This is as much a recommendation as a rant, so pardon me while I do both :)

Situation
Open-source project or foundational classes for use within your organization that contains methods for parsing data.

Background
Often, I’ve run into issues where I am using an open-source library (public or private) and I need to add extra logic to a creational algorithm(s) and cannot or cannot easily do so. This is what has sparked me to write this post, because I am increasingly seeing these types of issues.

Recommendation
When creating algorithms that create objects from other objects (eg models and serialization) , please use offload the logic to accessible and easily modifiable methods. In Design Pattern terms, I’m requesting and ranting that the Factory Method Pattern, Strategy Pattern, or something similar be used. This only compounds in importance when there are several objects created in a single method!  <– That right there is arguably bad practice in general for large projects.

Example
NOTE: Showing a simple example seems to not show the problem, but I’ll try. For a better example, please refer to “Real-Life Example” below.

Mapping XML properties to models within a project.

protected updateList():void
{
var header:Header = new Header;
header.title = _xml.header.@title;
header.lang = _xml.header.@lang;
header.colors = _xml.header.colors.toArray();

var body:Body = _body;
var child:XML;
for (var i:Number = 0; i < _xml.body.item.length(); ++i)
{
child = _xml.body.item[i];
body.getItemAt(i).text = child.@text;
}
}


Real-Life Example
NOTE: I do not mean to pick on or criticize the fine work done by the peeps working on the OpenVideoPlayer Project and MUST EMPHASIZE that the project is very useful and saves time. This merely serves as an easy example to show. Moreover, I’ve written my fair share of problematic code along these lines too.

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