Observer pattern - when to

Question

We have been arguing back and forth at my work place about the use of the Observer pattern for one of the problems. I somehow smell "overuse" but am open to ideas. So the requirement is

We have a hierarchy of objects -> an order and multiple line items in the order. When the order is cancelled, all the line items need to cancelled.

To do this, we have created a OrderCancel class which is the Subject in the Observer pattern idiom and LineItemCancel class which is the Observer. We also have a OrderManager class with a cancelOrders(List orders) method which instantiates the OrderCancel and the corresponding LineItemCancel objects and then registers them all in the OrderCancel. The code is as follows.

public class OrderManager {
    public void cancelOrders(List<Order> orders){
        for(Order order :orders){
            OrderCancel orderCancel = new OrderCancel(order);
            Listener listener = new LineItemCancel(order);
            orderCancel.addListeners(listener);
            orderCancel.cancel();
        }
    }
}

---

public class OrderCancel implements Subject {
    private List<Listener> listeners = new ArrayList<Listener>();
    private Order order;

    public OrderCancel(Order order) {
        this.order = order;
    }

    @Override
    public void addListeners(Listener listener) {
        listeners.add(listener);
    }

    @Override
    public void notifyListeners() {
        for(Listener listener : listeners){
            listener.update();
        }
    }

    public void cancel() {
        notifyListeners();
        cancelOrder();
    }

    private void cancelOrder() {
    }
}

---

public class LineItemCancel implements Listener {

    private Order order;

    public LineItemCancel(Order order) {
        this.order = order;
    }

    @Override
    public void update() {
        cancelLineItem();
    }

    private void cancelLineItem() {
    }
}

I am convinced this is improper usage. But I am not able to convince the designers of this class. I am trying to figure out myself if this is right as the designer is one of the architects at work.

Looking forward to hear your thoughts.

Answer 1

The Observer pattern is only useful when it reduces coupling. I don't see any reduction of coupling in this example so I would say it is overuse.