Use a registry Example 8 lists a singleton class that maintains a registry of singletons, registered by class name:
Example 8. A singleton with a registry import java.util.HashMap; The preceding base class creates subclass instances and stores them in a map. But that base class is high maintenance because you must update its Use reflection Example 9. Use reflection to instantiate singletons One more thing concerning singleton registries: they should be encapsulated in their own class for maximum reuse.
Encapsulate the registry Example 10. A SingletonRegistry class import java.util.HashMap; Notice I implemented the Example 11. A Singleton class that uses the registry import java.util.HashMap; The preceding Now that we've seen how to implement thread-safe singletons and how to use a registry to specify singleton class names at runtime, let's examine how to deal with classloaders and serialization.
Classloaders private static Class getClass(String classname) The preceding method tries to associate the classloader with the current thread; if that classloader is Serialization Example 12. A serializable singleton import org.apache.log4j.Logger; The previous singleton implementation returns the lone singleton instance from the Example 13 tests Example 12's singleton:
Example 13. Test a serializable singleton import java.io.*; The preceeding test case serializes Example 12's singleton and deserializes it twice. Then the test case checks to see if the deserialized singletons are the same object. Here's the test case output:
Buildfile: build.xml Singleton sign-off
Use a singleton registry to:
import org.apache.log4j.Logger;
public class Singleton {
private static HashMap map = new HashMap();
private static Logger logger = Logger.getRootLogger();
protected Singleton() {
// Exists only to thwart instantiation
}
public static synchronized Singleton getInstance(String classname) {
if(classname == null) throw new IllegalArgumentException("Illegal classname");
Singleton singleton = (Singleton)map.get(classname);
if(singleton != null) {
logger.info("got singleton from map: " + singleton);
return singleton;
}
if(classname.equals("SingeltonSubclass_One"))
singleton = new SingletonSubclass_One();
else if(classname.equals("SingeltonSubclass_Two"))
singleton = new SingletonSubclass_Two();
map.put(classname, singleton);
logger.info("created singleton: " + singleton);
return singleton;
}
// Assume functionality follows that's attractive to inherit
}getInstance()
method for every subclass. Luckily, we can use reflection to skirt that issue.
Example 9 lists a singleton with a registry that uses reflection to instantiate a particular class's objects. With this implementation, as opposed to Example 8, the Singleton.getInstance()
method does not need to update when new subclasses are implemented.
import java.util.HashMap;
import org.apache.log4j.Logger;
public class Singleton {
private static HashMap map = new HashMap();
private static Logger logger = Logger.getRootLogger();
protected Singleton() {
// Exists only to thwart instantiation
}
public static synchronized Singleton getInstance(String classname) {
Singleton singleton = (Singleton)map.get(classname);
if(singleton != null) {
logger.info("got singleton from map: " + singleton);
return singleton;
}
try {
singleton = (Singleton)Class.forName(classname).newInstance();
}
catch(ClassNotFoundException cnf) {
logger.fatal("Couldn't find class " + classname);
}
catch(InstantiationException ie) {
logger.fatal("Couldn't instantiate an object of type " + classname);
}
catch(IllegalAclearcase/" target="_blank" >ccessException ia) {
logger.fatal("Couldn't access class " + classname);
}
map.put(classname, singleton);
logger.info("created singleton: " + singleton);
return singleton;
}
}
Example 10 lists a singleton registry class:
import org.apache.log4j.Logger;
public class SingletonRegistry {
public static SingletonRegistry REGISTRY = new SingletonRegistry();
private static HashMap map = new HashMap();
private static Logger logger = Logger.getRootLogger();
protected SingletonRegistry() {
// Exists to defeat instantiation
}
public static synchronized Object getInstance(String classname) {
Object singleton = map.get(classname);
if(singleton != null) {
return singleton;
}
try {
singleton = Class.forName(classname).newInstance();
logger.info("created singleton: " + singleton);
}
catch(ClassNotFoundException cnf) {
logger.fatal("Couldn't find class " + classname);
}
catch(InstantiationException ie) {
logger.fatal("Couldn't instantiate an object of type " +
classname);
}
catch(IllegalAccessException ia) {
logger.fatal("Couldn't access class " + classname);
}
map.put(classname, singleton);
return singleton;
}
}SingletonRegistry
class as a singleton. I also generalized the registry so it can store and retrieve any type of object. Example 11 shows a Singleton
class that uses the registry:
import org.apache.log4j.Logger;
public class Singleton {
protected Singleton() {
// Exists only to thwart instantiation.
