Warning, this is a work in progress.
Nullify
Lightweight NullObject/SpecialCase implementation
Motivations
Nulls are awkward things in object-oriented programs because they defeat polymorphism, Martin Fowler
add more motivations
Suppose you have an interface defined like this
public interface IDataService
{
bool IsConnected { get; }
Task SendDataAsync();
Task<int> PingAsync();
//... methods
}
You may need to create a disconnected implementation used when the client is disconnected, and when the server is unresponsive.
var disconnected = Null.Of<IDataService>()
.For(x => x.IsConnected).Returns(false)
.Create();
// disconnected.IsConnected == false
Benefits
- Less code to write for Null Objects
- Easier to maintain (when the parent interface is altered)
- Less null-checks (if myobject!=null)
- No dynamic type-checking (the L of SOLID aka Liskov substitution principle)
Quick start
TODO
Nullify is not
- a new mocking framework
- a new library to build proxy classes
- somehting that will avoid NullReferenceException
- ...
But it has some advantages, and may help you sometimes