Multiton

Remarks#

Multitonitis

Same as Singleton, Multiton can be considered a bad practice. However, there are times when you can use it wisely (for example, if you building a system like ORM/ODM to persist multiple objects).

Pool of Singletons (PHP example)

Multiton can be used as a container for singletons. This is Multiton implementation is a combination of Singleton and Pool patterns.

This is an example of how common Multiton abstract Pool class can be created:

abstract class MultitonPoolAbstract
{
    /**
     * @var array
     */
    protected static $instances = [];

    final protected function __construct() {}

    /**
     * Get class name of lately binded class
     *
     * @return string
     */
    final protected static function getClassName()
    {
        return get_called_class();
    }

    /**
     * Instantiates a calling class object
     *
     * @return static
     */
    public static function getInstance()
    {
        $className = static::getClassName();

        if( !isset(self::$instances[$className]) ) {
            self::$instances[$className] = new $className;
        }

        return self::$instances[$className];
    }

    /**
     * Deletes a calling class object
     *
     * @return void
     */
    public static function deleteInstance()
    {
        $className = static::getClassName();

        if( isset(self::$instances[$className]) )
            unset(self::$instances[$className]);
    }

    /*-------------------------------------------------------------------------
    | Seal methods that can instantiate the class
    |------------------------------------------------------------------------*/

    final protected function __clone() {}

    final protected function __sleep() {}

    final protected function __wakeup() {}
}

This way we can instantiate a various Singleton pools.

Registry of Singletons (PHP example)

This pattern can be used to contain a registered Pools of Singletons, each distinguished by unique ID:

abstract class MultitonRegistryAbstract
{
    /**
     * @var array
     */
    protected static $instances = [];

    /** 
     * @param string $id
     */
    final protected function __construct($id) {}

    /**
     * Get class name of lately binded class
     *
     * @return string
     */
    final protected static function getClassName()
    {
        return get_called_class();
    }

    /**
     * Instantiates a calling class object
     *
     * @return static
     */
    public static function getInstance($id)
    {
        $className = static::getClassName();

        if( !isset(self::$instances[$className]) ) {
            self::$instances[$className] = [$id => new $className($id)];
        } else {
            if( !isset(self::$instances[$className][$id]) ) {
                self::$instances[$className][$id] = new $className($id);
            }
        }

        return self::$instances[$className][$id];
    }

    /**
     * Deletes a calling class object
     *
     * @return void
     */
    public static function unsetInstance($id)
    {
        $className = static::getClassName();

        if( isset(self::$instances[$className]) ) {
            if( isset(self::$instances[$className][$id]) ) {
                unset(self::$instances[$className][$id]);
            }

            if( empty(self::$instances[$className]) ) {
                unset(self::$instances[$className]);
            }
        }
    }

    /*-------------------------------------------------------------------------
    | Seal methods that can instantiate the class
    |------------------------------------------------------------------------*/

    final protected function __clone() {}

    final protected function __sleep() {}

    final protected function __wakeup() {}
}

This is simplified form of pattern that can be used for ORM to store several entities of a given type.