_media_library;

public interface Codec {
}

some_complex_media_library/MPEG4CompressionCodec.java

package refactoring_guru.facade.example.some_complex_media_library;

public class MPEG4CompressionCodec implements Codec {
    public String type = "mp4";

}

some_complex_media_library/OggCompressionCodec.java

package refactoring_guru.facade.example.some_complex_media_library;

public class OggCompressionCodec implements Codec {
    public String type = "ogg";
}

some_complex_media_library/CodecFactory.java

package refactoring_guru.facade.example.some_complex_media_library;

public class CodecFactory {
    public static Codec extract(VideoFile file) {
        String type = file.getCodecType();
        if (type.equals("mp4")) {
            System.out.println("CodecFactory: extracting mpeg audio...");
            return new MPEG4CompressionCodec();
        }
        else {
            System.out.println("CodecFactory: extracting ogg audio...");
            return new OggCompressionCodec();
        }
    }
}

some_complex_media_library/BitrateReader.java

package refactoring_guru.facade.example.some_complex_media_library;

public class BitrateReader {
    public static VideoFile read(VideoFile file, Codec codec) {
        System.out.println("BitrateReader: reading file...");
        return file;
    }

    public static VideoFile convert(VideoFile buffer, Codec codec) {
        System.out.println("BitrateReader: writing file...");
        return buffer;
    }
}

some_complex_media_library/AudioMixer.java

package refactoring_guru.facade.example.some_complex_media_library;

import java.io.File;

public class AudioMixer {
    public File fix(VideoFile result){
        System.out.println("AudioMixer: fixing audio...");
        return new File("tmp");
    }
}

facade

facade/VideoConversionFacade.java: Facade provides simple interface of video conversion

package refactoring_guru.facade.example.facade;

import refactoring_guru.facade.example.some_complex_media_library.*;

import java.io.File;

public class VideoConversionFacade {
    public File convertVideo(String fileName, String format) {
        System.out.println("VideoConversionFacade: conversion started.");
        VideoFile file = new VideoFile(fileName);
        Codec sourceCodec = CodecFactory.extract(file);
        Codec destinationCodec;
        if (format.equals("mp4")) {
            destinationCodec = new MPEG4CompressionCodec();
        } else {
            destinationCodec = new OggCompressionCodec();
        }
        VideoFile buffer = BitrateReader.read(file, sourceCodec);
        VideoFile intermediateResult = BitrateReader.convert(buffer, destinationCodec);
        File result = (new AudioMixer()).fix(intermediateResult);
        System.out.println("VideoConversionFacade: conversion completed.");
        return result;
    }
}

Demo.java: Client code

package refactoring_guru.facade.example;

import refactoring_guru.facade.example.facade.VideoConversionFacade;

import java.io.File;

public class Demo {
    public static void main(String[] args) {
        VideoConversionFacade converter = new VideoConversionFacade();
        File mp4Video = converter.convertVideo("youtubevideo.ogg", "mp4");
        // ...
    }
}

OutputDemo.txt: Execution result

VideoConversionFacade: conversion started.
CodecFactory: extracting ogg audio...
BitrateReader: reading file...
BitrateReader: writing file...
AudioMixer: fixing audio...
VideoConversionFacade: conversion completed.