}
public static Singleton getInstance() {
return (Singleton)SingletonRegistry.REGISTRY.getInstance(classname);
}
}Singleton
class uses the registry's singleton instance to retrieve singleton objects by class name.
Because multiple classloaders are commonly used in many situations—including servlet containers—you can wind up with multiple singleton instances no matter how carefully you've implemented your singleton classes. If you want to make sure the same classloader loads your singletons, you must specify the classloader yourself; for example:
throws ClassNotFoundException {
ClassLoader classLoader = Thread.currentThread().getContextClassLoader();
if(classLoader == null)
classLoader = Singleton.class.getClassLoader();
return (classLoader.loadClass(classname));
}
}null
, the method uses the same classloader that loaded a singleton base class. The preceding method can be used instead of Class.forName()
.
If you serialize a singleton and then deserialize it twice, you will have two instances of your singleton, unless you implement the readResolve()
method, like this:
public class Singleton implements java.io.Serializable {
public static Singleton INSTANCE = new Singleton();
protected Singleton() {
// Exists only to thwart instantiation.
}
private Object readResolve() {
return INSTANCE;
}
}readResolve()
method; therefore, whenever the Singleton
class is deserialized, it will return the same singleton instance.
import org.apache.log4j.Logger;
import junit.framework.Assert;
import junit.framework.TestCase;
public class SingletonTest extends TestCase {
private Singleton sone = null, stwo = null;
private static Logger logger = Logger.getRootLogger();
public SingletonTest(String name) {
super(name);
}
public void setUp() {
sone = Singleton.INSTANCE;
stwo = Singleton.INSTANCE;
}
public void testSerialize() {
logger.info("testing singleton serialization...");
writeSingleton();
Singleton s1 = readSingleton();
Singleton s2 = readSingleton();
Assert.assertEquals(true, s1 == s2);
}
private void writeSingleton() {
try {
FileOutputStream fos = new FileOutputStream("serializedSingleton");
ObjectOutputStream oos = new ObjectOutputStream(fos);
Singleton s = Singleton.INSTANCE;
oos.writeObject(Singleton.INSTANCE);
oos.flush();
}
catch(NotSerializableException se) {
logger.fatal("Not Serializable Exception: " + se.getMessage());
}
catch(IOException iox) {
logger.fatal("IO Exception: " + iox.getMessage());
}
}
private Singleton readSingleton() {
Singleton s = null;
try {
FileInputStream fis = new FileInputStream("serializedSingleton");
ObjectInputStream ois = new ObjectInputStream(fis);
s = (Singleton)ois.readObject();
}
catch(ClassNotFoundException cnf) {
logger.fatal("Class Not Found Exception: " + cnf.getMessage());
}
catch(NotSerializableException se) {
logger.fatal("Not Serializable Exception: " + se.getMessage());
}
catch(IOException iox) {
logger.fatal("IO Exception: " + iox.getMessage());
}
return s;
}
public void testUnique() {
logger.info("testing singleton uniqueness...");
Singleton another = new Singleton();
logger.info("checking singletons for equality");
Assert.assertEquals(true, sone == stwo);
}
}
init:
[echo] Build 20030422 (22-04-2003 11:32)
compile:
run-test-text:
[java] .INFO main: testing singleton serialization...
[java] .INFO main: testing singleton uniqueness...
[java] INFO main: checking singletons for equality
[java] Time: 0.1
[java] OK (2 tests)
The Singleton pattern is deceivingly simple, especially for Java developers. In this article, I've demonstrated how Java developers implement singletons, considering multithreading, classloaders, and serialization. I've also shown how you can implement singleton registries that let you specify singleton classes at runtime.