Proxy in C#
Proxy is a structural design pattern that provides an object that acts as a substitute for a real service object used by a client. A proxy receives client requests, does some work (access control, caching, etc.) and then passes the request to a service object.
The proxy object has the same interface as a service, which makes it interchangeable with a real object when passed to a client.
Complexity:
Popularity:
Usage examples: While the Proxy pattern isn’t a frequent guest in most C# applications, it’s still very handy in some special cases. It’s irreplaceable when you want to add some additional behaviors to an object of some existing class without changing the client code.
Identification: Proxies delegate all of the real work to some other object. Each proxy method should, in the end, refer to a service object unless the proxy is a subclass of a service.
Conceptual Example
This example illustrates the structure of the Proxy design pattern. It focuses on answering these questions:
- What classes does it consist of?
- What roles do these classes play?
- In what way the elements of the pattern are related?
Program.cs: Conceptual example
using System; namespace RefactoringGuru.DesignPatterns.Proxy.Conceptual { // The Subject interface declares common operations for both RealSubject and // the Proxy. As long as the client works with RealSubject using this // interface, you'll be able to pass it a proxy instead of a real subject. public interface ISubject { void Request(); } // The RealSubject contains some core business logic. Usually, RealSubjects // are capable of doing some useful work which may also be very slow or // sensitive - e.g. correcting input data. A Proxy can solve these issues // without any changes to the RealSubject's code. class RealSubject : ISubject { public void Request() { Console.WriteLine("RealSubject: Handling Request."); } } // The Proxy has an interface identical to the RealSubject. class Proxy : ISubject { private RealSubject _realSubject; public Proxy(RealSubject realSubject) { this._realSubject = realSubject; } // The most common applications of the Proxy pattern are lazy loading, // caching, controlling the access, logging, etc. A Proxy can perform // one of these things and then, depending on the result, pass the // execution to the same method in a linked RealSubject object. public void Request() { if (this.CheckAccess()) { this._realSubject.Request(); this.LogAccess(); } } public bool CheckAccess() { // Some real checks should go here. Console.WriteLine("Proxy: Checking access prior to firing a real request."); return true; } public void LogAccess() { Console.WriteLine("Proxy: Logging the time of request."); } } public class Client { // The client code is supposed to work with all objects (both subjects // and proxies) via the Subject interface in order to support both real // subjects and proxies. In real life, however, clients mostly work with // their real subjects directly. In this case, to implement the pattern // more easily, you can extend your proxy from the real subject's class. public void ClientCode(ISubject subject) { // ... subject.Request(); // ... } } class Program { static void Main(string[] args) { Client client = new Client(); Console.WriteLine("Client: Executing the client code with a real subject:"); RealSubject realSubject = new RealSubject(); client.ClientCode(realSubject); Console.WriteLine(); Console.WriteLine("Client: Executing the same client code with a proxy:"); Proxy proxy = new Proxy(realSubject); client.ClientCode(proxy); } } } Output.txt: Execution result
Client: Executing the client code with a real subject: RealSubject: Handling Request. Client: Executing the same client code with a proxy: Proxy: Checking access prior to firing a real request. RealSubject: Handling Request. Proxy: Logging the time of request. 
